[Faralith]

So these are my specs Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.13GHz (1066FSB)
Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Ram is silly swissbit (Swssbit ram? Ugh!?) 2x512 eached clocked at 266.7 MHZ which were removed from my old stock PC world computer and put into my machine.

Now when i play games, Doom 3, Serious Sam 2, Fear all at full whack.. (Im talking EVERYTHING cranked up) it is just so suttery... ok, Fear it happens like every 2-3 seconds.... Serious Sam happens when lots of enemys are on screen (lots, i mean like 6-7) Doom 3 (As i said ULTRA QUALITY EVERYTHING MAXED) stutters, or lags, what ever you wanna call it, happens mainly when i go through a door or a busy enviroment.

Now, could my systems pathetic ram be bottlenecking my com? Or is it sumut more? Every game i play, every maxed, smooth as anything, framerate is rock solid..... only problem is it stutters!!! Grr!

Incase it is bottlenecking it, i have orded 2x1g Geil 800MHZ... (Serve me good?). So what you think guys... Swissbit (lol) ram bottlenecking it?

Thanks in advance!!!

[alex]

It's not necessarily the ram 'name' more the ram amount. With the kind of setup you've got, 1Gb just isn't enough to be gaming with all detail on. Especially since you mention Serious Sam in your list. This kinda proves it for me as that game won't trouble any core 2 or the GTS.

Good idea on the Geil as it's the right idea. You'll see a marked improvement in your gaming experience with 2GB.

Don't worry so much about the latency of either of the set's of ram. Core2's have the memory controller on the cpu so arn't really affected by it.

Geil ram, in my experience, tends to be rather overclockable as well without obscene voltages.

Nice setup by the way but why an SLI board and one gpu?

[Faralith]

Originally Posted by alex

It's not necessarily the ram 'name' more the ram amount. With the kind of setup you've got, 1Gb just isn't enough to be gaming with all detail on. Especially since you mention Serious Sam in your list. This kinda proves it for me as that game won't trouble any core 2 or the GTS.

Good idea on the Geil as it's the right idea. You'll see a marked improvement in your gaming experience with 2GB.

Don't worry so much about the latency of either of the set's of ram. Core2's have the memory controller on the cpu so arn't really affected by it.

Geil ram, in my experience, tends to be rather overclockable as well without obscene voltages.

Nice setup by the way but why an SLI board and one gpu?

First of all i wanna say thankyou for the helpful reply and the reason why i only have 1 GPU.... money lol. Money my friend, money. Saving up for a 2nd one so SLI soon :D

[alex]

No problem Faralith, thats what i'm here for.

Heh :D fair point on the money comment.

Before going SLI though, check the games you play (or intend to play) are written to make use of 2 gpu's.

And you'll only need two GTS's if you're gaming at 1650x1080 or higher.

[alex]

Just re-read your post Faralith.

Just to explain further, as you're stating it's stuttering when lots of enemies are on, or you go through a door it basically confirms what i've said above as i'd hazard the system is loading the next level part or the extra baddies and the ram bandwidth isn't enough to put it on screen smoothly.

[Faralith]

Originally Posted by alex

Just re-read your post Faralith.

Just to explain further, as you're stating it's stuttering when lots of enemies are on, or you go through a door it basically confirms what i've said above as i'd hazard the system is loading the next level part or the extra baddies and the ram bandwidth isn't enough to put it on screen smoothly.

Bit worried atm though because i just tried serious sam on low detail and it still stutters when lots of bad guys are on... so im a bit scared that my GPU is broken. Just to ask, if a peice of hardware is faulty... for e.g GPU, will this be evident in the performance of games .. I.E slow framerate... or GPU will do some strange stuff like flash your screen and so forth?

EDIT: Age 3, everything cranked is really smooth though, the odd stutter every now and then but for the most part smooth crisp framerate.... so i dont think my GPU is braking.

[alex]

Originally Posted by Faralith

Bit worried atm though because i just tried serious sam on low detail and it still stutters when lots of bad guys are on... so im a bit scared that my GPU is broken. Just to ask, if a peice of hardware is faulty... for e.g GPU, will this be evident in the performance of games .. I.E slow framerate... or GPU will do some strange stuff like flash your screen and so forth?

From what you've said i doubt very much its the gpu at fault. I believe its the ram bandwidth.

Can you let me know what resolution you're gaming at?

Not to patronise, but just to check are you sure you've put the gpu in one of the blue (x16) graphics card slot and not the white (x8) slot?

Also, when you get the Geil, check your bios as the 32 is known for automatically running 800mhz ram at 533mhz.

[Faralith]

Originally Posted by alex

From what you've said i doubt very much its the gpu at fault. I believe its the ram bandwidth.

Can you let me know what resolution you're gaming at?

Not to patronise, but just to check are you sure you've put the gpu in one of the blue (x16) graphics card slot and not the white (x8) slot?

Also, when you get the Geil, check your bios as the 32 is known for automatically running 800mhz ram at 533mhz.

Im not sure if its in the x16 or not since i got a guy at a computer shop to do it for me.... also I am gaming at 1024x1280.

EDIT: Also, if it is set to 32, what shell i check it as?

[alex]

Originally Posted by Faralith

Im not sure if its in the x16 or not since i got a guy at a computer shop to do it for me.... also I am gaming at 1024x1280.

Your setup (once you get the Geil) will laugh at ANY game you play at that resolution.

It's overkill for that resolution, you'd have saved some money going for the 320mb version of the GTS as textures for games at that res don't really need more than 256mb, if that. So take my word for it, your card will slaughter allcomers.

To check the card is in the right slot, just open the side panel (power off at plug and psu) and just have a look. The blue slots are either side of the white one.

[Faralith]

Originally Posted by alex

Your setup (once you get the Geil) will laugh at ANY game you play at that resolution.

It's overkill for that resolution, you'd have saved some money going for the 320mb version of the GTS as textures for games at that res don't really need more than 256mb, if that. So take my word for it, your card will slaughter allcomers.

To check the card is in the right slot, just open the side panel (power off at plug and psu) and just have a look. The blue slots are either side of the white one.

Just checked the manual and it says that all my PCI-E slots are x16, so it is defo in a x16 slot. So you reckon this stutter problem even at a low detail/low rez is just memory brandwidth?

Could it be, because this is a new state of the art motherboard, and i am putting really, really, underpowered ram in it, could it be bottlenecking my motherboard?