Aligning system to maximize preformance

[danieldevaney2290]

Hello, I am attempting to redo my system components such as RAM and GPU and what not. I am attempting to maximize performance and a friend of mine said I need to make sure bus speeds are the same. Could someone explain that to me

 

[T_T]

Let's start with this tidbit of info: AMD CPUs all have a stock Front Side Bus (FSB) of 200 MHz; however, Intel CPUs have varying FSB - this depends on the CPU.

The RAM and CPU are both tied into the FSB. This means that when you overclock (a process of forcing your CPU to run a higher clock speeds than the default spec) by means of increasing the FSB, you're also affecting the speed of your RAM.

Your RAM speed is the result of the RAM multiplier times the FSB. I'll use the AMD as an example, since AMD CPUs always have an FSB of 200 MHz. To find out the RAM:CPU ratio, you simply would divide the RAM MHz by the CPU's stock FSB.

Example:

RAM is 800 MHz. CPU is 200 MHz. 800 / 200 = 4. The RAM:CPU ratio would be 4:1.
So, if you were to raise the FSB to, say 205, then the RAM would be running at 820 MHz (remember the formula: RAM:CPU ratio times the current FSB).

The GPU is completely separate, in that it has it's own memory, called GDDR. The best performing interface for a GPU is PCI-E. The other interfaces are AGP and PCI, although I don't know that any mobo makers are still equipping their mobos with these interfaces. Because a GPU uses its own RAM, it won't be tapping into the mobo RAM. Conversly, if you purchase a mobo with integraged graphics, expect about 512 MB of your RAM to be dedicated to the integrated graphics.

 

[k1114]

Different cpus support different ram speeds. Could you post your pc specs and exactly what you want to upgrade?