The Benchmarks

As you can see, the scores are pretty much a wash. Adding another 128 megs of RAM to the computer made for almost zero gain, unless you can see the difference between less than one frame per second. Of course this was just a testing for game performance and nothing else. Having 256 megs of RAM did help PhotoShop when working with very large (and I mean VERY large) image files.

Given the results I got, I don't really see a reason to get 256 megs of RAM over 128 megs if games are what you will run. If you're a graphic professional who works with large PhotoShop file you'll see a benefit going from 128 to 256 megs of RAM.

The extra $108 you'll save for another 128 megs of Ram can be better spent elsewhere. Right now there doesn't seem to be any games that take advantage of this much memory.

I know, you're wondering if I'm going to keep 256 megs of RAM in my comp if it makes no difference at all in the games I play. The answer is no. While it may sound cool to tell people you have a large amount of RAM in your computer, it's worthless if it doesn't improve the programs you run. While playing Quake 3, the game never once went to the hard drive with 128 megs of RAM onboard. And that's really the whole key to getting good performance, keeping your game from going to the hard drive. No hard drive thrashing equals speed. And right now, 128 megs of RAM will do that for you.

I get the feeling it won't be long before I move back to 256 megs of RAM. With RAM prices dropping the way they do, it won't be long before game developers start to take advantage of it. At that point I'll have to think about moving to 512 megs. :-)

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