Upgrading to 4GB RAM, what will I notice?

[Yossarian]

The computer I use to play Aces High at the moment is several years old, and here are it's current specs:
NVidia GeForce FX 5200
Windows XP Home (32-bit)
512MB RAM
Two hard drives, with about 240GB total
Widescreen monitor (1440x990 I think)
Intel Pentium 4 processor 3.00GHz
SoundBlaster 24-bit Advanced HD (this is what it says on the sticker on the front of the computer box)

At the moment, I'm running AH on 512 textures, and I usually get around 5-20 fps.

My parents have agreed to upgrade it to have 4GB of RAM, and I'm wondering what type of performance increase I should expect to see with this (mostly in Aces High, but overall as well).  Would this be enough to allow me to use the High-res texture pack.

Thanks for any help,

Yossarian

[NOT]

you will see improvements. however, you will notice that XP only recognizes a little over 3Gb of ram.




NOT

[Birddogg]

You'll be fine with 2GB.

Biggest diffrence you'll see is that stuff will load up faster, you will be able to switch between programs much faster also you'll probabbly see less jerkiness (mini freezes) when playing games too.

[BaldEagl]

You'll see a small gain however your CPU and video card are the bigger bottlenecks.

[Wobbly]

Personally I think 4gb is overkill on your system, I went from 1gb to 2gb and noticed a marginal difference (AMDxp3000 processor, Asus 6800GT, 2gb Crucial ram, Audigy 4 = 30-70 FPS in 512 textures)

You may be better of just getting 2 gb ram then using the money to buy a better graphics card and a sound card (sound cards take some stress off the processor, and I read AH uses the processor a lot). Second hand stuff from Ebay is fine, thats where I get my bits from.

[DREDIOCK]

you will see improvements. however, you will notice that XP only recognizes a little over 3Gb of ram.




NOT

The reason why you install 4 gigs of ram as opposed to 3 gigs of ram is on most, if not all motherboards if you want to run your ram in dual channel mode you have to install it in pairs

[1701E]

The reason why you install 4 gigs of ram as opposed to 3 gigs of ram is on most, if not all motherboards if you want to run your ram in dual channel mode you have to install it in pairs

Could the Dual channel be available with 3GB of RAM by simply using 2x 1GB sticks and 2x 512MB sticks?  I never really understood the Dual channel part.

[Yossarian]

Thanks for all the advice 

If I were to go ahead and get a new processor, how would I best go about doing it, and what sort of price would I be looking at overall?

[hyster]

you will see improvements. however, you will notice that XP only recognizes a little over 3Gb of ram.

NOT

my system See's 3.5g of 4g

[BaldEagl]

Thanks for all the advice 

If I were to go ahead and get a new processor, how would I best go about doing it, and what sort of price would I be looking at overall?

That depends on what socket your current CPU uses.  My guess is that it's a 478 pin socket in which case you'd need to buy a new motherboard first.  If that's the case then you're better off saving until you can buy or build a new system.

If by chance it's a socket 775 then the cheapest Intel Cor2Duo is the E2180 2.0 Ghz Allendale for $70 on newegg.  This would still be an upgrade even though it's only 2 Ghz.  Even at that you're video card would be the new bottleneck.  To replace it with an Nvidia 9600 GT would run another $110.  That, of course, requires your motherboard to have a PCIe x16 slot.  You're current board may only have an AGP slot.

[Anodizer]

The computer I use to play Aces High at the moment is several years old, and here are it's current specs:
NVidia GeForce FX 5200
Windows XP Home (32-bit)
512MB RAM
Two hard drives, with about 240GB total
Widescreen monitor (1440x990 I think)
Intel Pentium 4 processor 3.00GHz
SoundBlaster 24-bit Advanced HD (this is what it says on the sticker on the front of the computer box)

At the moment, I'm running AH on 512 textures, and I usually get around 5-20 fps.

My parents have agreed to upgrade it to have 4GB of RAM, and I'm wondering what type of performance increase I should expect to see with this (mostly in Aces High, but overall as well).  Would this be enough to allow me to use the High-res texture pack.

Thanks for any help,

Yossarian

You don't need 4 gigs of ram for Windows XP...  2 gigs is plenty...  XP usually doesn't like 4 gigs anyway...
You need 2X1 gig sticks...  Don't add to the ram you already have...  Get RID of the stuff you have...  Use it as a keychain, what ever..  Mix and matching ram is a bad thing and will give you problems...  And more problems with mount if you have a crappy motherboard..  Also, get another video card...  Geforce FX series cards are several generations old..  You can get a decent AGP card fairly cheap these days...  The Geforce 6800GS, 7800GS, or ATI 3870 are all great cards for AGP(you may need a better powersupply if you upgrade videocard)...  The difference will be night and day..
And by the way, don't listen to ANYTHING Krustsack (Krusty) says..  The Geforce 7600 GS/GT is substandard on any level...  Why he thinks it's good when the facts show it's not a performer by any means is beyond me...  And beyond him apparently... 

You could upgrade that system pretty inexpensively, actually...  It won't be on par with anything like a Core2Duo...  But you CAN make a significant improvement especially if the only game you play is AH...

I'd got the eBay route...  Older stuff is dirt cheap there...  No sense in buying a brand new AGP card for top dollar when you can get a 2nd hand one for less than half AND still under warranty in more cases...  
 

[splitatom]

no it depends on the wether it is a 64 bit can have 4 and mabey more not sure or 32 only does 3 my dad for geting strait a for freshman year in high school i was suposed to get 4 GB but i could only get 3

[MrRiplEy[H]]

no it depends on the wether it is a 64 bit can have 4 and mabey more not sure or 32 only does 3 my dad for geting strait a for freshman year in high school i was suposed to get 4 GB but i could only get 3

Do yourself a favour and don't even remotely consider anything with 64-bits with a computer that is several years old technology. You will _not_ see any kind of performance gain if and _if_ the system will run at all.

4 gigs is ok but on XP 2 gigs would have been enough for 99% of the users. I know I never go past it in my regular use.

[drdeathx]

Any upgrade in ram will help. You need to match each stick of ram with same vendor and model. XP WILL NOT RECOGNIZE 4 G. Get 3 x 1g sticks. The video card is the biggest difference. Maybe compromize and get  2 g ram and new video card. Some real good video cards are now around $100.

[drdeathx]

Nvidea 9600gt is about $140 now. Ram is cheap.