Gaming - Allocate Memory to Improve Performance?

[Xaerie]

Hi,

I'm not a memory guru. When someone asks me how much RAM or how big of a HDD/SDD they should get for gaming, I generally say no less than 6GB of RAM and no less than perhaps a 550GB drive preferably a 1TB.

My husbands computer has an i7 processor, 700GB HDD, and 6GB of RAM. The video card is an Intel 5000 which apparently is at the end of its totem pole now according to the minimum specs of various PC games.

I was hoping maybe in the BIOS or something there was something I could do to improve the memory for his video card?

Update: I guess my biggest question stems from my lack of knowledge about video cards and the memory on them. I thought there was a way to allocate more memory to a graphics card. Although, now I've received conflicting responses. So I'm not sure where we stand here.

If I installed more RAM, can I allocate more memory just towards the graphics card?

Will installing more RAM do diddly squat for improving his gaming performance?

 

[Guest]

That video card is integrated into the CPU which means it uses a portion of the RAM. If you install faster RAM, the card will perform somewhat faster. Most people get DDR3 1600. If your motherboard supports it, and you can install DDR3 1866 or DDR3 2133 you could get about 5-10% more performance out of the video card.

 

[Xaerie]

That video card is integrated into the CPU which means it uses a portion of the RAM. If you install faster RAM, the card will perform somewhat faster. Most people get DDR3 1600. If your motherboard supports it, and you can install DDR3 1866 or DDR3 2133 you could get about 5-10% more performance out of the video card.

I believe you're right, I can't mark Anonymous as solution though. I'll upgrade his RAM and see how it goes. Thanks! I didn't know that would help the graphics, makes sense if it's integrated into the CPU.

 

[hang-the-9]

Upgrading RAM will make just about 0 difference in gaming speeds. You will be MUCH better off just getting a video card for the system. GT 730 GDDR5 at minimum is the suggested low spec gaming card. To match an i7 you'd want a faster card than that, say Radeon R7 370 for lower mid range card, depending on the power supply and case size.

 

[Xaerie]

Upgrading RAM will make just about 0 difference in gaming speeds. You will be MUCH better off just getting a video card for the system. GT 730 GDDR5 at minimum is the suggested low spec gaming card. To match an i7 you'd want a faster card than that, say Radeon R7 370 for lower mid range card, depending on the power supply and case size.

Wish I could unfortunately, it's a laptop. Only thing I can upgrade in there is RAM or HDD/SDD.

 

[hang-the-9]

Upgrading RAM will make just about 0 difference in gaming speeds. You will be MUCH better off just getting a video card for the system. GT 730 GDDR5 at minimum is the suggested low spec gaming card. To match an i7 you'd want a faster card than that, say Radeon R7 370 for lower mid range card, depending on the power supply and case size.

Wish I could unfortunately, it's a laptop. Only thing I can upgrade in there is RAM or HDD/SDD.

Then don't bother spending any money on it to get it faster in games, won't do anything.

 

[Xaerie]

Upgrading RAM will make just about 0 difference in gaming speeds. You will be MUCH better off just getting a video card for the system. GT 730 GDDR5 at minimum is the suggested low spec gaming card. To match an i7 you'd want a faster card than that, say Radeon R7 370 for lower mid range card, depending on the power supply and case size.

Wish I could unfortunately, it's a laptop. Only thing I can upgrade in there is RAM or HDD/SDD.

Then don't bother spending any money on it to get it faster in games, won't do anything.

Yeah I didn't exactly plan to. My question was more geared towards, if it's possible, "Can I allocate more memory just towards the graphics card." Although, I'll assume by your responses that it's not and that hardware upgrades are the only way to improve the performance of a computer...

 

[hang-the-9]

Upgrading RAM will make just about 0 difference in gaming speeds. You will be MUCH better off just getting a video card for the system. GT 730 GDDR5 at minimum is the suggested low spec gaming card. To match an i7 you'd want a faster card than that, say Radeon R7 370 for lower mid range card, depending on the power supply and case size.

Wish I could unfortunately, it's a laptop. Only thing I can upgrade in there is RAM or HDD/SDD.

Then don't bother spending any money on it to get it faster in games, won't do anything.

Yeah I didn't exactly plan to. My question was more geared towards, if it's possible, "Can I allocate more memory just towards the graphics card." Although, I'll assume by your responses that it's not and that hardware upgrades are the only way to improve the performance of a computer...

Yes you can allocate more RAM to the video, IF the BIOS has that option. But in almost all cases that won't matter since the video card speed will only be affected a tiny bit. It may help if a game won't load because it needs more video memory, but it won't help in running games better, and since you already have 6 GB of RAM, adding more RAM won't just give more RAM to the video card to use. If you have 4 or less GB of RAM it may make a difference, but with 6, no.