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Joe writes, "i have an interesting choice to make: on one hand I can buy a video card with 1GB of DDR5 RAM, on the other hand I can buy an additional 4GB of system RAM. If I buy the video card, I'll have 8GB of system memory, but if I buy the system RAM I'll have a video card with 512MB of DDR5 RAM. What should I do?"
Well, this all depends on a lot of different things. If you're looking for a quick response, the answer is: buy the video card.
I know I preach about always getting more system memory, but in this case, 8GB, while not a lot, is certainly more than enough for today's applications, but 512MB of video memory? Ouch.
Today's games use an increasingly large amount of video memory to store their textures. Most games can clock in at just under 1GB of memory use to pre-load textures alone. So, the more video memory you have, the more textures can be loaded directly on the video card, and don't have to go through the system to get loaded - that means faster gameplay for you.
At 512MB you would have exactly half of what I would recommend for the average gamer - 2GB would be even better, especially with the games coming out for Christmas.
On the other hand, your system can deal with not having 12GB of RAM. While it would be nice to have, games really require more video memory than they do system memory, and you can afford to make that sacrifice in this case.
If you have a question send it my way: lordkat@gmail.com
Be safe,
Jason
I do not agree with all that,
Here's my point
First, I'm a hard computer user, i push my computers on they very edge of their performances and I never needed more then 6 GB of ram. While i do recommend 8 GB of ram, more then this is completely useless, unless you want do run multiple virtual sessions at once or you want to make a server with multiple tasks and users, there is no point havine more then 8 GB of ram.
Second, I do agree with Mr. Jason on the pre-loaded textures, bt RAM on the video card is not all what you should look for, in fact, for me It wold be a second plan. The prime and most important is the GPU capability, second is the speed of the ram, third the bandwith of the video card and last is the amount of ram If everything else is good, your CPU and the system ram will have to do a bit more work to compensate the need of ram. While all thoses are usually well balanced (except for the ram because the amount ram is usually what the noob customer will look for). Before buying a video card, you should look for the benchmarks over the net and be sure that the video card is supported for your motherboard.
So a shorter way to say that, 8 GB of system ram is completely useless unless if you intend do have extreme hard or spesialisex word for your computer and a good video card is MENDATORY if you want to play games.
My recommendations are (for a good ratio price/power) the GeForce EVGA 275 Superclocked (what I do use now and its way enough for my gamers need) or if you have a little more money, you could buy the EVGA 285.
Good gaming for all G33K5
NoradIV
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