RAM Question

[MadMike710]

If I add more RAM would my gaming performance increase even if I don't have a graphics card?

[Herculine]

If I add more RAM would my gaming performance increase even if I don't have a graphics card?

 

From what I've been told, it largely depends upon the game and how old it is.

 

I recently upgraded my rig to 8 GB RAM, thinking this would solve all my fps lag and stuttering problems and allow me to set all the graphics details to their fullest, but in an older game like Oblivion I was disappointed to discover that I still could not set things to their maximum. I'm told this is due largely to the limitations of my graphics card and the age of the game rather than my RAM.

[MadMike710]

Ok, never knew that.

I was thinking about Minecraft specifically, anyone think the performance would improve?

 

My opinion:

I have 2 laptops.

One laptop runs Minecraft ok with 1GB RAM and 256Mb video card.

My other laptop runs Minecraft very slow with 1GB Ram and no video card.

 

So I think it is the video card that makes a difference, not so much RAM.

 

Am I correct?

[urbex]

When it comes to gaming, you're dealing with bottlenecks. You can have an i7 / 16GB RAM / GTX 460 system that will play games just as good as a i5 / 4GB RAM / GTX 460, because the graphics card is bottlenecking the better hardware.

[Thandal]

When it comes to gaming, you're dealing with bottlenecks. You can have an i7 / 16GB RAM / GTX 460 system that will play games just as good as a i5 / 4GB RAM / GTX 460, because the graphics card is bottlenecking the better hardware.

Exactly right! Or, the other way around. The best graphics adapter in the world won't be able to overcome a CPU or RAM bottleneck that prevents the underlying game from function propery. (It'll just stutter or freeze with stunningly beautiful images on screen! :tongue: )

 

The basic approach seems to be: Best graphics card you can afford, then most RAM you can afford, with at least as much CPU horsepower as the game recommends (check the label.)

 

Unless you're a real hobbyist or buying a brand-new rig, your CPU it probably already a "fixed" element. So you usually get the most improvement from upgrading your grahics. (Since RAM is pretty cheap these days, throw-in as much as you can add within your total budget.)

[MadMike710]

Ok, so the RAM finally came (waiting about 2 weeks for a delivery from Amazon, it's the longest I've ever had to wait for them).

I popped the RAM in my good laptop (the one with the video card).

I wanted to combine it with my 1GB to make 3GB but it wouldn't power on so I had to stick with just the new 2GB.

It made a quite noticable difference on Minecraft so there is almost no lag. I have yet to try Oblivion, which I'm looking forward to. :)

 

Quite happy with the result.

Just letting you guys know.

Edited April 12, 2011 by MadMike710

[Herculine]

Thanks for the update.

 

I've run Oblivion on my old Dell with only 1 GB RAM, but as you'd expect I had to turn a lot of the graphics way down. With 2 GB RAM on that machine now it's better but still far from optimal.

 

On my newer rig with 8 GB RAM with Oblivion I don't notice much difference from when I had 4 GB RAM, so I'm assuming that this is where the limitations of my graphics card have finally started to come into play.

 

So, at least in my experiences with my ATI Radeon 5500 and a triple-core processor, it seems like 4 GB is about as good as I can do, at least where Oblivion is concerned.

[evilneko]

Not surprising it increased performance for Minecraft. I can't imagine that being a heavy burden on the graphics card :laugh:

[antonkr]

Believe it or not evilneko it actually according to many people relies a lot on video cards

I personaly have 4 gigs of ram and can run almost everything perfectly.

[Vindekarr]

A big GPU helps, but RAM helps more, simple as that. Cram it in, as much as you can, and you'll see a major performance increase.