DDR333 to DDR400 significance

[WRV]

I just upgraded to an AMD64 3500 (socket 939) processor & Asus A8V motherbard. I am using my old RAM in the dual channel setup- 2 X 512MB PC 2700 DDR333 "off" brand memory.

What discernable performance gain would I see if I upgraded my RAM to 2 X 512 PC3200 DDR400?

I think I can get 2 X 512 PC3200 DDR400 Value RAM from Kingston or Corsair for about $100, and am trying to assess if this would be "worth it" to me.

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

QUICK CALCULATION AT ZERO LATENCY:
[(3200)/(2700)] * 100 = 1.18

Which is saying: if your program takes 1 second to finish, PC-3200 is at best 18% faster than PC-2700 assuming zero latency.

Of course there is no such thing as zero latency. And also, the BIOS will run DDR-333 at a better latency than DDR-400.

The standard latency set by JEDEC/Intel is:
DDR-333 CL2.5
DDR-400 CL3

I believe for real world applications, DDR-400 can execute a program about 5-7% faster than DDR-333 at best.

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[jammydodger]

I agree with brent, 5-7% is about the biggest performance increase you will get.

 

[blackphoenix77]

But pc3200 doesn't really cost more than pc2700.

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