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which is more important, system ram or video ram?
Paul Keith:
System ram is just generally more compatible to more needs so it's hard to argue against going for it.
Video ram, you only notice it when you need it. System ram you're thanking it once you need it.
Gothi[c]:
It all depends on what you want to do.
If you're not a gamer or 3d artist, then you don't have to think twice about it. System ram for sure, it's general purpose, and benefits almost any application. It allows you to do more heavy multitasking, etc,...
If you plan on playing games, or work in anything else 3d (3dsmax/maya/blender/etc) the story changes a bit. The amount of video ram will be a key factor on how much (3d) stuff you can show on the screen at the same time. (Amount of vertices, texture memory, etc,...) this is important for games, but also for anything else 3d. (Say you are doing detailed architectural design or something in a 3d application, you will start feeling it when your card is showing more geometry on the screen than it can handle) - Unfortunately, it gets more complicated in this arena. You also want to look at the gpu and memory clock rates on your video card. - If you plan to get a video card you should be looking at gpu and memory clock rate, and amount of memory.
Almost any modern video card, integrated or not, will be able to handle the native resolutions for most monitors today, so if you're not doing anything 3d i wouldn't even worry about it.
f0dder:
Gothi[c]: if you were doing any of that, you wouldn't be on a system with a GPU without dedicated vram, and with a mere 512megs of sysram - just sayin' :)
techidave:
;D ;D
You guys have reinforced my thinking that system ram is more important. While some of the responses didn't really fit my scenario, they were indeed very informative and good for later use (maybe).
My own tests have proven to me the speed and buffer size of a hard drive can make all the difference in the world in how fast a computer runs. Its just one of several ways to "speed up" a computer. The system in question above had a 5400 RPM with a 2mb buffer in it. Even a different 5400 with 8mb buffer would make enough difference to be noticeable.
f0dder:
Not sure how much harddrive buffer size matters, tbh, at least not above the 8meg mark. When comparing a 2meg vs. 8meg buffer size harddrive, the drive with 8meg cache is almost guaranteed to be larger. This means more platters (and thus more read/write heads) and/or higher data density, which by itself means higher data transfer rate. Also means a 500gig 5200rpm drive is likely to be faster than a 200gig 7200rpm drive.
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