Would more/faster memory do anything for me?

cheddar · 11 Nov 2011 at 13:10

I was hoping someone could help me out here. I have a Q6600 which I recently overclocked to 3.2Ghz. I can't quite afford a new system at the moment so I have decided to do what I can with my current system.

I am going to upgrade from a 4850 to a 6950 (2GB) at the end of the month. I was looking though and noticed that memory at the moment is crazy low at the moment.

At the moment I have 2x2GB chips. I don't really know what I am talking about in terms of memory so I just took a screenshot of the CPU-Z memory section.

I have a Abit IP35 motherboard.

I am rambling, so basically I want to know if upgrading my memory to 2x4GB will make a difference with gaming and windows in general. I was thinking if I do get some new memory I can possibly use it in a new build in 4/5 months time.

Can someone help me out here, I want to know what makes sense here for me and also what type of memory to get if I should get any. I am in the USA and was looking at this:

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop.

Thanks

bremen1874 · 11 Nov 2011 at 16:19

That's a DDR2 board so the DDR3 memory you mention won't fit.

Your only option for 8GB is to add 2 x 2GB DDR2 to the existing memory.

You probably wouldn't see enough benefit to justify the cost of the additional DDR2 (unless you can pick some up at a decent price second-hand).

CinderzFTW · 11 Nov 2011 at 18:19

bremen1874 said:
That's a DDR2 board so the DDR3 memory you mention won't fit.

Your only option for 8GB is to add 2 x 2GB DDR2 to the existing memory.

You probably wouldn't see enough benefit to justify the cost of the additional DDR2 (unless you can pick some up at a decent price second-hand).

Indeed.

DDR2 is old tech now, only DDR3 is what you need. I would update your board for a LGA775 board with DDR3 1333mhz support. My misses has a Pentium Dual Core E5700 3ghz and her memory runs perfectly at 1333mhz. If you plan to stick with the Core 2 Quad (GREAT CHIP BTW!), updating the board to something like the ASRock G41M-VS3 will give you better results.

The best board on OcUK currently hosting the G41 chipset for LGA775/DDR3 support is the ASUS P5G41T-M LX

Yellowbeard · 11 Nov 2011 at 19:51

I have started seeing some people stating that they are bogging on FPS with BF3 and 4GB. Several are reporting that going to 8GB solves it. If that is your game of choice you may want to look into that before deciding.

bremen1874 · 11 Nov 2011 at 20:07

A board change to support DDR3 seems a bit OTT.

I'd check out second-hand DDR2 as a first option, around £30 for 2 x 2GB seems typical.

cheddar · 11 Nov 2011 at 22:57

Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like I will be staying with my current memory setup for the next few months at least.

Any advice on what in the meantime would be a good purchase to boost performance than I could maybe carry over into a new system. I was looking at maybe a SSD just to run some games of.

AwesomeUsername · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:41

You need to look at your FSB speed. FSBs are quad pumped so they will be quadruple what you set them to in the BIOS. If you for instance have a 1600mhz FSB, you will need two sticks of 800MHz to saturate it, as RAM runs in dual channel (in that setup). Any more is a waste. DDR3 will most likely just introduce more latency as the FSB can only handle DDR2 speeds. Saturate your FSB if possible and get the lowest timings you can.

Regards

Surveyor · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:43

AwesomeUsername said:
You need to look at your FSB speed. FSBs are quad pumped so they will be quadruple what you set them to in the BIOS. If you for instance have a 1600mhz FSB, you will need two sticks of 800MHz to saturate it, as RAM runs in dual channel (in that setup). Any more is a waste. DDR3 will most likely just introduce more latency as the FSB can only handle DDR2 speeds. Saturate your FSB if possible and get the lowest timings you can.

Regards

FYI Dual channel has nothing to do with RAM speed.

It's Double Data Rate RAM so 2x400MHz = 800MHz.

AwesomeUsername · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:47

Surveyor said:
FYI Dual channel has nothing to do with RAM speed.

It's Double Data Rate RAM so 2x400MHz = 800MHz.

I meant the fact that they were running in dual channel meant that their bandwidth was effectively doubled, so 2x(400x2) would equal 1600 if that was his fsb speed.

Memory is double pumped yes, I'm aware. And furthermore that speed is then doubled again when running in dual channel. If the final number matches the FSb speed you've saturated the width of the bus.

AwesomeUsername · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:50

I'm talking about total memory bandwidth, obtained from getting the RAM speed, and then double pumping it, then doubling it for dual channel. Alternatively you can look at the unpumped speed, and compare that directly to the FSB's unpumped speed, as both are quadrupled (if running in dual channel mode ofcourse, as then the memory bandwidth is effectively doubled). You want the total to match your FSB if possible.

Surveyor · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:56

AwesomeUsername said:
I meant the fact that they were running in dual channel meant that their bandwidth was effectively doubled, so 2x(400x2) would equal 1600 if that was his fsb speed.

Memory is double pumped yes, I'm aware. And furthermore that speed is then doubled again when running in dual channel. If the final number matches the FSb speed you've saturated the width of the bus.

That's still not right.

The RAM speed is the same in single, dual or triple channel (X58 boards) mode.

Memory bandwidth is increased but not speed.

AwesomeUsername · 12 Nov 2011 at 22:03

Sorry, I meant memory bandwidth. I'm aware the speed of the chips doesn't change, I'm just not very good at explaining myself, haha.

I just meant that the total memory bandwidth should match his FSB, and anymore is a waste, and you most likely don't need DDR3 as that'll just increase latencies. OP, what is your FSB speed? You're probably saturating it with two sticks of 800mhz and possibly exceeding it. You may get better performance by reducing the speed of each stick so that the overall memory bandwidth (speed of sticks x2) matches the FSB, then trying better timings. That's my understanding anyway, please correct me if wrong, thanks.

AwesomeUsername · 12 Nov 2011 at 22:06

Sorry, I can see your FSB speed, it's 1:1 with your DRAM, so it must be 400mhz unpumped. This means that your FSB is most likely running at 1600mhz, and your RAM's total bandwidth is also 1600mhz. This is ideal. You need no more bandwidth than this, instead focus on making the timings as tight as possible.

oweneades · 12 Nov 2011 at 22:38

AwesomeUsername said:
Sorry, I can see your FSB speed, it's 1:1 with your DRAM, so it must be 400mhz unpumped. This means that your FSB is most likely running at 1600mhz, and your RAM's total bandwidth is also 1600mhz. This is ideal. You need no more bandwidth than this, instead focus on making the timings as tight as possible.

That isn't how RAM bandwidth works at all.

The memory bandwidth is a multiple of the memory transfer rate (including the DDR multiplier) and the bus width. In this case being dual channel the memory bandwidth is *800MT/s * 128bit / 8 (bits per byte) = 12.8GB/s

*The memory itself (PC6400 DDR2) actually runs at 200Mhz. It is then multiplied by the I/O clock to become 400Mhz (as DDR2 runs its internal clock at half the speed of the I/O clock).

AwesomeUsername · 12 Nov 2011 at 23:03

Sorry, I guess I was wrong.

I was basically just taught that your FSB speed should be double that of your RAM when running in dual channel to saturate it. If I'm using the wrong terminology, or even have gotten it totally wrong, I'm sorry lol.