1 GB RAMFollow

From system standpoint (although you would be unlikely to notice), I believe that 4 256MB sticks would provide a performance edge on 2 512MS sticks.... and likewise 2 512MB sticks provide and edge on 1 1GB stick. The larger the stick, the more addressing space it has to look through. Somewhat like a very large harddrive, although obviously with purely electronic parts. Most people will go with 2x512 as a standard... that's what I'd do in your case, that way you can just drop 2 more 512s in when you'd like to instead of having to trade the whole batch in again.

Meaning the 4x256 (2x256 x2)? I don't know that it would provide any noticable edge above the 2x512 dual channel. Also, check your board specs, because a lot of boards will support 3-4GB but only 2GB dual channel. (i.e. Only a certain set of banks)

I am a Computer Engineer and know how RAM works. If your motherboard is built to handle the large sticks of RAM then get them (if you can aford it). It takes a few extra clock cycles (small small fractions of miliseconds) to parse the information on muiltiple RAM slots, but you will never notice the performance diference.

If you fill the DIMM slots with low bandwidth RAM (4 x 256)then you will have no room to upgrade. If you plan to upgrade then you will have to remove your old working sticks of ram and buy new ones. If you buy the high bandwidth RAM when the price drops in a few weeks then you just need to throw it in to add performance, without throwing a still working stick away.

EQ1
Azmati Stillwater
70 BST MM
Novus Imperium

EQ2
Arishan
27 Cleric Befallen
Novus Imperium

I currently have 2 x 256 mb sticksof ram and bought 1 512mb will they all be able to work together?

So I wont have 1 gig of ram ill have to buy another 2 x 256???


Edited, Fri Nov 19 09:52:40 2004 by Crooks

Something I did to increase performance (on a whim really)...

I noticed I was occasionally crashing randomly, butsometimes staying up for hours on end without a problem. I am running 768mb ram, and had a 468 (os managed) swap. I decided to set an OS defines swap on each of my 3 drives. When I did that, I noticed my game stays up and ran smooth even after being up overnight and part of the next day.

In fact, the only time I brought it down was this morning when I saw servers were going down for maint.

I plan on logging back in over lunch and going back to merchant mode.

I'd suggest doing whatever is cheapest. The performance differences between all of the possible configurations are unnoticable at best. So unless you're made of money and don't mind dropping a couple extra bucks for something that you won't ever notice, get out your calculator and figure out how to get to 1GB in the cheapest way possible. You can more than likely find a way that saves you a nice amount of cash. Use it to pay some subscription fees, or buy your girlfriend something nice, since you won't be able to devote much time to her anymore =P

Yeah, you might need to upgrade your RAM at a later date, and you may want to take this into consideration. But I would say that unless your computer is fairly new, and you'll have it for a long time, I don't see anything in the near future that will require more than a gig. Hell, my computer can't even physically handle more than a gig of RAM, so if you're screwed, then I am, too! We're in this ***** together, man! Good luck with your problem.

256 sticks aren't being phased out anytime in the near future. 4 x 256 is still a GB. Plus EQ2 is the only game so far I havent been able to run well on 512..

I thought about that, but I don't wanna spend to much. Baby due in two weeks

What about having more than 1 GB, think it will help to have one and a half or 2 gigs?

The more the better. You can never really have to much RAM