ATI Radeon HD 3200 - more ram = actually better?

Hi everyone, first post here. I've got an HP Pavilion DV4, 4GB ram, AMD turion 64 dual core cpu and teh ATI Radeon 3200 GPU. My 'puter will take up to 8 gigs ram, but that's gonna cost me in the neighborhood of 300 bucks. My question is, how much of an improvement in graphics/smoothness while gaming do you think I would realize from doubling the ram? I know this AMD chipset just uses system memory so that would free up some more. I mean...that 300 dollars would go a long way toward building a new desktop... Just looking for some educated opinions, thanks a lot! oh and i mostly play WOW. not the most demanding game but i'd like to turn everything all the way up. and I'm running win 7 which made a HUGE difference...really goes to show how much vista was bogging it down.

 

Don't waste your money to buy more ram. It'll not increase your gaming experience. Spend those money for desktop.

 

Yeah adding more RAM won't help gaming performance. Few games are memory hogs and those which are don't even have enough hunger to fill up 2-4Gb, let alone 8!

Also, while it is true your HD3200 utilizes system RAM, it is limited in the maximum amount it can use. Normally this amount fluctuates depending on the other components, but it ranges between 256mb and 1Gb normally.

Conclusion: Don't bother wasting money on 8Gb of RAM unless you need it for other purposes because for gaming, it won't help; just save the money to get a better desktop or a better laptop.

 

Woah, fast replies, thanks! Good to know i can save some money there. As long as people are reading this, how does the Turion X2 take to overclocking? Mines at 2.1ghz, how much faster could i safely go? and again, any noticeable gains to be had there? im sure this has been covered, im searching the boards right now...

 

Is it a Turion II x2 or Turion x2? Either way, I wouldn't bother, your CPU isn't as much of a bottleneck like you might think, and CPU OCing is never as easy as doing it with a GPU. Not only are the thermal aspects harder to control and regulate, but you're more likely to fry it than a GPU. There's alot more electricity going to a CPU than GPU under full load.

I wouldn't do it, especially in an HP where you're very likely to screw something up permanently because it wasn't made to messed with (IE tweaked) in such a manner.

 

Save your money man. 4GB is plenty.

 

Your system's gaming bottleneck is the weak integrated GPU (although it is one of the more powerful integrated GPUs), not the CPU. Therefore, overclocking the CPU will give you little to no benefit, while greatly increasing the amount of heat generated. I would not overclock if I were you.

Also, 8GB of RAM is a waste. RAM is not your GPU/system's bottleneck.

 

You can pretty much assume gaming is only affected by the GPU. It is that influencial of a factor.

 

4GB is more than enough... more system RAM isn't going to help... 3200 is a weak integrated card and if u want to game , get a new laptop...