[its.sid]

I have intel 915 motherboard with pci xpress slot , I currently have 512 MB ram and onboard 900GMA graphics card with 128mb shared with the ram .

I was thinking of upgrading ,which is better ?

getting 1GB ram or 256mb Nvidia 7300Gs Graphics card . The price difference between them inst much what do u suggest .

[Hybr!d]

Depends really.

Do you do graphic intensive stuff like games or photo editing?

[its.sid]

Well i have started working on a project that does use some graphics and I play normal games like CS source and NFS etc .

[Hybr!d]

I'd advise going for the graphics card, on-board graphics are crap. :D

Ideally both though as 512 MB RAM is a little low for games these days.

[its.sid]

But wont the increase in memory will contribute to increase in gaming capabilities ?
my PC does seem to hang a lot these days .

[Hybr!d]

Not much when you do not have a proper graphics card.

[geforce]

will also depend upon the graphics card you are choosing. becuase if it is a lo end graphics card then definatly its not going to give any marginal or noticable difference in your performance. Since you are into GPU intensive apps so maybe I'd say a lo end dedicated GPU will serve your purpose too. How ever better off if you either upgrade your motherboard to one accepting ddr2 rams or go for a atleast mid range graphics card if not a high end.

[alex]

Originally Posted by its.sid

But wont the increase in memory will contribute to increase in gaming capabilities ?
my PC does seem to hang a lot these days .

If you're referring to an increase in ram on the motherboard, then yes, you'll see an increase insofar as you'll have a higher bandwidth to move data to the graphics card, but that's where it ends as the graphics solution in this case is an integrated solution and that will bottleneck any increase in performance when gaming.

If you're referring to a new graphics solution having 256mb ram over the 128mb of your current solution, then yup, that will also increase performance for textures, AA etc. But when you consider the core spec of a 7300gs it won't (to be frank) able to game at any decent frame rates or detail settings over and above 1024x768 on any current dx9 game. (using 25fps as a benchmark). So I don't think it will make use of the extra 128mb over and above the 900gma.

I'm also assuming your 512mb ram is on a single stick. This means your ram is running in single channel, reducing the potential bandwidth.

If it was me, I'd be buying a further 512mb stick (allowing dual-channel) and changing the card to a 7600 series.

I don't know your budget but i'd rather you spent that bit more and got the performance you wanted than getting either a stick of ram or the 7300gs and not seeing any performance gains and ending up feeling like you'd wasted your money.

But regardless of anything else do get extra ram, as XP (again, assuming this is your o.s) needs a minimum of 256mb to run itself, never mind anything else and as it stands now your graphics solution is taking 128mb of your 512mb leaving 384mb for windows and gaming and anything else. Take the 256mb for windows out of the equation and you're left with a measly 128mb of ram. Simplistic view there, but it's accurate.

[its.sid]

Quite right , so what do u suggest if i spend more money and get a better graphics card then this cause the price differnce in 1GB ram and 512 ram isnt much so that will be even more confusing ?

better ram 512 or 1gb ?

or even better graphics card .?? do tell a model though i can spare somewhat more bucks for good performance

[Hybr!d]

Get both.

The graphics card is a must for graphics stuff and 512MB RAM will help a lot and is only like £20 extra on top of the graphics card.