Need a second opinion about ram.

[darth_nevus]

using Valve's Lost Coast (64-bit version):
With default timings (5-5-5-15) I get 89 FPS average.
With increased timings (6-7-7-17) I get 80 FPS average. So no, RAM timings are NEVER pointless when it comes to performance :P

Whoa. you have something REALLY awry there if it makes a 10% difference based on your ram timings.

[juneau]

RAM timings create no real benefits in DDR2, unless of course you like to run RAM benchmarks.

I find it hard to believe that RAM timings gave you an extra 9fps. It musthave been another factor.

[random_id]

using Valve's Lost Coast (64-bit version):
With default timings (5-5-5-15) I get 89 FPS average.
With increased timings (6-7-7-17) I get 80 FPS average. So no, RAM timings are NEVER pointless when it comes to performance :P

Whoa. you have something REALLY awry there if it makes a 10% difference based on your ram timings.

Nothing is "awry" - it's a clean, fresh installation of x64 Vista on a completely new hardware (still have empty UPS box laying in the room), the system works smooth as butter with not a single crash or any kind of problem :P

[random_id]

It musthave been another factor.

...yea, my black cat crossed my path when I took a bathroom break between the tests

[Duke{CLR}]

Did you run the benchmark three times under each setting and take the averge?

[random_id]

Did you run the benchmark three times under each setting and take the averge?

Of course I did! How else do you benchmark things? :P

[Duke{CLR}]

You said you ran a "quick" benchmark so I though you may have taken shortcut.

[random_id]

You said you ran a "quick" benchmark so I though you may have taken shortcut.

Nah, no shortcuts, I know that teh Valve's Lost Coast benchmark gives you slightly different results each time you run it, that's why I run it several times then took the average and rounded it up to a whole number

[WalkinTarget]

Will it slow it down. YES.

Thats what I've been telling people for years !! Adding RAM to your PC only slows it down, so strip it back to 128mb !! Its sooo pointless having all that extra RAM just sitting there when its never going to be used !

Just make sure and make it 2 64mb sticks, as one 128mb stick in single channel mode will sorta suck.

Now, back to reality:
We had two identical PCs delivered to us at work, so I being teh hardware geek (yea, I know .. shocker!!) set about benching them. There was a HUGE difference in performance, on the order of 18%, when benching, so I set about finding the difference.
The ONLY change was the RAM was in dual channel mode with 2 sticks in the faster PC and a single stick in the other. Swapping them around brought back the performance for the piggy PC, and in turn bogged down the faster PC.
That was on an Intel chipset, so benching on an AMD would net different results, something along the lines of 5-7% difference, so platform of choice at that time made a huge difference.

Since AMD is on the short end of the stick, if you are buying RAM, suffice to say that you should always be buying in pairs, unless you already have one stick. And you NEVER want to run odd numbers of RAM (1 or 3 sticks).

[darth_nevus]

firstly, dual channel basically allows data to be writtin to both sticks at the same time, effectively doubling the performace of being able to write to the ram. single channel, only writes to 1 stick at a time.

secondly. on the old A64 boards, the built in memory controller wasn't built to handle ram perfectly. 1 or 2 sticks, ram would run at DDR 400. at 3, it runs at ddr333, and at 4, it runs at ddr266. this was basically because of the time thwe A64's memory controller took to look up which stick it was on, and then go pull it, while keeping the data timeline intact.

this is yet another reason why i plead with you to only use 2 sticks. more is not always better, as the speed drops according to the # of populated slots.

[Rand{CLR}]

Side note: My RAM just showed up (delivery on Xmas eve, 2 days after ordering. Newegg rocks), but I can't install it until I get home from family stuff tomorrow and have my own xmas with the wife.

-Rand

[-Bar]

Side note: My RAM just showed up (delivery on Xmas eve, 2 days after ordering. Newegg rocks), but I can't install it until I get home from family stuff tomorrow and have my own xmas with the wife.

-Rand

PWN3D



I am just gonna order 2 sticks and get it over with and remove my current.... anything has got to be better then what I am running at rate now.

[Rand{CLR}]

I installed it anyway, while the wife was downstairs watching Live Free and Die Hard. It reads 2.8GB, but that's ok; I also found out it looks like one can get 64bit Vista for only like 10 bucks if they have the 32 bit version, if and when the time is right, so the full 4GB will show up then.

Bar, sounds like a plan. A matched pair of low latency, high speed stuff will do wonders.

-Rand

[imlittlev]

64 bit vista is $10?

[-Bar]

I installed it anyway, while the wife was downstairs watching Live Free and Die Hard. It reads 2.8GB, but that's ok; I also found out it looks like one can get 64bit Vista for only like 10 bucks if they have the 32 bit version, if and when the time is right, so the full 4GB will show up then.

Bar, sounds like a plan. A matched pair of low latency, high speed stuff will do wonders.

-Rand

I said screw it and bought 4 gbs... get it over with. Ram is cheap now anyways.