Which is better? RAM or Graphics Card?

[sharks]

Ram or Graphics Card?

[insane_alien]

RAM, unless your a gamer or are into fancy graphicmajigamies like compiz.

once you have a lot of RAM your system is lightning fast.

[FuturePilot]

It depends on what you're after.

[SuperSon!c]

better for what?

[Saint Angeles]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

[Canis familiaris]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

:lolflag:

[brigux]

:lolflag:

+1

[FuturePilot]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

:lolflag:

[LaRoza]

Could you clarify your current specs and what you want to improve?

[SuperSon!c]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

hard drive.

[Saint Angeles]

hard drive.
what if you have an UMPC? it has a flash drive inside and the wireless card is more important.

[SuperSon!c]

for most people, hdd. you're asking a general question, i'm giving you a general answer.

[Saint Angeles]

for most people, hdd. you're asking a general question, i'm giving you a general answer.
wow... that went over your head.

ok how about this?

a monitor or a keyboard?

i'm just emphasizing how retarded this thread is without more information.

[haiji]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

lol
IMO wireless, you can use remote HDD's and still be connected to the world :)

[SuperSon!c]

no, it didn't go over my head. your question was easy to answer - the OP's almost impossible. talk about going over your head.. "wow"

[haiji]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

btw, I understand you've tried to be sarcastic but to be honest your question is interesting:lolflag:

[Joeb454]

Ok lets stop arguing, because it's going nowhere.

And as a general rule of thumb I would suggest RAM, unless you want to play games on your PC (or watch some HD video's etc.)

[aaaantoine]

Seeing how this is an immensely broad question, I'll try to cover every possible meaning -- and not be a jerk in the process.

Since this is a poll question, I'll assign a tally.

In the sense of what is required to run your PC, you absolutely need both. I believe IBM/PC compatibile computers will not boot without a video output (which, if you're blind, sucks).
RAM: 1. Graphics: 1.

But, most computers have integrated graphics these days. So as far as needing to buy a component, you need RAM more than a discrete graphics card.
RAM: 2. Graphics: 1.

Assuming you already have a complete, operational PC... For general use, RAM is better because it will provide more of an improvement to all your applications than a video upgrade will.
RAM: 3. Graphics: 1.

I assume the focus of this question is for games. If your hard drive is churning a lot during game play, and giving you sporadic choppy performance, there is a good chance you are using swap space to run your game. If this is the case, and if it's not a case of some background application scanning your hard drive for some reason (i.e. anti-virus if you're using Windows), you need more RAM.
RAM: 4. Graphics: 1.

If your game's frame rates are otherwise sluggish all the time, an updated graphics card will give you more of a performance boost.
RAM: 4. Graphics: 2.

So, I guess RAM is better. Vote placed.

Keep in mind that, for general performance, there are more important bottlenecks at play than these two. Your mass storage device can sometimes be the biggest performance bottleneck with a game that has lots of loading. If you have a slow CPU, it will effectively limit the amount of work that your graphics card can do. If your motherboard's chipset is slow, it'll also slow everything down.

[Phenax]

More RAM in many situations can also slow your computer down..

[illu45]

More RAM in many situations can also slow your computer down..

Er... care to explain how that would work?

RAM and Video cards are different things that serve different functions in a computer, which is why it is almost impossible to recommend one over the other. If you'd like more information, there is a good, if somewhat dated explanation on the University of Rhode Island website (http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading04.htm).

Generally speaking, your RAM stores data (information) that is frequently accessed by a program. For instance, many games store texture files in RAM. The reason for this is that RAM is much faster in terms of access time than Hard Drives, so if a program can go to the RAM instead of the HDD to access information, this will result in a speed increase. In theory, it would therefore be possible to improve your computer's speed almost infinitely simply by adding RAM. However, this is not the case. Firstly, motherboards only have a limited number of RAM slots (usually 4) and a limited amount of RAM that they can recognize (usually 4 GB). Furthermore, most Operating Systems and programs can only make use of a certain amount of RAM (usually 2 GB, although some programs can use 4GB), so adding more RAM than that will only get you a very slight (if any) speed increase.

Thus, if you currently have less than 512MB of RAM, then adding another RAM chip would probably give you a noticeable increase in performance. However, if you already have 1GB or 2GB, then you probably don't need more RAM. Having said that, certain programs are very RAM intensive and can make use of up to 4GB of RAM, so there are exceptions to that rule.

As far as the video card goes, as the name suggests, video cards are used for rendering images to appear on your display. Generally speaking, if you are not gaming or rendering video on your computer, you do not need a good video card (even an integrated [built into the motherboard] one will do fine if you don't need to run Compiz at full effects). If you want to game or do video rendering, then you will probably want a fairly good video card (especially if you want to play some of the newer games).

Hope that helps,
illu45

[SuperSon!c]

More RAM in many situations can also slow your computer down..

wut

[Christmas]

Depends if you play games on your PC. If you only use normal applications then RAM is more important, it also increases the performance with a low cost compared to a medium-performance graphics card. Also, desktop applications only use the CPU as far as I know (thinking that one has no software which required 3D capabilities like Beryl). On the other hand, if you are a gamer then probably a better graphics card is preferred over more RAM. But again, the price comes in here too, as 1 GB RAM is cheaper than a good graphics card.

As a person who also likes to play 3D games, I voted for graphics card.

[peterbrewer]

hard drive.

Not necessarily, you might already have a flash drive.

[Phenax]

RAM with lower speed put into RAM with higher speed lowers all speeds..
Unnecessary RAM makes it often necessary to loosen RAM latency..
More RAM requires more voltage which leads to less efficiency..
You may be ruining a dual channel setup by adding another stick..

[ShodanjoDM]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

Bicycle.

[tyroeternal]

a monitor or a keyboard?

I think that depends on how many buttons your mouse has :P

[EnergySamus]

It depends on what you want. I chose RAM because without enough RAM, my graphics card won't have enough memory (integrated Intel GMA 950, so it shares the RAM). I also need RAM for speed.

EnergySamus


P.S. I am not a PC gamer(I play Xbox 360 and Wii), so the graphics really doesn't matter... I do like Compiz though (and yes, compiz works on my PC:lolflag:)!!!

[Lostincyberspace]

Seeing how this is an immensely broad question, I'll try to cover every possible meaning -- and not be a jerk in the process.

Since this is a poll question, I'll assign a tally.

In the sense of what is required to run your PC, you absolutely need both. I believe IBM/PC compatibile computers will not boot without a video output (which, if you're blind, sucks).
RAM: 1. Graphics: 1.


you don't need a video output with a ibm clone it helps alot but I have used ubm based servers without.




But, most computers have integrated graphics these days. So as far as needing to buy a component, you need RAM more than a discrete graphics card.
RAM: 2. Graphics: 1.


True



Assuming you already have a complete, operational PC... For general use, RAM is better because it will provide more of an improvement to all your applications than a video upgrade will.
RAM: 3. Graphics: 1.

I assume the focus of this question is for games. If your hard drive is churning a lot during game play, and giving you sporadic choppy performance, there is a good chance you are using swap space to run your game. If this is the case, and if it's not a case of some background application scanning your hard drive for some reason (i.e. anti-virus if you're using Windows), you need more RAM.
RAM: 4. Graphics: 1.

If your game's frame rates are otherwise sluggish all the time, an updated graphics card will give you more of a performance boost.
RAM: 4. Graphics: 2.

So, I guess RAM is better. Vote placed.

Keep in mind that, for general performance, there are more important bottlenecks at play than these two. Your mass storage device can sometimes be the biggest performance bottleneck with a game that has lots of loading. If you have a slow CPU, it will effectively limit the amount of work that your graphics card can do. If your motherboard's chipset is slow, it'll also slow everything down.

it Really depends on the previous specs if you are going from 3 to 4 gb memory save the money and get a better graphics card.

[forrestcupp]

But if you already have 512 MB of RAM and that's suiting your needs, but your onboard video chipset won't run Compiz, which is what you want, a video card is more important.

In these modern days of composited desktop experiences, games are definitely not the only reason to have a decent video card.

[SuperSon!c]

Not necessarily, you might already have a flash drive.

pay attention.

[SuperSon!c]

RAM with lower speed put into RAM with higher speed lowers all speeds..
Unnecessary RAM makes it often necessary to loosen RAM latency..
More RAM requires more voltage which leads to less efficiency..
You may be ruining a dual channel setup by adding another stick..

only cheap bastards mix. RAM is super cheap right now, so people need to suck it up.

[wootah]

No one has really mentioned arguments about price:popcorn:

[SunnyRabbiera]

RAM, as its dirt cheap these days.

[LaRoza]

RAM, as its dirt cheap these days.

The cost of dirt is in the eyes of the beholder (or something like that).

I would personally go for a new video card as I have a lot of RAM already and would like to have dual monitors.

[HangukMiguk]

Next up on the comparing apples to oranges show:

Which is better? Marshmallows or floor cleaner?

[sharks]

I have an old mobo and 256mb ddr2 ram(533 MHz). I play games like fifa and tom clancy splinter cell. For these games should i buy 1GB ddr2 RAM (667MHz) or 256 mb Graphics Card?

[swoll1980]

Thats like asking "What's better food, or water?" you need both to survive.

[sharks]

Thats like asking "What's better food, or water?" you need both to survive.

Good Punch dialog man.

[jrusso2]

If you don't have enough ram then increase it is the best way to increase performance. You can usually tell if your low on ram by monitoring how much swap your using and how much free memory you have when your running your typical load of applications.

Then improve your video card once you have enough ram. Adding more ram when you have enough won't do much.

[sharks]

1 gb ddr2 ram or 256 ddr3 graphics card?

[jrusso2]

If you have less 512 mb of ram or less now I would go for the memory.

If you have a gig already I would go for the video card.

[grossaffe]

whats better? a hard drive or a wireless card?

win.