Hi, ram questions!

[Bez]

Hi i have some cheap really cheap 512 ram in my pc atm, and its running @ 448 instead of 512.

Im looking to buy some fully compatable ram, ive been looking at the OCZ 1gb ram, the question is will this improve my fps in games as there is more ram and better quality?

Thanks,
Chris

[Danno]

Hi i have some cheap really cheap 512 ram in my pc atm, and its running @ 448 instead of 512.

Im looking to buy some fully compatable ram, ive been looking at the OCZ 1gb ram, the question is will this improve my fps in games as there is more ram and better quality?

Thanks,
Chris

if the memory is showing as 448mb instead of 512mb i would guess the missing 64mb is down to an onboard video card and shared memory rather than a compatibility issue.

if you are looking to improve games i would look into adding a video card instead of using onboard video before adding more memory.

if you are not using onboard video i think the problem may be slightly faulty memory however as its exactly 64mb missing i would guess this is shared video memory.

[Taxation]

get yourself a decent video card, that should make games better to play

can we have your specs so we can work out what the best upgrade for you would be

[Bez]

Sure, i currently have a
AMD 3200+
nVidia 7300 GS 256 MB

The rest is in my sig down below :)

[Danno]

your video card will be fine. this is a bit of an odd one. when you add an AGP or PCIe card it normally disables your onboard VGA. on your system it does not look like this has happened.

if you have a look in the BIOS therer may be a setting to disable the onboard VGA. once its disabled it should free up that missing 64mb.

[Bez]

Danno - Thanks will look @ the BIOS later

With my motherboard and my video card i got a pci-e cable and the gfx card manual said to use this if u need extra power, but when i look at the gfx card i cannot find where to put this, any ideas? - i have the cable but the diagram shows where the cables goes - but it doesnt :(

[Danno]

some video card manufacturers use generic manuals that covers a range of their cards. i would guess some of the cards need additional power and others do not. if there is no where on your card for the additional power i am sure it will not be needed.

[Bez]

Thanks again danno - in the bios what am i looking for to hopefully disable the 64 mb?

Thanks,
Chris

[Danno]

there should be something referencing onboard vga, this needs disabling.

normally this is under the advanced chipset featurers or maybe the intergrated peripherals section of the bios.

[Bez]

So are u basically say the pc is using the onboard gfx instead of my actual gfx card i purchased?

Or my gfx card i purchased is conflicting with the onboard VGA?

[Danno]

the system will be using the PCIe card but it looks like the on board VGA is still enabled.

i could be wrong but this is the only thing that i can think is the cause of the missing 64mb.

[Bez]

Could they be conflicting causing some gfx downfall?

[Taxation]

the onboard video is using your RAM, disable it and you will get the RAM back, thats it

[Danno]

Could they be conflicting causing some gfx downfall?

there is a small chance that the two could confilct with each other, its very unlikely tho.

[Bez]

I have turned the onboard off and i now have 512 RAM - thank you very much all of you :)