Optimizing Windows 7 for Video Memory - Help

Hi guys..

I came across an interesting article called
"Windows 7 Way Smarter With Graphics RAM" - Found here: Windows 7 Way Smarter With Graphics RAM - Tom's Hardware

They talk about WDDM Drivers version 1.1 and how Windows 7 uses these drivers to manage ram and video ram differently from Vista and how it makes much more efficient use of your ram.

What are these WDDM drivers? Are they built into Windows, and do they really help? I am confused on this.

The article mentions Direct X 10 - Are these Direct X 10 drivers and Do you need a newer video card that supports DX10 and 11 to make this work?

I need to know soon because I am planing on getting a new video card in less than a month. This will be 1 Gigabyte card but I am not sure if it will be an ATI or Nvidia - Price and functionality will determine.

I am trying to get the best performance out of my system as possible.
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Currently my system specks are:

Motherboard- ECS GF7050VT-M

CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 631, 3000 MHz (15 x 200) With Hyper-threading listed in Everest as:

Cedar Mills

Motherboard ID nVidia MCP73

Multi CPU

CPU #1 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz, 3000 MHz

And

CPU #2 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz, 3000 MHz

(Someone please clear this up for me.. this does Not mean I have 2 physical processors but 1 processor with 2 cores? Is that correct? Confused!)

Socket type 775 Contact LGA

Instruction Set x86, x86-64, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3

4 Gigabytes of DDR2 SDRam

American Megatrends BIOS Version 080015

Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro (RV630)- PCI Express with 512 MB Video Ram

(older card made for direct-X 9 However in Everest it does say Direct X 10 hardware support ?? Confused!)

500 GB SATA 2 Hard drive running Win 7 64 Bit with SATA Mode in ACHI Enabled.

(I enabled ACHI Mode to be sure I get all of the functionality for speed out of my drive as it' capable of.)

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Can someone please give me advice on the above and answer my confusion on my system specs?

Also, is there anything in Bios I can change settings wise?

I want to replace my processor - not sure if I want to replace the motherboard (made in January of 2008) and the processor together or just the pocessor. Price is a big factor - Just can't afford it yet.

I also use a program called Game Booster to defrag my PC games folders and system memory just before I start a game. I play a lot of PC games. So far I have not played any games that require a DX 10 or higher video card - I do not know that I can with my system processor.

I will accept all advice on Bios or Windows 7 Settings - Virtual Ram settings -

And also on video cards under $150.00 and replacing my Motherboard and or processor- preferably under $200.00. * Please offer advice.

I want this machine to be the best I can get it with what I have to work with until I can get everything upgraded.

Thank You!

Why don't you buy a card from the upcoming HD5600 series. They should have a price tag of less than $100. Just buy it and forget it.

Anything higher would definitely be overkill for your PC.

Anusha said:

Why don't you buy a card from the upcoming HD5600 series. They should have a price tag of less than $100. Just buy it and forget it.

Anything higher would definitely be overkill for your PC.

I will look into it. Whatever card I choose, it has got to be a DDR3 or GDDR3 card that's DX 11 capable and of course 1 gig o video memory..( PCI Express) It looks like Nvidia XFX cards have have models comparable to the ATI cards with more bells and whistles graphics rendering wise. I will have to study the features in depth to know more.

Also, I have to take into account what will work well when I upgrade the cpu and motherboard.

Thanks for the link and the explanation Logicearth. That helped.

DarkPhoenix said:

Anusha said:

Why don't you buy a card from the upcoming HD5600 series. They should have a price tag of less than $100. Just buy it and forget it.

Anything higher would definitely be overkill for your PC.

I will look into it. Whatever card I choose, it has got to be a DDR3 or GDDR3 card that's DX 11 capable and of course 1 gig o video memory..( PCI Express) It looks like Nvidia XFX cards have have models comparable to the ATI cards with more bells and whistles graphics rendering wise. I will have to study the features in depth to know more.

Also, I have to take into account what will work well when I upgrade the cpu and motherboard.

It is better if you wait and buy all of them together. Then you would know what is best for your PC. A slower video card is bad. So is a faster video card, because if your CPU bottlenecks it, you are wasting money. Same way, if you buy the greatest out there for the sake of future proofing it, when the real need for a highend card is there (i.e. after a CPU upgrade), the prices of same hardware then would be lower than now, and you would effectively be wasting money again.

Anusha said:

It is better if you wait and buy all of them together. Then you would know what is best for your PC. A slower video card is bad. So is a faster video card, because if your CPU bottlenecks it, you are wasting money. Same way, if you buy the greatest out there for the sake of future proofing it, when the real need for a highend card is there (i.e. after a CPU upgrade), the prices of same hardware then would be lower than now, and you would effectively be wasting money again.

Great idea, but that's a problem. Someone is buying me the card for gift so I have to get the card now.

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Logicearth - I had no idea the DDR5 series was out. Great tip, i'll look to be sure I can find one in my price range - Or rather in the person's price range who is buying me the card.

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Any thoughts guys on the confusion problems with understanding my specs or tweaking bios or virtual memory or other windows settings?

For $150 range, you can find a HD 5770. Well, they are usually more than that, but there are some that come VERY close to $150 mark. I bet this is the best option.
Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX5770 1GBD5-PPG Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

What mobo and cpu you are running? I think ATI has more seamless driver integration with AMD now they are under the same umbrella. Nvidia has given me some fits over the years.

Well. I got my card.. I have a ATI HD 5750 and so far I love it. 1 gig and DDR5 !! Direct X 11 and Pixel shader 5.0.. lots of bells and whistles.

It wound up costing $169.00.

At first I tried a GeForce GT 240 DDR3 - (it was only $129.00) an nvidia chipset..(made by GalaxyTech) and had nothing but trouble with it. It would not even load windows on generic super vga drivers ! I tried this with win 7 64 bit and XP 32 bit. It would not even load into Safe Mode !

The GalaxyTech tech support was horrible.. after 6 phone calls to them and none of them giving me any good advice to troubleshoot the problem, they said it must be a bad card.. so I got another one just like it.. Nope nada Zip.. still would not load windows.. and I did everything from resetting CMOS, to setting my memory timings manually in Bios, flash updating my bios, cleaning all drivers out using the Microsoft Installation Clean Up Tool, even upping the voltage on my northbridge.. Nothing worked.

Oh.. the tech support did not tell me to try any of these things.. I found out about these things from a forum for nvidia LOL At least I learned a lot about my PC, otherwise I may never have learned all those things.

If you try a card made by Galaxy Tech.. if it works great the first time, good.. if not.. Run like Hell!

All the guys at galaxy tech did was insist "it cannot be the cards fault" - Well after trying two of them.. apperently they were wrong.

The ATI XFX Radeon HD 5750 loaded windows without a hitch.

And it works great with my older processor.. a Pentium 4, ( D, Cedar Mills) A concern I had.

Plus they gave me this really Cool " Do Not Disturb I'm Gaming " sign to hang on my door. I dig it.