Name: Kay Tee Pren Tiss Date: March 30, 2008 at 11:25:13 Pacific Subject: Replace video card for better resul OS: Windows XP CPU/Ram: Quad Core Q6600 Model/Manufacturer: ASUS P5B-E
I have a ATI Radeon X1300 Video Card and I am using a 32 Bit Windows XP Professional with 4 GB of RAM and I am only getting 2.93 GB of RAM.
Now, if I get this video card, will it increase my memory to 3.5 or 3.25 by NOT allocating the memory for the 32 bit operating system? My motherboard is an ASUS P5B-E. If this video card will still allocate 512 MB and give me only 2.93, which video card will not?
2. My ATI Radeon 1300X graphics card is NOISY!!! I hate it a lot because of that. Will this new video card make a lot of noise?
Otherwise what video card will not make noise as well as not allocate memory which makes a 4GB 32 Bit System give me 2.93, instead I will get 3.25 or 3.5?
Kute Punk Kay Pee Kay Tee Pren Tiss Kute Punk Kay Pee Kay Tee Pren Tiss
Oh also I have one more question. The video card I selected from Tiger, is this a good video card or is there a better one for advanced video and gaming for under 200 dollars?
Kute Punk Kay Pee Kay Tee Pren Tiss Kute Punk Kay Pee Kay Tee Pren Tiss
The X1300 is a low end piece of crap. The HD3850 is a relatively high end gaming card, not to mention you're looking at the OC (overclocked) edition. Do you need such a high performance card? Are you sure your PSU is capable of handling it? Rather than buying from TigerD, I suggest you look at newegg...they have several cheaper models available without the rebate hassle:
If you do some googling, you'll find that the 2.93GB limit appears to be a flaw with your ASUS board or chipset used on it. Even people running a 64-bit OS are having the same problem.
Try running memtest86, if the RAM amount is still reported as 2.93GHz, the problem has nothing to do with the 32-bit OS.
In addition to jam's comment I would point out that your Graphics card has absolutely nothing to do with your system memory.
When using a 32 bit OS you will lose some RAM capacity.
If the MBoard originally came with intergrated graphics your BIOS may still be dedicating some system memory for the integrated graphics. Look for that and reset as low as allowed.
The descrepency between the actual RAM and the reported amount appears to be too great to be attributed strictly to overhead and shared video RAM.
The total amount of ram reported by a mboard's bios varies somewhat. Some report the total ram installed even if you have onboard video and are using it, some subtract the amount of ram shared with onboard video if you have that and are using it, and/or some subtract 1mb for conventional memory. If you have onboard video and are using it, Windows subtracts the amount of ram shared with onboard video from the total amount of physical ram installed; if you don't have onboard video, or if you do but are not using it because you are using a video card instead, Windows reports the total physical ram installed in the slots. However, if you are using a 32 bit operating system, there is a limitation as to what Windows can report and use if you install more than 3gb in the ram slots - see the end of this post.
If the ATI Radeon X1300 video chipset is built into the mboard, it shares some of the ram you have in the ram slots. You can change the amount that is shared in your bios Setup. If the ATI Radeon X1300 video chipset is on a card in a slot, it has it's own ram on the card, and if the mboard has onboard video as well, that is almost always automatically disabled when you install a video card in a slot, almost always all settings in your bios to do with ram shared with the onboard video are ignored by the bios, and all the ram you have in slots is available to Windows.
If the ATI Radeon X1300 Video is on a card, there will be absolutely NO CHANGE in the amount of physical ram available to Windows if you install a different card.
"When using a 32 bit OS you will lose some RAM capacity."
All 32 bit versions of OSs such as XP or Vista cannot report or utilize more than approx. 3 - 3.5 gb of your installed ram if you install 4gb or more. You can find that info on any ram manufacturer's web site. You don't have a 64 bit version of XP unless you are using the XP Pro 64 bit version, or Windows Server 2003, or whatever the newer version is.
"My ATI Radeon 1300X graphics card is NOISY!!! I hate it a lot because of that. Will this new video card make a lot of noise?" If you look on newegg as jam suggested, you can read alot of the customer reviews, which are usually fairly accurate about how noisy the video card is, though you can only really know until you've tried the card yourself. If the fan is noisy and you want to spend some extra money, you can purchase a quieter third party VGA cooler. As jam asked: Do you really need a relatively high end gaming card ? If not, the money you save might better be spent on a good but quieter video card or a third party VGA cooler.
About response 8: I've seen some fairly cheap fanless video cards. The obvious problem you run into, though, is that the card might get too hot, particularly when under heavy use. Then you have to get a VGA cooler.
Regarding response 11. If that's the case, you don't necessarily have to get a VGA fan to cure the problem. E.g. there are lots of less noisy case fans you can use to supplement the fanless solution if it's not keeping up because of too much heat inside the case. Aside from that, if the fanless card is properly designed it should be adequate for any situation if there is no excessive heat problem inside the case. The usual buyer beware caution applies - find and read user reviews about the card before you buy it. ......
"What do you use your computer for that needs 4GB RAM?"
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