3 GB RAM worth it?

[iQue]

Hey TGN,

I was about to go and buy an extra fan for my computer when I remembered I had a little extra money over from christmas, so I thought: Why not buy an extra GB of RAM?

My current specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz
2 GB DDR-2 RAM
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 512 mb
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Would it be worth the money to buy an extra gig of RAM and would I see any performance increase at all?

Also anyone know a good way to find out the speed of the RAM? I can't see it through dxdiag and I haven't found it when I opened the computer and read on the stickers... lol

Cheers m8s

(and sorry for being such a nub)

[=98=]

On Vista, yes

On XP, no.

[iQue]

Thanks for the reply Alex, still:

Also anyone know a good way to find out the speed of the RAM? I can't see it through dxdiag and I haven't found it when I opened the computer and read on the stickers... lol

???

[Rugerdog]

The Bios always works.

[=98=]

Download CPU-Z

[Repulse]

Was gonna say the same thing!! CPU-Z is a great tool!

[iQue]

OK thanks again... CPU-Z is great :) Noticed that my RAM has 266 mhz in speed... If I got my facts right isn't that a little slow? Will I be better off selling my old RAM and buying 2/3 new?

[=98=]

DDR2 does two operations per cycle.

Thus, multiply 266mhz by 2 for the real speed. PC-6400 if i'm not mistaken?

[JustMe0171]

i have 3 gig, with vista i would go 3 for sure IMO.

cpuz is life saver as they allready said.

[sgt.collins]

or just do the crucial system scanner. they are more expensive on their site, so just take the exact model name and get it off newegg or where you are gonna buy it
crucial.com

[iQue]

BUMP!

While I'm on it I noticed that the RAM was cheap enough for me to buy 2 gigs, would that work well? I've heard a lot of rumours that 4 gigs won't work well with Vista 32-bit, are they true?

:p

[Trevortt]

If your running the 2GB in dual channel mode it would be stupid to vouch for 3 GB as this would break your dual channel barrier, thus be slower.

[=98=]

It's not that it won't work well, it's that 32bit operating systems will only see about 3.2gb of it, reason being because of memory management

Although, if its' cheap and easier than getting 3gb, go for it.

Only 64bit Windows will see more than 3.2gb or so.

[iQue]

Ahhh I see. Cheers :)

I'm not having the RAM in dual channel mode btw

[=98=]

Ahhh I see. Cheers :)

I'm not having the RAM in dual channel mode btw

why.... it gives you like a 30% performance boost.

You'd be mad not to :hmm: