PCA Forums

Okay, I have a little extra money to spend on myself.

My new XP2400+, Epox 8RDA+ rig can run the ram clock at a different speed than the FSB.

Right now I'm running 2 sticks of 512Mb PC2100 (2 matched sticks so I also getting the benefit of dual channel mode) with the default memory clock of 133Mhz (DDR266).

I've been debating ordering a couple of 512Mb PC3200 and running the ram clock at 200Mhz (DDR400). I'm not interested in overclocking - just want to run the faster memory at it's default speed.

Anyone have any practical experience to tell me how much of a performance improvement I might see? Any articles you can point me to with benchmarks.

Mostly interested in Photoshop and gaming performance.

Thanks...

i dont have the benchmarks to post, but when i changed my ddr timings from 133 to 165, i saw a decent gain in games and about 500 more 3dmarks (2001se)
cpu speed was never changed- I imagine photoshop would benefit becuase of the memory and cpu intensity of it, and since you play DC- you know what a difference memory size and speed will effect that game quite abit (bf1942 is a memory whore)

Its been proven that boosting the RAM speed alone, will not drastically improve performance. Only when you OC the processor and the ram consecutively do you notice any big improvements. So, if you get your processor to 166 MHz FSB AND the ram, you'll be doing pretty dang good.

I suggest you move both ram and proccesor to AT LEAST 166mhz. All tbred B's can go to 166MHz, and most can go even more. Its almost to the point where the memory is the limit, with the nForce two and processors like the 2100+ and the 1700+.

Good luck!