ram or processor upgrade: which is more important?

[bluedoggiant]

does anyone know, which do u need for gaming, ram, or processor, which is worth more, a processor upgrade or a ram upgrade?

 

[Sun Baked]

If you do not have enough RAM, it could cut the speed of the system down by about half.

But it is an annoying slowdown, punctuated by the system stopping for seconds at a time while the spinning ball shows up.

 

[je1ani]

posted a million times.. you can always upgrade RAM later on... the processor is permanent.

 

[papadopolis1024]

posted a million times.. you can always upgrade RAM later on... the processor is permanent.

You can upgrade the processor in some macs... Such as a mac mini or G4 Tower.

 

[je1ani]

You can upgrade the processor in some macs... Such as a mac mini or G4 Tower.

I was referring to the machine in his sig

 

[Sun Baked]

Get the 2.4 with the 20", and the biggest HD you can.

It gives you a GPU boost and a CPU boost right away, but the HD is also something you'd want to max out.

Memory is something that can be done later.

 

[bluedoggiant]

I was referring to the machine in his sig

ya, the imac

 

[chuckiehina]

The other consideration in bus speed.

does anyone know, which do u need for gaming, ram, or processor, which is worth more, a processor upgrade or a ram upgrade?

The other consider is the bus size/speed, much more importiant than processor speed but not as importiant as memory.

 

[theanimala]

The ram has a bigger bang for the buck. It costs $250 to go from the 2.4 to the 2.8. Spend less then that (I paid $180) to go from 1 to 4GB (and I still have the 1GB to sell if I'd like), and you get a much bigger performance improvement.

My problem with the $250 upgrade from the 2.4 to the 2.8 is that is quite a bit of money for a small step up. To go from the 2.0 to the 2.4 costs $300, but it also get's you a much better video card with 128MB more ram, as well as a large HD. I don't see the extra $250 to be worth it for the 2.8. 4 years from now when I'm ready for a new computer I will hardly see the extra 400mhz making much of a difference to me.

That being said, if you have the money, by all means spend it on the 2.8. I had a budget and had to make due with what I had, so for me I saw 4GB being better then the 400mhz.