# Does RAM help with video games?



## giorgi (Jan 20, 2005)

I have a notebook with 2.2Ghz 256 mb of RAM 64mb video card Windows XP.IF i buy 512 mb of RAM and upgrade my computer will it help me with playing video games because as I have a notebook I can't upgrade my video card.


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## in3rt!a (Aug 7, 2004)

it will help slightly, but the video card will really hinder the performance.


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## giorgi (Jan 20, 2005)

Do you have any other advices on how to imboost my video game performance because right now I can't even play Underground 2 smoothly
Thanks


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## in3rt!a (Aug 7, 2004)

the only way to play that game on a labtop is to get _one hell of a good one_.

you need a better video card _for sure_. ram would help, too.

but if you want a laptop that plays games, youre gonna be spending a lot of money.


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

Getting more RAM will help, but not as much as you're hoping it will. Here's why:

Your laptop's video card has 64MB of shared RAM. Unlike seperate video cards, which have RAM on them, your video card uses some system RAM as video RAM. What this means is, instead of having 256MB RAM while you're playing a game, you only have 192MB, because 64MB is being taken up by the video card. Since NFSU2 requires a good amount of RAM, adding more will help out a bit, because then you'll have 448MB RAM available for the game, and your video card will still be taking 64MB.

Unfortunately, producing quality images is not all dependent on RAM. Most integrated video cards are not really designed for gaming, so they're significantly slower than seperate cards...in high-quality games, you can really see the difference in image quality and speed between a seperate card and an onboard card, because the onboard just can't do things as fast. In order to get decent quality and speed, you'll have to upgrade the video card, which means you won't be able to use the laptop. Laptops aren't designed for gaming, they never were, and when they are powerful enough to play games, they usually overheat because of the cramped conditions.


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Not all laptops use shared memory for video. With that said, laptops generally do not come with gaming-quality video cards. Even if the memory isn't shared, performance may still not be up to what you want.


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## in3rt!a (Aug 7, 2004)

not all cards "share" memory?
how do you know if yours does?


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