DDR2 vs DDR3 Gaming (800Mhz vs 1600Mhz)

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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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Jun 11, 2012
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My friend just ordered his new cpu from an athlon ii x2 240 to a phenom ii x4 945 and his board is a AM2+ gigabyte board, so since it came with 4gb 800mhz ram, and hes getting the 5850 im currently using. Lets say comparing specifically to 4gb 1600 DDR3 with the same setup, is that going to hurt his gaming performance other than the fact he has only 4gb? Because my other friend has a 4gb stock of corsair ddr3 being unused and beside being able to easily upgrade to 8gb total is ddr3 that much better to go get a new board?

Setup
Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHZ
4x1Gb 800Mhz DDR2
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H Rev1.0
Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 5850
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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the difference in part would be dependent on the sticks and timings, but generally speaking DDR2 800 has a bandwidth of 6400 MB per second, DDR3 1600 has a 12800 bandwidth, here though, with the mentioned CPU, about the best you can expect is 1333 which has a bandwidth of about 10600, normally need at least a 965 C3 to run 1600 sticks...
 
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zander1983

zander1983

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Mar 26, 2009
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You can't use DDR3 in a DDR2 motherboard (and vica-versa).

If your friend's motherboard is a DDR2 board then he can only use DDR2. If he wants to use DDR3 then he will have to purchase a new motherboard that supports DDR3 (all current motherboards support DDR3)
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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Jun 11, 2012
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yeah, that i knew lol i get the bandwidth thing and obviously its better but being limited to 4gb will there be a huge difference between the two for gaming?

 
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zander1983

zander1983

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In a short answer, yes, gaming on DDR3 will be better. And 8GB for gaming is more than enough.
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
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Yes as stated DDR3 is better performance wise.

Zander,

believe he was asking whether to take the DDR3 and GET A NEW BOARD, at least that's the way I read it. And while this mobo isn't there have been a number of mobos that could run either/or with DDR2 and DDR3, notably the late socket 775 mobos....and may see it again next year when Broadwell pops out, may see mobos that will use either/or DDR/DDR4 if DDR4 stays on track
 
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T

toarranre

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Feb 7, 2013
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I would wait and see what he thinks. 4 GB is probably considered minimum by most with 8 GB being plenty, it really depends what he is going to be playing though.
I would mention that if the 4 GB is lacking the absolutely get a new MOBO and some more RAM.

I saw someone who was considering putting more DDR2 into an old system until I pointed out to him that the difference in price between DDR2 and DDR3 ment that he would be cheaper buying a new MOBO and the same amount of new DDR3 RAM.
 
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