RAM speed vs. amount

Originally posted by hotcakes22 Hi, I was wondering whether speed or amount is more important when it comes to RAM and gaming. Is DDR2 800 @ 400 MHz pretty mediocre?   I believe there was a DS article about which aspects of the computer are important for gaming, but I can't find it.

If you don't have enough memory for your game, then getting more memory is easily the most important thing to do. For example, if you only have 1 GB, then getting more memory is the most important step.

However, once you have enough memory, getting more generally won't help. For example, there is no point in going from 6 GB to 12 GB for gaming. It won't help at all. In that case, getting faster memory would be your priority.

James

Probably not. You would probably be better off upgrading your video card if anything.

You might want to think about upgrading your ram though.. 400mhz is pretty slow...

It could very well be downclocked if its set to default.. For ddr2 800mhz isn't bad at all..

Edited by Dsnewb210 - 12 Mar 2009 at 8:20pm

the ram is "8GB DDR2 800"

hmm, in CPU-z it says

ah, thanks. How do I check bios? :)

Originally posted by hotcakes22 hmm, in CPU-z it says   in Memory: DRAM Frequency 400 MHz   in SPD: Max Bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)   I'm not sure why it doesn't seem to say 800 anywhere.

pc6400 ÷ 8 = 800

so your ram is 800MHz

You always know what ram speed you have from the "PC number" take that number divide it by 8 and you have your ram speed.

let me see if i understand this right.  i have 4 gigs of ddr3 at 1333mhz. instead of getting more ram i should just shoot for getting faster ram?