RAM upgrade question(capacity > speed?)

[DesertChicken]

Hi, I was thinking about upgrading my RAM from 512MB pc2700 after experiencing stuttering in HL2 before everything caches. I.E. I will stutter the first time I break a crate, but if I do it subsequent times, it'll run smoothly.

First, I own a motherboard taht does not support dual-channeling or whatever you call that thing that optimizes your RAM performance if you have 2 sticks instead of one. Since I'm cheap, I'm eyeing a stick of 512MB pc3200 to just add into another slot. Now I realize that with the pc2700 stick the pc3200 stick won't reach full potential. I want the 3200 to keep my options open for later upgrades. Optimally, I would just buy a stick of 1gb RAM and chuck the old 512, but again, I'm cheap.

My question is: would keeping pc2700 hamper my upgrade significantly or is the memory size itself causing my problems and thus the 2nd 512MB stick would sooth my stuttering?

System:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
ATI Radeon 9800pro
Chaintech VNF3 250

[Wallrod]

Son of a bitch, i was literally just about to post the same damn thread, i just had to reboot to get my current RAM speed. I'm in a similar situation: i'm thinking of getting a 1GB stick, but i have 2 512 sticks, one PC2100, one PC3200 - would it be better to have 1.5gb of 3200 or 2gb of 2100?

[StandingCow]

Desert, you probly are fine with the 3200 since the 2700 isnt much slower.

Wallrod, I would get rid of the 2100 and get all 3200.

[Wallrod]

Yeah, I was leaning toward that... how about right now, is it worth having 1gb at 2100 or 512 at 3200? (Not trying to hijack :()

[Vulpes Foxnik]

Ok. Ram has 2 factors that matter (well 3 actually).

Ram has a Speed of it's bus. These are generally categorized by the Processor speed. If your ram is slower than your Processors bus, it become A: overclocked, or B. Asynchronous. This all depends on your Processor. If your AMD, then your are most likely running at 1:1 and your ram matches your processor speed. If you plan to overclock your processor ever, buy faster ram so it doesn't over head and have system performance drop.

Having More space, in addition, allows your system to spend less time wasting on transferring data to and from the swap while it loads on and off the processor. This saves time and processor resources.

If you need to check your current System configuration for ram, I suggest using CPU-Z. It will be able to tell you many other of your system specs.

Under the Memory tab and the SPD tab you can find out your stat information on your current ram.

For example my stats:


Name AMD Athlon XP
Code Name Thoroughbred
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+
CPU Clock Speed 1674.5 MHz
Clock multiplier x 12.5
Front Side Bus Frequency 134.0 MHz
Bus Speed 267.9 MHz


Memory
DRAM Type DDR-SDRAM
DRAM Size 1024 MBytes
DRAM Frequency 134.0 MHz
FSB:DRAM 1:1
DRAM Interleave 4-way
CAS# Latency 2.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge 3 clocks
Cycle Time (TRAS) 6 clocks
# of memory modules 2
Module 0 DDR-SDRAM PC2300 - 512 MBytes
Module 1 DDR-SDRAM PC2300 - 512 MBytes


Many Intel chip sets run ram asynchronous to the ram, so it is necessary to match up the correct ratio to your Bus.

Less clock latency == faster ram response time.
Dram Frequency is your bus transport speed. This is entirely determined by your Ratio of your CPU Ghz/ your CPU multiplier times your ratio.

But Essentially, the PC rating on Ram is a good way to determine what you need. I have a Max 2000Ghz processor so my Ram fits well to my system, even while overclocking. If you can make the splurge, go for faster than your Processor PC speed. Otherwise NEVER put slower ram than your system, and it is generally advised to have the same speed ram, although not necessary, these variations in the timing delay can cause problems. This is extremely rare, but can cause system stability issues. Also the clock almost always slows the bus down to the speed of the slower ram. Thus, different max speeds and response times == bad. These are clocked devices, they need to respond at the same beat.

[lucky644]

Far as I'm concerned the pcXXXX speed is only REALLY noticable in overclocking.

[StandingCow]

Yeah, I was leaning toward that... how about right now, is it worth having 1gb at 2100 or 512 at 3200? (Not trying to hijack :()

IF its between those two options go for the gig.

[Vulpes Foxnik]

Far as I'm concerned the pcXXXX speed is only REALLY noticable in overclocking.
It's also fairly noticeable when you have slower ram than your PC.
It's not that much more for faster ram.

[StandingCow]

I noticed when I moved from my 1gb 2100 to 2 gb 3200... dont think it was the gig jump.. but the speed.

[DesertChicken]

Yeah, I was leaning toward that... how about right now, is it worth having 1gb at 2100 or 512 at 3200? (Not trying to hijack :()

:mad:

:p It's cool, it's the same topic, afterall.

Vulpes Foxnik:

What does all that technical info mean for me?

[Vulpes Foxnik]

:mad:

:p It's cool, it's the same topic, afterall.

Vulpes Foxnik:

What does all that technical info mean for me?
In most modern PC's, you cannot increase your multiplier. The FSB is what determines your total Processor speed. Ram is given two ratings, It's max "PC speed," Which is a approximation on what you need. Ram also has a listed operational speed, it's max response speed before it has issues.

My ram's max Mhz is 142, and is currently running at 133. This is in sych with my FSB. By Synchronous, it means they run at the exact same time, and there is no waiting for time conversions. This is what the ratio is talking about. Mine is 1:1 so my FSB and my Ram's clock are the same speed. No extra math needed. There are also 3:2 and 5:3, but these are mostly seen in Intel architectures.

So if you take My FSB and multiply by my multiplier you get my CPU hertz.
1674.5 MHz == 134.0 MHz X 12.5

If I was overclocking my max speed I could increase is to 142 FSB speed to match my processor. This would result my PC running at :
1775 MHz == 142 MHz X 12.5

If your FSB is not matched to your ratio then you need to do a computation of time conversion.
1FSB/1 = Ram hz (translation. For every 1 tick of your CPU clock, your ram's clock ticks once)
3FSB/2 = Ram hz (translation. For every 3 ticks of your CPU clock, your ram clock has ticked 2 times)
ect.

Overclocked ram leads to system crashes and instabilities. Too slow ram drops system performance.

Your system is preaty much AS-IS when dealing with ram. It's a matter of matching up to what your CPU needs.

[siddy]

one thing to consider, is that faster ram is more 'futureproof' than slower ram.