Would upgrading RAM memory increase FPS?

[Wolfy Snackrib]

Hi. My computer is about 3 years old so it's a real hunk of junk. My computer got 1 GB RAM, 3 GHZ, Crappy old Radeon 9800XT graphic card with 256 MB.
So in games like PVK 2 if there are over 10 players on the server I get quite low frames per second. Also I'm really looking forward to playing Left 4 Dead when it comes but I'm afraid that it would run really slow and I'd be forced to set most settings to low.
Would upgrading my RAM from 1 GB to 3 GB do the trick and give me much better FPS in half-life 2 mods?

 

[Rapstah]

No, it's your graphics card.

 

[golden_fang]

^bs, 9800XT is fine for source try defragging and cleaning up unnecessary
files.

 

[Wolfy Snackrib]

Come on, surely the RAM should give me some better performance in frames per sec?

 

[BoroVC]

Extra RAM certainly wouldn't hurt.
But out of curiosity is your pc dust free inside?
I went through numerous upgrades before I realised that my CPU heatsink was caked in dust causing my CPU to overheat.
It's worth a look.

 

[Crash]

Altho some more RAM, and another video card would surely help; try what Boro and fang said, try some routine things, clean out temp. files, clean and defrag your registry, blow out your computer case, close out ALL unesserary programs before gaming, and you can never defrag that hard drive enough. When buying new RAM and video cards, the speed at witch those devices handel data, is (almost) as important as the amount of data they can handel. A real fast 256MB video card is better in some situations than a slow 512MB card, at least in my experiences.

 

[Druckles]

Extra RAM = Extra FPS, in general. Until you get to a limit. Extra RAM wouldn't hurt, as 1GiB's starting to date.

But while you're at it, purchase a new graphics card.

 

[Saturos]

Adding more RAM would only help if RAM is the bottleneck in your system. The OS, by default, automatically takes up some of that RAM. I think XP RAM usage is somewhere between 128MB and 256MB.(not including services)Your video card's VRAM is only limited to your maximum amount of unused system RAM. For example, if you were to upgrade your video card to something with 768MBs of VRAM, your 1GB RAM would indeed be the bottleneck and you would definately need to upgrade to 2GB at least. So, if your running XP and not Vista (I hope), Your RAM bottleneck is somewhere around 512MBs (XP RAM requirements + your card's total amount of VRAM which is 256MB)If your running Vista by chance,(serves you right if you are)you would still be fine even if you upgrade to 2GBs, but if you want to upgrade to a video card with more VRAM in the future, you may indeed want to consider upgrading to 3GBs as 2GBs of system RAM would not be sufficient with Vista for any video card with more than 512MBs VRAM. ONLY if your running Vista however. 3GBs with XP is a waste, especially with a 256MB video card. Long story short-your 1GB of RAM is not your bottleneck if you happen to be running XP, upgrade your video card