memory versus graphics

[Paul Rimington]

hi guys
which 1 will give me a bigger increase in performance, upping my memory from pc2100 to 2700, or changing my graphics from ti4200 to ti 4600 or if funds allow a ti4800 my pc is mainly a gaming machine

 

[RobbieSan]

both would increase performance.. PC2700 will give you more bandwidth along with faster memory timings.. but, if you are into gaming a better video card would help..

it's a catch22 though.. until both are upgraded one will continue to be a bit of a bottleneck... at this point though the 4200 is a good card so you may want to upgrade your RAM while prices are where they are....

 

[Black-Syth]

/\

ditto.... go for the memory

 

[Sazar]

Originally posted by Paul Rimington
hi guys
which 1 will give me a bigger increase in performance, upping my memory from pc2100 to 2700, or changing my graphics from ti4200 to ti 4600 or if funds allow a ti4800 my pc is mainly a gaming machine

your video card can be oc'd... depending on make and memory specifications of course... to ti 4600 levels... therefore the video card you have is not really lacking..

also... please remember a ti4600 and a ti4800 are THE SAME CARD

the ONLY difference... other than the name... is that the 4800 has agp 8x support... though this means zip in terms of real performance...

getting 2700 rated memory over 2100 rated memory also will not really net you a noticeable increase...

personally I would recommend you stick to what you have since neither is really legacy right now and save up for a proper upgrade rather than a tiny incremental upgrade that does not show a noticeable increase in performance... since neither of the upgrades you are suggesting is something I would personally recommend to anyone looking to upgrade...

 

[RagnaroK]

Sazar knows best! You da man Sazar!

 

[LeeJend]

That system is pretty well balanced (RAM, Video and memory bandwidth). Start saving up the money and next winter look at your performance on the new games to see if you need an upgrade. Maybe to a DX9 hardware card. You can get this years hot new vid card or an XP2600 for a lot less then.

PS Yeehaa! XP 2500 Barton 333 has dropped below $100. Wish my MB could use it...

 

[Paul Rimington]

Many thanks for the input guys ,its all been taken on board for future referance, Going back to Sazar's thread about o/c my 4200 ,how would i do it , is a download or some reg tweaks ?
Once again many thanks to all off u for your advice

Regards Paul

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Here use the coolbits.reg double click it and merge go into your display properties / settings /advanced/ look in the setion for your vid card and find the clock frequencies .... you need to up it slowly and test the settings as you go... you can see my clock speeds in my sig but all cards are not the same

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Coolbits is a driver overclock if you want low level hardware use rivatuner but dont over clock on the hardware and the driver its one or the other ... rivatuner is a good program to tweak your card can be found easily by typing in rivatuner on any search engine

 

[Paul Rimington]

Thanks for the post Kermit,tried coolbits , now benchmarks at 9471 in 3dmakk 2001,seem to be able to push the card quite a long way , but performance tends to tail off and then do a u turn is this normal or just a problem with my card
Regards Paul

 

[Taurus]

happens to me too after a series of benchmarks. i credit that to heat buildup. things just start to run a little bit slower once they heat up.

so, to be fair, when you think you have a good oc level, don't run any 3d for a little bit... let the gpu and memory cool down... then do a benchmark and you score should be a little higher.

otherwise your gpu might be a little too high and getting errors which it has to correct... causing it to be slower. nvidia cards benefit more from memory bandwidth than gpu power, anyway. concentrate on finding your memory's limits. then try to find out if cooling them would get you any farther. leave your gpu at a more conservative overclock.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Right that happens to me also you hit a level and if you go over it slows down a few tweaks and you will hit the sweet spot

 

[Paul Rimington]

Thanks Once again for all your advice
Regards Paul