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GraniTe Bay ??? yes or no

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jackal2513

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2003
Location
london
when the first GB boards were released they got poor reviews here in teh uk but that was in publications not aimed at overclocking. It seems that here on threads and elsewhere, they are the thing to go for in terms fo overclocking. I dont understand why cos im new to all this and dont really understand how the bigger memory bandwidth helps when overclocking ??? Also, do you have to buy double the amount of memory (so for 512 mb you have to buy 1gig ??).

The Giagabyte board seems to be getting a lot fo praise.

I guess im asking if anyone can enlighten me as to why i should go teh granite bay route ? Tomshardware suggested that it may be worth waiting for granite boards that supprt 400mhz ddr as they will be way faster than RAMBUS boards ... any ideas when these will be out ?

Also, what about 200fsb (for future chips), 3/4 memory ratio ???, overvoltage ?? These are thinsg ive read about being important but i dint fully understadn.

All help greatly appreciated ..... money is not that much of an issue, i just want to build a really good system and one that wont suck too badly in say 12-18 months time. I dont want to make any bad mistakes.


thanks for your time


Rich
 
SiS655 based Dual Channel DDR boards are here (sort of). Just something else to consider:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1781
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/aopen/ax45-4dmax/ax45-4dmax-1.htm
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/gigabyte/sinxp1394/sinxp1394-1.htm
http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=318

You don't have to buy double the amount of what you are aiming for...but you will have to have pairs of memory modules in order to run dual channel.

In a single channel DDR setup you get a 64bit wide 'hole' for data to travel back and forth between the CPU and memory. Dual Channel DDR (DCDDR) doubles that to 128bits...like doubling the number of lanes on a road. You then don't have to raise the speed limit to accomodate more traffic.

Consider this: Think of the CPU and Memory as a Highway and a Bridge that connects two cities...each byte of data is a car in traffic.

The CPU operates at a 533mhz FSB with a 64bit 'data hole'. 64 bits is equal to 8bytes. 533mhz x 8bytes = 4264mb/s. That means 4264mb of data can pass through the CPU per second (theoretically of course).

Single Channel PC3200 operates at 400mhz with a 64bit 'data hole'. 400 x 8 = 3200mb/s. That means 3200mb of data can move through the memory...creating a bottleneck for the 4200mb/s CPU. As the memory mhz increases though, you can run into 'latency' troubles. You may have to decrease your memory timing to 2.5 from 2 in order to run stably over 400mhz. My analogy for this is like getting lots of groceries from the car to inside the house. Normally it will take you 20 trips to carry in all of the groceries at a normal pace...if you quicken your pace you may only be able to handle fewer groceries at a time as you can more easily trip over yourself now and need 25 trips...thus winding not gaining much in the very end. It's a bit of a balancing act.

Dual Channel PC2100 operates at 266mhz with a 128bit 'data hole'. 266 x 16 = 4256mb/s. Pretty much equal the bandwidth of the CPU. Operating at this slower speed faster memory timings (lower latencies - think about the groceries agian) are possible.

As the CPU goes up in FSB during OCing, you ideally want to match the Memory speed as well.

Dual Channel PC3200 will offer 6400mb/s of data bandwidth for a hungry CPU operating at 800mhz FSB. 800mhz x 8 = 6400mb/s.

All of this is very basic bandwith background to get you started. There are other things to consider as well as raw bandwidth.

Since money isn't an issue for you, a Granite Bay board is the way to go for the fastest right this very minute...but I'd say that for the rest of us we are willing to forego 5-10% of performance difference to save some money.

Have a look here for an explanation of CPU:Memory ratios - http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=156263&highlight=ratios

Overvolting helps with overclocking, but too much generates more heat and can kill hardware.

Keep posting questions and use the Google (or search engine of your choice) to get more info. I especially learned lots from just using Google...enter in a mobo model and download manuals, articles and reveiws. Try to find answers to questions posted on your own.

Cheers.
 
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Right now is indeed an exciting time and also very frustrating time for hardware choices.

You have to decide to bite the bullet and just buy now...or wait for a little more for whatever is just around the corner. One way or the other you are never going to get ahead...maybe be on top for a bit.

I'd say it's actually hard to choose a bad platform today...look at all the benches for the current crop of mobos available and see how close the numbers all are. Reviewers and manufactuers are using graphs that are 'zoomed' in too close.

In my experience (and opinion) so far in the last two years, the latest and greatest around the corner offered maybe around 5-10% more performance than what was available 6 months ago...with maybe the exception the ATI9700 which just blows the Ti4600 away.
 
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syntax,

thanx for all that well laid out advice

much appreciated

i will keep researching and reading


regards


Rich
 
syntax_error
Finally starting to sink in. :D
I have read alot of posts about cpu's and memory bansdwidth and I just have to say this is the best for simplicity and clarity.

Thank You !! :D :D :D
 
In case you were wondering about other memory:

RDRAM memory is on a 16bit wide datapath per channel.

Single channel RDRAM (or RIMM) is a 32bit wide datapath.

SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM are all 64bit per channel.

GeForce4 has 128bit memory.

Radeon 9500 has 128bit memory.

Radeon 9700 has 256bit memory.
 
And GeForce FX is 128bit

and the Radeon 9700 pro is better than GF FX! "Kudos to ATI" -Anandtech
 
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