How Much RAM Do You Really Need?

By Jon Kullberg
published

Synthetic Benchmark Results

PCMark05

The difference in performance is marginal.

SiSoft Sandra 2005 Pro

Here we have the explanation for the WinRAR results : the GeiL memory is slightly faster, but only because all four DIMM slots leads to a system memory bandwidth impact, as 2x 512 MB is as fast as the 2x 256 GeiL memory.

Note that in a normal scenario using two DIMM slots would allow you to use the faster 1T command rate. This isn’t possible when filling all four DIMM slots with the nForce4 motherboard we used, thereby resulting in a 2T command rate, which is between 1-4% slower in most real-life applications. For our tests, however, we used 2T with all memory configurations to single out system memory size as the sole factor that impacted performance.

While the 512 MB GeiL system memory takes a hit during the 256 MB data shuffling in the Combined Index, it also outperforms the Corsair memory when it comes to Speed Factor.

Jon Kullberg
5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • survivor1940
    I am a little confused as to what ram would work better with the Asus P5KPL-CM motherboard running intel E5200 CPU. I will not be gaming.I know I can use up to 3.5 Gbs of ram on my Windows XP 32 bit OS.The question is which would perform better> 2x1Gb ddr2-800 pc2 6400 or ddr2-667 pc2-5300?
    Reply
  • yugiteddy
    I use a Mac and a windows computer from IBM. I use the mac most of the time... it has 768 megabytes of ram.
    The Mac is a powerbook G4.
    Applications do crash but I like to do things quickly so that's why. With the IBM (Netvista), I don't use it that much, but sometimes I control it through RDC. The "Netvista" has 1 Gigabyte of ram.
    I don't really mind about the computers and the ram-I just care about that I can use them and that they don't crash each time I play a game.
    From someone, who is learning applescript.
    Reply
  • usasma
    I've got 12 gB of RAM and I still experience slowdowns. Today it was due to numerous programs reading my hard drive - and even the RAID 5 array didn't help.

    Performance is achieved by striking a good balance between RAM, CPU, Hard disks, and the mobo.
    Reply
  • my 256mb ram pc is working surprisingly fast.it take 2 minutes to load while my laptop got 2 gb ram and takes like 5mins to start up.my 256mb ram system has been (like you were saying) balanced to do tasks throughout the system that are necessary only and working amazingly well.
    Reply
  • 80725760
    Reply