How much does mhz really matter for ram?

[computernewb]

i currently have 2x ddr2 667mhz 1 gig ram sticks. I am thinking of upgrading.

i was wondering if i should just get an additonal 2x ddr2 667 ram sticks (my mobo supports 4 sticks) for a total of 4gigs. it will cost about 50 bucks

Or should i get 2x ddr2 1066 ram sticks and replace the old ones? ( i was told i need exact same memory sticks for dual channel)

will upgrading to 1066 mhz have a noticable difference? or will the difference be negligible and undetectable? I play starcraft 2 and watch streaming videos on my comp.

Also, are my current sticks a "bottleneck" to my comp? i have an amd phenom 2 x4 965 be 3.4 ghz processor.

thanks!

 

[dj1997]

you may as well just get more 667 ram as speed dousnt do much and you can probly overclock you current ram to 800 anyway

 

[cjl]

It doesn't really matter that much. I'd say just get the extra 2GB, and don't worry about clocks.

 

[Wolygon]

Generally the main reason for high speed RAM is for OCing. This is because you OC without a unlocked multiplier the RAM speed will increase, so if you OC your processor to far the RAM speed will be out of spec and then limit you.

I'm not to sure if you need the extra RAM for starcraft 2, are you not getting the performance you think you should or what?

Also do you have a 32 bit or 64 OS, if its 32 bit I reckon you should just chuck in one 1 GB stick as the 32 OS will limit the useable RAM to around 3.3GB. 3GB of ram has been shown to be sufficient for everything "normal" you throw at it anyway.

Dual channel barely has any performance gain over single channel, so don't be worried to run 3 sticks like I suggested. The 1066MHz RAM won't net you a performance increase so don't bother, I understand that that would be around $100...

Generally you should buy RAM DIMMs which are the same voltage and if possible the same make (not really important) as the old ones.

So in conclusion I believe you should but 1 667MHz 1GB stick and put that it. Should be good =].

Hope that helps.

 

[computernewb]

Generally the main reason for high speed RAM is for OCing. This is because you OC without a unlocked multiplier the RAM speed will increase, so if you OC your processor to far the RAM speed will be out of spec and then limit you.

I'm not to sure if you need the extra RAM for starcraft 2, are you not getting the performance you think you should or what?

Also do you have a 32 bit or 64 OS, if its 32 bit I reckon you should just chuck in one 1 GB stick as the 32 OS will limit the useable RAM to around 3.3GB. 3GB of ram has been shown to be sufficient for everything "normal" you throw at it anyway.

Dual channel barely has any performance gain over single channel, so don't be worried to run 3 sticks like I suggested. The 1066MHz RAM won't net you a performance increase so don't bother, I understand that that would be around $100...

Generally you should buy RAM DIMMs which are the same voltage and if possible the same make (not really important) as the old ones.

So in conclusion I believe you should but 1 667MHz 1GB stick and put that it. Should be good =].

Hope that helps.

starcraft sometimes freezes. mayb its my video card? i have ati radeon hd 4670 1 gig.

i clicked properties on "my computer" but it doesnt reveal if the windows is 32 or 64. im guessing its 32. its a home edition xp?

what is ram dimms?

thanks!

 

[Wolygon]

By freezes do you mean it is "jittery" theni ts probably your GPU? If you mean "freezes" then you may have a problem be it hardware, driver issues, malware or, or nothing.

Nah XP comes in 64 and 32bit. I didn't know how to do this either =[. Had to Bing it:
"Open System by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.
Under System, you can view the system type."

Ram DIMMs is just a fancy word for RAM stick that makes you look more leet. DIMM stands for dual in-line memory module.

Glad I could help.

 

[Scott2010au]

XP Home Edition was never available as a x64 Edition, so yeah it has to be a 32-bit x86 OS Kernel.

 

[rohn_avni]

well really it doesn't matter that much in real world performance..... when i was using my P4 with DDR 256MB of ram with 333mhz i upgraded that to 400 mhz and notice nothing.....

 

[Scotteq]

How much does mhz really matter for ram?

Depending on what you are doing: On an application level, the answer is "Almost No Difference". If you're running synthetic benchmarks, then - strongly depending on what you are doing - you may see 0% to 5% or so. For example: PC Mark will show little to nothing. You might expect a percent or 2 when you *DOUBLE* memory speed. SiSoft Sandra, OTOH, will readily show increases in memory bandwidth.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-memory-scaling,2342.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-scaling-i7,2325.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-ddr3,2319.html


On short, memory speed doesnt' matter on the desktop.

Where it does matter is in supporting your processor overclocking efforts: Faster RAM may be stable at settings the standard modules can not run. So what you want to do is run a little math against your intended processor target speeds to figure out how fast your RAM will have to be in order to hit your target.

 

[madmaxl2]

well really it doesn't matter that much in real world performance..... when i was using my P4 with DDR 256MB of ram with 333mhz i upgraded that to 400 mhz and notice nothing.....

try playing crysis 2 lol, i think it would matter then lol.

i need to buy new ram for a new computer im building, i7 990x cpu, which has top limit for ram at 1066mhz, woult it be better if i buy 2000mhz ram chips? and i do plan on overclocking the cpu and everything including the ram when i got everything.

just want to know if my ram will bottleneck if i get 2000mhz tripple channel rams or when i overclock cpu the limit for ram speed will increase too?