I have a really decent system (specs below) but my memory is a little weak...I have 1 GB of pc2700 dual channeled on an abit ic-7 board. I have my fps locked at 32 and for most of the time it stays there...autogen on extremely dense, scenery complexity on dense,100 percent 3d clouds with FSW fix, usa roads, 1600X1200 4xAF and no AA...My question is would I benefit from pc3200 or higher ram?? how much of an increase in performance could I expect?? As I said, system specs belowP4 3.2 800FSBAbit IC-71GB pc2700 ram dual channeledmaxtor ata 133 60gb hdgeforce 6800GT OC'ed to 404/1.1

You are sure your memory is weak you don

I found on my system that the speed is secondary, by a long shot,to the amount.From personal experience I'd say the cost would outway the benefit.DN

I'm really astonished at how many times I see memory and bus speeds get misunderstood on this forum:On a P4 800MHz FSB CPU, you shouldn't be using anything other than PC3200 RAM - if you're using PC2700 right now and running it at it's default speed of 166MHz (333DDR), you're underclocking your CPU. The bus speed that the RAM runs at is one part of a two part equation that determines the overall clock speed your CPU. (Front Side Bus * CPU Multiplier) = CPU clock speed. For example on my system, I have an Athlon XP 3200+ with a clock multiplier of 11. PC3200 memory runs at 200Mhz (400DDR) and thus (11 * 200MHz) = 2200MHz or 2.2GhzThe 800MHz P4s cheat a little bit in that it isn't TRULY an 800MHz bus, it's the the fact that it passes data 4 times per cycle on a 200MHz bus - so they get away with saying it's 800MHz. The same equation holds though - the 3.2 P4 has a multiplier of 16, so (16 * 200MHz) = 3200MHz or 3.2GHz. With PC2700 memory, you're only running at a 166MHz FSB, so (16 * 166MHz) = 2656MHz or roughly 2.66GHz. You're underclocking your CPU by 544MHz, hence the reason you're not getting better performance. Getting PC3200 will gain you nearly 550MHz in CPU speed by allowing the CPU to run at its rated speed and thus a big performance boost.I want to address the comment "But unless you go for some DDR 500 memory or faster don

"Also fps limiter should be to unlimited."This is not an absolute. Each system is different, therefor it's incumbant upon each user to test with the framerate limiter locked and unlocked to see what works best for them."With PC2700 memory, you're only running at a 166MHz FSB, so (16 * 166MHz) = 2656MHz or roughly 2.66GHz. You're underclocking your CPU by 544MHz, hence the reason you're not getting better performance."Not true. The system is running at the FSB * CPU Multiplier. The slower PC2700 memory is limiting the system's bandwidth capibilties, but not reducing the FSB.Cheers,Greg

Tabs you are stating the obvious but got some wrong as Soarpics mentioned.Also if you read my post I talked about overclocking his memory instead of buy new stuff. And if he would see any real improvement he would have to upgrade his RAM so it would run at at least 500 Mhz. Now on P 4 that would be really simple to do since if nothing else you can use dividers. They don

"Also if you read my post I talked about overclocking his memory instead of buy new stuff."Yep, and SiSoft Sandra would be a very useful tool for doing just that. It also includes a small database of different computer configs to compare to.Greg

Yes that to compare performance and then Memtest86+ to check for stability. You can seem stable but yet get errors while running Memtest86+. Nothing is so annoying as crashing when you are a hour in a flight :(But would help if you posted what memory you have and what chip they uses. Unless there are heatsinks on them then it gets harder of course :D Example Corsair XMS 2700 CAS 2 or whatever your mem is :)