RAM bottleneck

[Track]

I have DDR-400 RAM. Im going to buy an X1900XT.
Will i have alot less FPS with DDR-400 than i would if had DDR2-800 or something?

Thnx.

 

[ara]

it depends on whether or not your motherboard can take advantage of the ddr2-800 ram

do you have DDR-400 or DDR2-400? does your mobo support DDR2-800?

Ara

 

[enforcer22]

Either way your am isnt going to bottle neck your video card just make sure you have enough ram to run the apps you want.

 

[ara]

i was so into checking if he had the capability to even upgrade that i forgot to mention what you said [/seriously]

Ara

 

[Track]

Alright, so maybe it wont bottleneck.

But will it give me less FPS? I mean if not, then why get faster memory?
I heard that because of high latencies DDR2-800 memory is abt the same as DDR-400..

Im not going to buy new memory, ive stated wich i already have.

 

[Mondoman]

It all depends on the programs you run. Some are more sensitive to memory speed, some are more sensitive to latency, some to both, some to neither. It also depends on the specific latencies of your DDR-400 and the latency of the DDR2-800 you are comparing it with.

 

[enforcer22]

i was so into checking if he had the capability to even upgrade that i forgot to mention what you said [/seriously]

Ara

Yeah happens to me alot no worrys.

to op: Faster ram can give you a couple fps i mean a COUPLE more. All you need to know is keep the ram buss matched with your cpu and more ram > then faster ram. Personaly i like to go both ways get ALOT of the fastest ram but thats me i get the best of everything that is out when i build my comp and use it for the next several years in many stages.

 

[almerac]

you might get 1 or 2 more FPS, maybe a bit more then that, in a nutshell you wouldn't even notice it. ram speed is defiantly not something that impacts FPS, your video card and CPU should be your first concern, so DDr 400 will defiantly not "bottleneck" your gaming experience.

 

[Track]

you might get 1 or 2 more FPS, maybe a bit more then that, in a nutshell you wouldn't even notice it. ram speed is defiantly not something that impacts FPS, your video card and CPU should be your first concern, so DDr 400 will defiantly not "bottleneck" your gaming experience.

So then why do gamers buy DDR2-800 or even DDR2-1066 for twice the price of DDR-400, if it dosent do anything??

Are u saying that 4GB of DDR-266 is better than 1GB of DDR2-800?

 

[enforcer22]

He may have not replyed but yes it is. Its WAY better then 1 gig of ram. But saying it does nothing isnt true it does to something just the speed of the ram doesnt do alot for alot of things. More ram will (to the point of where the program cannot adress it) will aways add more speed then a faster clocked stick of less size.

To awsner why they buy the DDR2 over the DDR the new systems dont use DDR in most cases and you normaly have to get a garbage motherboard that will suport both. It isnt a choice for the gamers wanting the best its a requierment.

Funny thing about DDR2 is if you take in account the horrid timings speed wise its negligable. Bandwidth wise on the other hand is a different story.

 

[Track]

So we are being forced to buy more expensive RAM that dosent give a speed boost at all?

I find it hard to believe that 4GB of DDR @ 266Mhz is better than 1GB of DDR @ 1066Mhz. I mean its 4x the speed!

 

[ara]

I mean its 4x the speed!

but quarter the size

here's my personal example of how ram helps, probably because of windows' management of the page file, but when i had 512 MB ram (keeping all other equipment constant) i could only play BF2 at 640x480 smoothly, with 1024 MB (had to try it because another stick was faulty) it ran 800x600 smoothly, and at 1536 MB (final size) i could play smoothly at 1024x768 (my graphics card isn't all powerful - x700xt) it was still the ram size that helped me, not the ram speed, because windows then no longer needed to use the page file when playing BF2, if i had 1 gig 1066 ram, windows would have to use the page file and completely slow down the system to hard disk speed, thus eliminating the point of the high speed ram

i've had my ram run at 400 and had it run at ~600 without ever seeing a difference (although i had to proportionally increase the timings. which may reduce the effects of increased speed?)

Ara

 

[IcY18]

you might get 1 or 2 more FPS, maybe a bit more then that, in a nutshell you wouldn't even notice it. ram speed is defiantly not something that impacts FPS, your video card and CPU should be your first concern, so DDr 400 will defiantly not "bottleneck" your gaming experience.

So then why do gamers buy DDR2-800 or even DDR2-1066 for twice the price of DDR-400, if it dosent do anything??

Are u saying that 4GB of DDR-266 is better than 1GB of DDR2-800?

Try overclocking with DDR-400 and then you'll find out why...Intel's bus speed is 266 quad pumped to give you 1066Mhz, while the memory operates at DDR which is 533Mhz your memory is 200Mhz, 400MHz effective, so you are already under the required speed of an Intel CPU of current generation,

Why do gamers/enthusiasts buy DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066? So they can overclock their cpus with a fsb of 400 or higher
and lastly DDR2 operates at a lower voltage and in effect gives more bandwidth and will give performance increase in games although games are not the best benchmark, try photoshop and music creation and it helps alot more with more bandwidth, the difference between DDR400 and DDR-1066 would be bigger than they've made it out to be

and one last thing, oh yeah...no good motherboard these days for Intel or AMD AM2 support DDR...that might be a big reason :?

 

[Dahak]

You'll be just fine.If you were running pc2100(ddr266)but had a goop cpu,then I would say that yes your ram will bottleneck you.But not with pc3200(ddr400).you should run sweet.Goodluck.

Dahak

AMD X2-4400+@2.4 S-939
EVGA NF4 SLI MB
2X7800GT IN SLI
2X1GIG DDR IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR 1280X1024
ACE 520WATT PSU
COOLERMASTER MINI R120

 

[IcY18]

It depends on what the FSB of the cpu he is talking about runs at, if it runs at the current bus speed of Intel cpus, which is 266mhz, then yes he will be bottlenecked by his memory since his memory runs at 200mhz, his computer will still run but you'll be not getting the full potential of your cpu

 

[Track]

you might get 1 or 2 more FPS, maybe a bit more then that, in a nutshell you wouldn't even notice it. ram speed is defiantly not something that impacts FPS, your video card and CPU should be your first concern, so DDr 400 will defiantly not "bottleneck" your gaming experience.

So then why do gamers buy DDR2-800 or even DDR2-1066 for twice the price of DDR-400, if it dosent do anything??

Are u saying that 4GB of DDR-266 is better than 1GB of DDR2-800?

Try overclocking with DDR-400 and then you'll find out why...Intel's bus speed is 266 quad pumped to give you 1066Mhz, while the memory operates at DDR which is 533Mhz your memory is 200Mhz, 400MHz effective, so you are already under the required speed of an Intel CPU of current generation,

I believe only the latest Core 2 Duo CPUs have an FSB of 266Mhz QDR.

My Pentium 4 Has an FSB of 200Mhz with a x15 multiplier.

So this means that if i wanted to overclock my CPU, i would have to overclock my FSB and then i would be dependent on how high my RAM can overclock? Cant i just overclock my CPU/FSB without overclocking my RAM?

 

[IcY18]

you might get 1 or 2 more FPS, maybe a bit more then that, in a nutshell you wouldn't even notice it. ram speed is defiantly not something that impacts FPS, your video card and CPU should be your first concern, so DDr 400 will defiantly not "bottleneck" your gaming experience.

So then why do gamers buy DDR2-800 or even DDR2-1066 for twice the price of DDR-400, if it dosent do anything??

Are u saying that 4GB of DDR-266 is better than 1GB of DDR2-800?

Try overclocking with DDR-400 and then you'll find out why...Intel's bus speed is 266 quad pumped to give you 1066Mhz, while the memory operates at DDR which is 533Mhz your memory is 200Mhz, 400MHz effective, so you are already under the required speed of an Intel CPU of current generation,

I believe only the latest Core 2 Duo CPUs have an FSB of 266Mhz QDR.

My Pentium 4 Has an FSB of 200Mhz with a x15 multiplier.

So this means that if i wanted to overclock my CPU, i would have to overclock my FSB and then i would be dependent on how high my RAM can overclock? Cant i just overclock my CPU/FSB without overclocking my RAM?

Your ram,cpu and fsb are all related...they all come from one number, in the case of the C2D that is 266, since a E6700 has a mutliplier of 10 it has a speed of 2.66GHz.

Since ram is DDR, it has Double, so its 533Mhz effective,

and the FSB is quad pumped therefore equaling 1066...

when you push the 266 you push everything with it...therefore you overclock your ram and your cpu, depending on how far your ram can go is usually how far you can overclock your cpu

usually is much more beneficial to run your ram and cpu at a 1:1 ratio, but if your ram cant overclock at all, then running your ram at a different ratio to overclock your cpu and not your ram would be what you have to do,

just note that it is usually more beneficial to run your ram and cpu at a 1:1 ratio

and most importantly of all your system is more stable when your ram and cpu run at this ratio, usually guaranteeing allowing a higher overclock...

 

[Track]

Alright, but then why do they not make QDR for RAM aswell?

 

[Mondoman]

Since almost everyone uses their RAM in dual-channel mode, that gives you another 2x throughput, so DDR2-533 in dual-channel mode matches the 1066 effective FSB throughput.

 

[IcY18]

Alright, but then why do they not make QDR for RAM aswell?

because they can't

 

[enforcer22]

So we are being forced to buy more expensive RAM that dosent give a speed boost at all?

I find it hard to believe that 4GB of DDR @ 266Mhz is better than 1GB of DDR @ 1066Mhz. I mean its 4x the speed!

Im just assuming your kidding with me now. Your forced to buy newer expensive hardware alot of times. Do you really think you need a dual core cpu now? let alone a quad core. Now i realise your arent forced to buy those two unless you got a motherboard that doesnt support a older chip. 4 gigs of ram is most defanitly better then a faster 1 gig of ram. Actualy someone explained one example of why. I am no means againced buying faster ram but that also doesnt mean in anyway you can get away with less.

 

[IcY18]

Will i have alot less FPS with DDR-400 than i would if had DDR2-800 or something?

No. DDR2-800 has bigger latencies.

For example,
DDR400 at CAS2 will perform about same as DDR2-800 at CAS4.

You will not lose any performance because of this.

the latency is usually always offset by the speed, and i doubt he has cas2 latency, since it sounds like this wasn't a homebuilt system

i would bet that ddr2-800 at cas 4 would be ddr400 at cas 2 anyday...

 

[enforcer22]

Of course it will since it has alot more bandwidth to work with but it doesnt really matter since the difference is negligable. The faster ram isnt going to do much anyways more ram will most defanitly make a big difference.

 

[IcY18]

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2863&p=6

About 5-10 fps when going from DDR2-400 to DDR2-800, they dont say the timings but you get the idea

 

[Track]

Could u ppl stop contradicting urselves.

10 FPS loss is a really big deal! So this means that faster RAM DOES really matter.