Need help buying a Video Cards for 300w Computer

This Microsoft help thread is extremely relevant and a good reason not to invest money into your system: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...7-32-bit/4286bbfa-6851-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

Basically 4GB is the maximum amount of RAM that your system can address which includes RAM on your video card. I'd wager that for $300 you could find a computer or laptop that could last you 2 years of gaming and be superior to what you have.

I have a ATI Radeon HD 5870 and the only problem I've encountered is having to update my drivers, which I try to do regularly anyway. Same problem as NVidia. I'd look at Tom's Hardware and use their comparisons for a basis for decisions, they do a pretty good job.

 

the ram from the video card does not carry over.

32 bit OS can only address 4 gigs of ram.

your vram is counted first, if that is 1 gig, then that leaves 3 gig left over for addressing for normal ram.

if you have 512 vram, then that leaves 3.5 gigs of normal ram it can address.

 

If your motherboard supports dual channel memory (which I'd wager it does) then you should check your BIOS to see if you can turn dual channel off. If you cannot then you need to have 2 identical sticks of RAM in each slot or risk your BIOS throwing up an error. Read up on it on wikipeida: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-channel_memory_architecture#Dual-channel_architecture

I know you're hot on using what you got for free but you should look at some inexpensive low end systems and compare their price and specs to what you are planning on making. I think the only hurdle to overcome would be finding a computer with a videocard rather than an integrated video controller.