2 or 3gig RAM on mediocre system?

I have a Dell Dimension 8300 and like to game a lot.. The machine is good but not great and I'm wondering whether I should upgrade to 2 or 3 gigs of RAM. I am considering the possibility that 3gigs would be a waste and was hoping for some opinions. The computer has a 533 mhz bus, a 3ghz p-4, regular PCI, and a BFG6800 GS OC video card on 8x AGP. Beyond 2 gigs of RAM, the only benefit I can imagine would be less use of a swap file, but I wonder if I would even notice the difference unless the machine was quite highly specced indeed.

Any thoughts? If so, thanks!

 

depending on the games you play, even 2gb might be excessive. 3gb is downright ludicrous, unlss you work with large graphics files.

 

I have dang near the same setup. Tho mine is 800mhz, P4 3.0, XFX6800XT. I have 1.2 gig of ram and will be getting +2gig more. 2 gigs will be fine and is not overkill IMHO. I play CoH which uses alot and I mean alot of RAM. I'm starting to use the world builder and if it is still slow with 3 gig (which I doubt) I will have to go with 4 gigs.

 

get 2 gigs; 3 is far to much for that system and what you're wanting to do with it

 

yeah get 3 if you have the money. It depends are you a kid? a kid that doesnt work? If u work and so far what I read u like to game alot. If youre anything like me youre gonna want the next gen. Buy a new pc man itll be worth it.