Will extra ram increase my FPS?

byndthegrv · 07-03-2009, 02:04 AM

Hello there,

I was wondering if I add an extra gig to my system ram, which is currently 1 gig, would it improve my fps drastically? My frame rate jumps all over the place in games like Unreal Tournament and Aion. Whenever I look around the game it takes a little while for the textures to load up and the frame rate is at around 6-17 fps. So will extra RAM help at all?

My specs are:
CPU: AMD Athalon 64 3200+
RAM: 1 gig
Graphics Card: ATi Radeon x1650 Pro AGP
Power Supply: Coolmax 550 watt

offtopic: I was also wondering if my power supply was enough

thank you for reading.

**Aus_Karlos** · 07-03-2009, 02:56 AM

Hi byndthegrv and welcome to TSF,

It may help but it probably wont give you the fps increase you'll be expecting. Depending on if the game requires the extra RAM.

When playing the game is your HDD light constantly flashing when rotating quickly?

Also that PSU is fine with your system setup.

**vladimirb** · 07-03-2009, 03:01 AM

Well, it will increase your FPS but for how much I am not sure.
But for sure it won't increase drastically, maybe you won't experience frame rate jumping as much as usual.
As Aus_karlos asid, it depends on game requirements also...

byndthegrv · 07-03-2009, 03:13 AM

Thanks for the welcome Aus_Karlos, I have been lurking around these forums for a while and I just finally decided to create an account. My current tower case doesn't have an HDD light, but out of curiosity what does the light indicate? is there an alternative option to an HDD light? Thanks for the responses by the way, I'll have to try the 2 gig Ram suggested by the game for optimal performance hopefully it'll help my FPS problem.

**Aus_Karlos** · 07-03-2009, 03:18 AM

The flashing indicator Light means that the HDD is been read/written to. If its constantly active then it could indicate heavy fragmentation or the fact that the entire level (map) for Unreal cannot fit in the RAM and is paged.

Have you defragmented recently?

**RockmasteR** · 07-03-2009, 03:56 AM

getting another Gig of RAM will help a lot maybe it'll stop the lag and some freezing in games (like Crysis or Bioshock) or any game that needs a min of 1 gig RAM adding another stick will make the games play smoothly and the games won't depend much on your HDD for the virtual RAM as you have enough physical memory
so your FPS won't increase but it won't drop and go up it'll be steady and it's better of course
When I had 1 Gig RAM I ran the Far Cry 2 benchmark and I got 28 fps as an average but when I got an extra 1 Gig I did got 31 fps as an average
why my fps increased?
when I had 1 gig RAM the game fps drops to 20 fps in some places cause it needed more ram but with the 2 gig RAM the fps is steady and stayed at 25 - 30 fps and some places goes to 40 so the average is 30 to 32

hope that will help you

byndthegrv · 07-03-2009, 05:01 AM

Aus_Karlos: That's really interesting, never knew that. Yea I defragment once every two weeks, and I defragmented my HDD two days ago.

RockmasteR: That info really helped, I get the general idea now.

Alright so I've decided to get an extra gig, thanks for the help everyone. I think I'll like it here in the forums. \m/ [^_^]

**Aus_Karlos** · 07-03-2009, 05:23 AM

Reply back when the new RAM is installed.

07-03-2009, 02:04 AM	#1 (permalink)
byndthegrv Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 12 OS: windows xp	Will extra ram increase my FPS? Hello there, I was wondering if I add an extra gig to my system ram, which is currently 1 gig, would it improve my fps drastically? My frame rate jumps all over the place in games like Unreal Tournament and Aion. Whenever I look around the game it takes a little while for the textures to load up and the frame rate is at around 6-17 fps. So will extra RAM help at all? My specs are: CPU: AMD Athalon 64 3200+ RAM: 1 gig Graphics Card: ATi Radeon x1650 Pro AGP Power Supply: Coolmax 550 watt offtopic: I was also wondering if my power supply was enough thank you for reading.

07-03-2009, 02:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,461 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? Hi byndthegrv and welcome to TSF, It may help but it probably wont give you the fps increase you'll be expecting. Depending on if the game requires the extra RAM. When playing the game is your HDD light constantly flashing when rotating quickly? Also that PSU is fine with your system setup. __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home

07-03-2009, 03:01 AM	#3 (permalink)
vladimirb Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Banja Luka, Serb Republic Posts: 3,691 OS: xp pro sp3, Server 2003, Windows 7 Professional x64bit My System	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? Well, it will increase your FPS but for how much I am not sure. But for sure it won't increase drastically, maybe you won't experience frame rate jumping as much as usual. As Aus_karlos asid, it depends on game requirements also... __________________ MCP - MCSA Cisco SMB Account Manager

07-03-2009, 03:13 AM	#4 (permalink)
byndthegrv Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 12 OS: windows xp	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? Thanks for the welcome Aus_Karlos, I have been lurking around these forums for a while and I just finally decided to create an account. My current tower case doesn't have an HDD light, but out of curiosity what does the light indicate? is there an alternative option to an HDD light? Thanks for the responses by the way, I'll have to try the 2 gig Ram suggested by the game for optimal performance hopefully it'll help my FPS problem.

07-03-2009, 03:18 AM	#5 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,461 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? The flashing indicator Light means that the HDD is been read/written to. If its constantly active then it could indicate heavy fragmentation or the fact that the entire level (map) for Unreal cannot fit in the RAM and is paged. Have you defragmented recently? __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home

07-03-2009, 03:56 AM	#6 (permalink)
RockmasteR Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Lebanon Posts: 3,178 OS: Vista Ultimate 32bit My System Blog Entries: 1	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? getting another Gig of RAM will help a lot maybe it'll stop the lag and some freezing in games (like Crysis or Bioshock) or any game that needs a min of 1 gig RAM adding another stick will make the games play smoothly and the games won't depend much on your HDD for the virtual RAM as you have enough physical memory so your FPS won't increase but it won't drop and go up it'll be steady and it's better of course When I had 1 Gig RAM I ran the Far Cry 2 benchmark and I got 28 fps as an average but when I got an extra 1 Gig I did got 31 fps as an average why my fps increased? when I had 1 gig RAM the game fps drops to 20 fps in some places cause it needed more ram but with the 2 gig RAM the fps is steady and stayed at 25 - 30 fps and some places goes to 40 so the average is 30 to 32 hope that will help you __________________ CPUz GPUz Nvidia Drivers ATI Drivers System Information for Windows (SIW) Revo Uninstaller RivaTuner ATITOOL Directx 9.0C !!Please don't PM me for Tech Support!!

07-03-2009, 05:01 AM	#7 (permalink)
byndthegrv Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 12 OS: windows xp	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? Aus_Karlos: That's really interesting, never knew that. Yea I defragment once every two weeks, and I defragmented my HDD two days ago. RockmasteR: That info really helped, I get the general idea now. Alright so I've decided to get an extra gig, thanks for the help everyone. I think I'll like it here in the forums. \m/ [^_^]

07-03-2009, 05:23 AM	#8 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,461 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: Will extra ram increase my FPS? Reply back when the new RAM is installed. __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home