DDR PC3200 Clock Speed vs Performance

[Merlin1716]

I have an older machine although not a BAD machine:
ASUS P4C-800e with 3.0 GHz quad-core Pentium
Running WinXP SP3
Only had 1 GB RAM (2x512 Mushkin PC3200)
So - - added 2 more GB (2x1GB PNY PC3200) in Bank 2
RAM tested fine with 8 full cycles of MemTest86 BUT:
Initially on all auto settings, it chose:
Clock 133 MHz => timings of 2-2-2-6
Hmmm - - well THAT wasn't PC3200 - - so I forced the clock to 200 (400 MHz equiv)
Now the system shows (timings autoload from the RAM) of:
Clock 200MHz => timings of 2-3-3-8
.
Do I GAIN anything bu running my memory at the faster clock speed (as the timings slow down), or am I just generating more heat ??
.
I'm guessing faster would be better, as if the data were sequential you could read right across the row without having to close it - - but that's just a guess on my part - -
.
Thx - - Merlin

 

[GhislainG]

Timings need to be looser when running at a higher speed. 400 MHz will be slightly faster.

 

[Merlin1716]

GG: Appreciate the swift reply - - I understand the relationship between increasing clock speed and looser timings - - basically the ratio of the two things remains constant - just wondering how that translates to better performance at the higher clock speeds. I suppose if the TRANSFER of data only takes ONE clock cycle - then faster would be better - -

 

[GhislainG]

To be honest it doesn't make much difference at that speed. If you're interested, then you read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory.