I need help..

Um....your 2 extra gigs of ram are useless enless you have a 64 bit operating system...Reg Windows XP and 32 Bit vista only support 3 gigs of ram...64 Bit XP and Vista support up to 8 gigs if not more i cant remember.

8 gigs on basic and up to like 120 I believe in the other editions. I had this same problem. I built an Alienware with 4 gigs ram and 2 8800 GTX. They didn't say you needed 64 bit to utilize what I bought so I've been there ^^. The good news it your cd key will work for the 64 bit edition as well as the 32 bit.

i didnt want to know about operating systems.... I just want to know if my Windows xp service pack 3( it is a 32 bit.. forgot to mention). Will adding another 2 gb improve gameplay and increase the frames per second and the overall performance of my pc. Just need a yes or no..and mabey a little info.   comments would help thank you.

Ummm just buy 1 gig....we just told you..the computer wont see 4 gigs of ram due to your OS.

Ugh couldnt edit my last post....in a round about way we said yes and no.... if you go with 3 gigs yes it will help some...if you go with 4 gigs..it will only show up as 3 gigs....so your better off just buying 1 gig of ram and it will still help some.

At best, you'll see about 3.4GB of that 4 total using your OS. For gaming, it's almost guaranteed to NOT help. There are one or two exceptions, such as SupCom (large maps) and (I think) S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but they're far and few between. This game (Demigod) is showing no signs of excessive memory useage yet. More importantly, even if they have the space for it, not all motherboards play nicely with four sticks of memory in their slots, so I can't see it being worth your effort and money right now.

If you ever switch over to Vista X64 in the future, there is some evidence that it's improved memory management may benefit SLIGHTLY from the extra memory, but that's not an issue for you right now.

Edit: But if you do put more memory in, make an effort to match the brand/type of memory, to minimize any chances of conflict.

Exactly. You will not use 4 GB RAM. It may be usefull on some server, where you have got a lot of applications running simultaneously or a lot of users working on one application, but for your home computer it is useless. It is the same as with the the video RAM. I saw some statisticts of video cards with 256 MB and 512 MB RAM.  Those with 256 MB  were only a bit slower than those ones with 512 MB. The difference was so tiny, that it was only measurable by specialized software.

No single application can access more than 2GB of memory in 32bit Windows XP.

However, you will currently be losing some of your existing 2GB to the system - so adding an extra 1GB could allow games to get their full 2GB  - if they actually need it.

You may get more benefit from checking what memory your motherboard can handle and upgrading to faster/lower latency RAM.

Also - check the BIOS settings for your RAM - do not trust the "auto" setting on your motherboard - they often get it wrong (they tend to be over-cautious).

Remember to adjust your swapfile size as well - current advice is: RAM+Swapfile=4GB

Don't dump the swapfile entirely as some games actually check and wont run without one - funnily enough I think STALKER, mentioned above, might be one.

P.S. Before anyone comments - I know about the 3GB flag in WinXP but applications need to be built specifically for it and I'm not aware of any games that are.

Personally I would keep 2 Gb in a 32 bit OS,  you'll see little improvement for adding the extra 1 GB,  and the extra 1 Gb can play havoc on some motherboards as 2x 512 stick with your current sticks,  you general have to match the speeds of the current sticks as well so it can be a real headache unless you buy 4gb as 2 x2 Gb stocks and throw away your old ram!

THERE IS NOTHING wrong with adding 2x 2Gb sticks in XP 32, Sp3 will "see" all 4 Gb but only use upto 3 GB of the 4, there are a few games that can benefit a bit (but not many as XP is not the RAM hog vista is).  Your GPU VRAM is included in the 4GB limit so 4 GB + 256-1024 VRAM normally equals 4GB+   you can always grab 4Gb now so your ready for Vista 64,  but you see alot more benefit with 4Gb in V 64

A video card upgrade could net more FPS or smoother gameplay than adding extra ram to a 32 bit OS though.  So a new GPu could net you a 100% gain in FPS and new ram 1-5%!

If you moved to vista 64 you bascially need 4 GB as vista eats 1GB+ just to run so you need the extra 3 Gb to fit most 2-3Gb games,  quite a few games will eat over 2 Gb in Vista 64,  crysis and Assains creed are examples,  Sin eats 64% of my ram when playing (I have 4 GB).

True but you are already fairly close to the top of the chart on GPU according to this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,1987-6.html

So it'll cost you a fair whack to get that gain - at the moment to get that sort of gain you might even need to go dual-GPU - and your power supply might not handle it.

I'd be tempted to hang on until the next gen GPUs come out and the current top of the pile drop in price.

That system ought not to be having too many problems with current games - if it is then you should maybe try finding out why - it might be something aint set up right.  I know my current machine was a diappointment when I first got it - unloaded all the crapware and set the BIOS up properly and it was running the way it should have been (about 20% faster than as delivered).

My machine is great I think its powerful. The only games i cant play on highest is Crysis and like a few others, I know i can get well over 120 fps on call of duty 4 with every thing set to max. But if i turn Sync on i only get 75 fps max on cod4. I might as well and go ahead and get the extra 2 gb cause ram is oddly cheap here, 80 bucks for 2gb DDr2 ram 667 clock. Thats a little bit above adverage ram. My current Graphics card is a Geforce 8800gt (Alpha dog Edition) 512mb, 600mhz core clock 128 bit. I think i should of got atleast 700mhz core clock and 256 bit for my graphics card but still the one i have know is powerful. I mean 120 fps on call of duty 4 who can complain

Heed the warnings about matching the RAM to the sticks already in your machine.