Wizard
My thinking was along same lines. With everything operating in the "giga" range, is doubling the amount of RAM on a graphics card going to make a great difference? In the old days, every time a computer magazine mentioned increasing performance, at the top of the list a video card update was almost always mentioned. I cannot find anything definitive now. I have only recently started playing games on the computer so my question involved general performance rather than graphic rendering (80/20).
I have noticed that I am unable to play most of the games that you have been posting because of my present graphic card's limitations. One reason for asking about card specifications is that if I up-grade my graphic adapter card, I would like to find one that would enable me to play a few more games. I did check my power supply specifications and made a few measurements prior to asking my question. I can safely add a card that will not draw any more than 100 W more than my present card requires. I have no idea what the power requirements are for new graphic cards. My audio card does not put much of a strain on the power supply but I would like to limit a replacement graphic card to requiring 200 to 250 W. Mother board stress and strain can only be a guess
Yes, the mode was hijacked to beat the band. It made for some interesting reading. As for new computers and hard drives, I recently put in two hard drives to replace some aging ones for friends. Their new hard drives held about four times the information of the old ones. I hoped that cloning (I believe that is what I ended up doing) using the Acronis True Imaging program would make for an easy transition - and it did. The first changeover took about an hour and the second one no longer than twenty minutes.
I recently downloaded a program where the same keyboard and mouse could be used on two computers. I have not installed it yet but I believe it is the same one that Desert mentioned in his post. I put off installing the program because I was not sure that I want to leave both computers connected to the same mouse and keyboard all the time and I did not relish climbing on the floor with a flashlight to switch cables every time that I wanted to switch from one system to the other. I did not realize that both computers could be operating at the same time and all that it took to switch the keyboard and mouse could be done through the software package. I am not sure how the cables from the keyboard and mouse need to be connected. I will think it through tomorrow when I am more awake. With my years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, my first thoughts started along the lines of designing and building an electronic USB switch. While that is not all that difficult, and I think I have the parts to do it, I wondered if being able to use a good keyboard with both computers was worth the trouble. My conclusion was my time would be poorly spent building a switch. I have poor use of my left hand so most projects are easier thought through than actually carried out.
