Curse

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Hello fellow techs! I just have a quick opinion question for everyone: I'm going to be doing an upgrade to my laptop and wonder whether it would be better to go with more ram, or split it up and go for ram and a video card. Right now I have a Centrino 1.4g, 512mb DDR 333mhz ram, ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 w/32mb dedicated.

I'd like to upgrade to at least 1 gb possibly two, but wonder if I should go with just 1gb of ram and upgrade the video card. The other option would be just to upgrade to 2gb of ram as that is the most the my system can carry. I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I don't mind dropping a little coin to upgrade the system.

GW runs great right now with everything maxed but no AA enabled. Zone loading can take a few seconds, but the big drag on the system is when I close out of GW. It takes almost 1-2 minutes for my system to be even usable again while GW is shutting down.

Thanks for any advise you have, I really appreciate it.

Grace

Josh · Feb 07, 2006, 05:53 PM // 17:53

1GB Memory is absoutely fine, I'd highly recommend a new Video Card first.

What's your budget and others or myself can help you find a good card for your money and also what GFX Card slots you have, PCI, PCI-E or AGP.

And about the 1-2 minutes your PC being un-usable after closing GW, I think that lies with your processor.

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 05:58 PM // 17:58

Probably about $250-300 I'd say, but I'd like to save some money as well. The other thing is that I'm not comfortable replacing RAM myself as I've fried 3 boards that way (I've replaced just about every other component myself just fine, just RAM craps out on me

). I've never worked on a laptop either so I'm not fully familiar with the internals of it.

Not completly sure what the slot is for the video card, but I'll see if I can find some documentation to ID it for ya.

SaucE · Feb 07, 2006, 05:59 PM // 17:59

Most laptop video cards can not be upgraded. You may want to check and see if thats even an option. Cause 512MB of ram is enough.

Josh · Feb 07, 2006, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Ah, a majority of Laptops can have RAM upgraded, but I don't know many that have Graphics Card that can be upgraded too.

Are you sure you can upgrade your GFX Card in your Laptop? If you really are, what slot does it use? PCI, PCI-E, AGP?

SaucE · Feb 07, 2006, 06:08 PM // 18:08

Laptopsdont have PCI, AGP, or PCI-X slots. The can have the interface but the laptop manufacture creates its own connector. If you can upgrade the video, you have to go through the manufacturer of your laptop.

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Gotcha, I know for a fact that the RAM can be upgraded (up to 2GB), but I'm not finding anything about the video card. Dang

Well, in that case, would a memory upgrade improve the performance much, or would I be better to just save the money?

SaucE · Feb 07, 2006, 06:19 PM // 18:19

More memory will help if youhave lots ofapps running at the same time.

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 06:23 PM // 18:23

Nope, just GW and the normal background processes. I've modified the startup as well so that only the basics are running. Ideally I'd like to be able to turn AA on, but as it is now the game becomes unplayable at even 2X and just crawls by at 4X. Not sure if the RAM would help this or if it is based solely off the video card.

Loviatar · Feb 07, 2006, 06:36 PM // 18:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by GraceAlone

Gotcha, I know for a fact that the RAM can be upgraded (up to 2GB), but I'm not finding anything about the video card. Dang

Well, in that case, would a memory upgrade improve the performance much, or would I be better to just save the money?

unless you have a VOODOO gaming laptop i dont know of any other brand that you can upgrade the video card

Josh · Feb 07, 2006, 06:44 PM // 18:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

unless you have a VOODOO gaming laptop i dont know of any other brand that you can upgrade the video card

He's said he has a Mobility Radeon 9200 w/32mb dedicated so no VooDoo.

Old Dood · Feb 07, 2006, 06:49 PM // 18:49

I would go with 1Gb of ram. This is the new minimum today. Problem is with most laptops I have seen you have to end up buying new sticks of ram. Because, they filled up the two slots with (in your case) 2x256Mb of ram. So in order to go to 1Gb you would have to buy 2x512Mb. That being said...should you go all the way and just get 2x1Gb and max it out? Not going to cost you all that much more.

My son was having trouble playing the new CIV4 game on his Toshiba laptop w/Geforce to Go 32Mb video. His ram was only 512Mb (2x256Mb). I upgraded him to his max at 2x512Mb for a total of 1Gb. He can now play that game.

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 06:51 PM // 18:51

very true. Bummer about the not being able to upgrade the video card, but that's part of owning laptops. Would a RAM upgrade help the AA performance, or is that strictly run off the video card?

Old Dood - I'm leaning towards just maxing it out since it won't be too much (relatively speaking). I know that more RAM is always better, and I know that I'll need two 1gb sticks since it is based on the two sticks principle. Not sure why they design them that way but...*shrugs*

Josh · Feb 07, 2006, 06:51 PM // 18:51

The thing is not being able to upgrade your GFX Card and your not-so-good processor puts it down.

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 06:55 PM // 18:55

Well, like I said, GW looks good, I just know that it can look better

I'm more concerned with the map loading which is fast, but can take between 5-10+ on average.

Old Dood · Feb 07, 2006, 06:57 PM // 18:57

I understand....these were just options. IF he were to upgrade his ram he would have to buy two brand new sticks...not just add sticks. I am not totally sold on ram not helping out on performance. I believe there is some kick from having more ram....but in his case it would not be all that much.

As for you map...I have seen it take awhile for me too. I have 4Gb of ram and a 3.4Ghz HT processor with a X800XL PCIe card....

EDIT: What I like about having ram is I can Alt-Tab to many other programs running...this is the big plus for me. Game speed is more dependent on Vid card and processor speed.

Josh · Feb 07, 2006, 06:58 PM // 18:58

Well an upgrade of RAM is his only upgradable choice so it's up to him.

Unless he wants to save for a good desktop computer.

SaucE · Feb 07, 2006, 07:06 PM // 19:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

unless you have a VOODOO gaming laptop i dont know of any other brand that you can upgrade the video card

I can upgrade the video in my Dell Inspiron XPS GEN 1.

GraceAlone · Feb 07, 2006, 07:16 PM // 19:16

I have a 3.4g Pentium 512mb (128mb shared video) desktop, but I use my laptop much more often and I've found that GW runs better there (must be because of the shared video). Being able to alt+tab out would be nice because it make looking for infomation a lot easier. I should probably spend some dough on a new video card for my desktop as that would free up that memory, plus the system in general would probably run better.

Kaguya · Feb 07, 2006, 07:25 PM // 19:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by GraceAlone

I have a 3.4g Pentium 512mb (128mb shared video) desktop, but I use my laptop much more often and I've found that GW runs better there (must be because of the shared video). Being able to alt+tab out would be nice because it make looking for infomation a lot easier. I should probably spend some dough on a new video card for my desktop as that would free up that memory, plus the system in general would probably run better.

Anything that uses shared video on a desktop computer is trash. Intergrated vidcards just don't cut it on desktops, as they are pretty much always integrated Intel's videochips. Laptops atleast have mobile editions of good ATi/nVidia cards so they play a loooot faster compared to an Intel graphics chip

Well, exception is coming to the integrated vidcard = trash for the desktop machines, when nVidia pushes out the motherboards with nVidia's GPU integrated. Time will tell