Renzatic on 20/1/2011 at 08:00

---

From the way I understand it (and anyone is free to correct me if I'm wrong), your video memory is there to process any textures, particles, and shaders immediately being used in the game, with your system memory being used as a cache for any textures, particles, and shaders, models, shaders, that have to be called quickly if needed.

Here's a scenario for you. Say you're playing a game that has you walking down a city street. You have all your brick, window, concrete, asphalt, and whatever other textures loaded in your video memory. Things are running smoothly. Then you turn a corner and you're looking at a park. If you have enough video memory, the game has probably already cached the grass, leaves, wood, and any other texture that'll be used in the level. If you don't, it has to pull those textures from system memory, while unloading any textures from video memory that aren't immediately critical to the scene. This will cause the game to hiccup and jump around for a sec. Now if you don't have enough system memory, then the game has to pull those files from the harddrive, to the system memory, to the video memory, while completely dumping any unnecessary textures. This will cause your game to do the herky jerky dance for a good 5-10 seconds. The less you have on either front, the more often you're gonna see the game hiccup or herky jerky dance.

So yeah, you can offset low video memory with a goodly amount of system memory, but only to a point. It'll still be annoying to play, but not as annoying as it could be.

edit: This is a really, really simple explanation of the process. There's alot, and I mean alot more stuff going on than this. But it'll give you a basic idea of what does what.

Brian The Dog on 20/1/2011 at 16:15

---

The number represents the model type of the RAM. You can mix and match any model types PROVIDING they are the same generation/slot-type. But if you do mix memory modules, your RAM will run at the speed of the slowest of the modules. So if you mix a PC2700 and a PC-3200, your PC will run at PC2700 speeds.

Type SDR
--------------

66 MHz (PC-66)
100 MHz (PC-100)
133 MHz (PC-133)
200 MHz (PC-200)


Type DDR
--------------

266 MHz (PC-2100)
333 MHz (PC-2700)
400 MHz (PC-3200)


Type DDR-2
-----------------

400 MHz (PC2-3200)
533 MHz (PC2-4200)
667 MHz (PC2-5300)
800 MHz (PC2-6400)
1066 MHz (PC2-8500)


Type DDR-3
-----------------

800 MHz (PC3-6400)
1066 MHz (PC3-8500)
1333 MHz (PC3-10600)
1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
1866 MHz (PC3-14900)
2133 MHz (PC3-17000)

Just make sure if you mix and match that you do it inside one of these "Types".
[NB - the memory speeds here are the data transfer speeds, not the actual frequency, if anyone is pinickity, but they're the ones everyone knows them as]

To answer directly your question, your PC-3200 memory is the fastest that your motherboard can cope with, and it would be underclocked by 16% by adding PC-2700 , and you would only add a little bit of RAM, so it's probably best to stick with the PC-3200.

Renzatic on 20/1/2011 at 19:05

---

It's also a good idea to try and stick to the same make and model of ram. I had a situation back in the day where I've popped two different brands of PC-3200 in one of my old machines, and it messed up my clock speeds and timings because the mobo defaulted to the lowest denominator common to both. It's a rare thing to experience, and usually only certain motherboards have problems with mixed and matched ram, but it does happen. Be wary if you're planning on supplementing what you've already got.

Now you can go back through tweak all your settings in the bios until you find a happy medium for both, but that's a huge pain in the ass, and more than a little scary if you don't know exactly what you're doing.

edit: if you want my opinion on the whole, I'd suggest squirreling away your pennies for a new machine. DDR is relatively expensive these days, and you're ultimately spending cash on what'll still end up being a suboptimal experience. On the other hand, a good $400 Core 2 Duo machine will tear through just about anything you throw at it.

Save up. Get a better computer. You'll be happier in the long run.

Renzatic on 20/1/2011 at 22:46

---

$580 bucks for all of that isn't half bad. It's sporting brand name parts and everything. The i3 might be a little on the weak side on the grand scale of latest and greatest, but even it'll be a huge upgrade compared to what you have now.

Bonus on the dog tags and t-shirt. :D

edit: Also I'm gonna call you Raymond Beat Up Tugboat until you get a new computer. :mad: