Is not having enough system RAM causing my poor video card performance?

I've noticed that running my computer display at 32-bit causes poor performance out of my video card when compared with 16-bit color. Does video card RAM or system RAM improve this? My video card is a Geforce 6200 AGP with 256 MB of onboard RAM.



Overall my system is a 2.4 GHz P4 with 512 MB PC 3200 system RAM.|||If you are running with screen resolution of 1024x768 and using 32 bits of resolution, each frame requires 25,165,824 bits of storage. Given 8 bits/byte, that allows about 80 frames to be buffered. That would seem to be enough video memory.



You say that your frame rate doubles when going from thirty two bit to sixteen bit quantization. Well, that's half the bits and a direct linear relationship between speed and number of bits! That tells me that the bottleneck is the processing speed of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) itself.



The Geforce 6200 AGP has a passively cooled GPU. From Overclocker Cafe, "Priced at $69, the Inno3D GeForce 6200A draws from two different audiences. One of cost effectiveness and one out of want to get their HTPCs to operate as silently as humanly possible. This is why we are able to recommend the GeForce 6200A to the AGP masses that constitute these two groups."



More system RAM certainly won't hurt and it is cheaper than a high end video card. But, I don't think it will do much to help your frame rate. To do that, I think you'll need a higher-end video card.|||Coming from a Gamers prespective the 6200 is a well, it's crap (other words are banned here). I consider the 6600GT a minimum.

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|||Having more of both would help.|||You probably neen more RAM both on your video card as well as your computer.|||No.



there is no (RAM) reason why that card 256MB and your PC with 512MB should be affected at all when switching from 16 to 32-bit color.



what are you doing when it 'causes poor performance' ?



playing a game ?



update: ensure that the Primary adapter in your BIOS is the AGP slot, and that the apeture is whatever the MAX on your board is...upto 256MB that is. also insure that the PCI PALLET snoop is disabled, though it likely already is.



hope this helps.|||double your system RAM, 1024 will speed up your performance no end|||No, there shouldn't be any noticable difference. Having an incorrect driver for your video card, however, may cause this problem. Try installing the latest driver for your card from the manufacturer's website.|||For normal use you should not have a problem. You have more than enough system and video RAM. You may try removing the video driver and re-installing it.



On the other hand, in you are using it for video games, you may have to change the video card for one with much more onboard RAM.



You do have adequate system RAM.