Do you really need expensive memory?

Do you really need expensive memory? Update 1

Do you really need to spend that much money on memory when running an A64 system?

Back in the days of socket A when the memory controller was chipset integrated running the memory on a divider would cripple your whole system but now days have changed and the memory controller is built in into the CPU and what it means for us overclockers is that running the memory on divider will yield very low penalty, we are talking 1-5%.
So what does that mean to you? If you are a gamer and an overclocker you don't need to buy memory rated above PC3200 as it will yield almost no performance boost in games.
I did a little test using my PC4000 rated memory.

PC4000 speeds:


These speeds scored me 5044 in 3dMark 05

Now lets try the same CPU speeds while keeping the memory as close to PC3200 as possible.


These speeds scored me 5004 in 3dMark 05.

As you can see while my Sandra scores and PI times ware slower the gaming performance was only 40 marks lower, while I don't play FPS games currently I cannot compare the memory speed in any "real world" settings but this test was enough to convince me to buy PC3200 next time I'm buying memory.

I wanted this to be an example to anyone debating on buying memory, the money you save on the memory can be used to buy a better video card which will have much larger affect on gaming performance.

I just ran COD II time demo bench and I lost only 2 FPS from going from DDR500 to DDR400.
Still not worth the money IMO...

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Those are synthetic benches. Real world is a different story. The faster the cpu gets the information the better. If you where to compare having a super fast cpu or super fast ram then I would take the cpu, but ram does make a system faster. Maybe not in a sythetic bench like 3dmark that only tests the video card. There is alot of advantages to faster ram. Why do you think AMD is going to DDR2?

Read this and then talk to me again.

Well I just read it and it wasn't too impressing. Pretty much all the test showed that having faster ram improved scores. It wasn't the best in terms of FPS because that is up to the video card to process. Anyone should know that if you want more FPS in video games to get a faster video card. He also mentions spending a fortune on ram isn't worth it, and I agree. There is alot of ram that cost a little more than value ram that will blow the doors off of the value stuff. It would be up to the user to decide whether or not they want fast ram. If they like pc3200 then they should get pc3200. If they like fast ram get some cheap TCCD or 5B G.

Think of the mobo and its components as a huge video card that does alot more. In relation think of a video card with DDR3. Faster core and ram is better.

I did some test sort of like yours in my overclocking. I used the same ram, all pc 3200 kingston valueram. I oced my processor from 1.6 to 2.2 and changed the ram speeds. at one test my ram speed had a fsb of 202 mhz even and another test my ram speed was at 260.2 mhz. I ran 3dmark 2001 and the performance difference was astounding. With a fsb of 200 mhz I scored somewhere around 14500 points and with the fsb up to 260 I scored a little over 16000 points.

It was the same in doom 3. I dont use there benchmark but isntead walk a given path in the game I always use for testing in real world. My average fps with the 200 mhz fsb was at 50 frames and dropped under heavy sequences while the 260 kept 60 frames at the games lock constant under any condition. This test was also ran at 1024x768 at very high settings.

all my system specs were exactly the same except for the ram FSB. if your wondering what my system specs are they are as follows:
Athlon Sempron 2600+ socket 754 AMD64 with amd 64 extension (not the socket A sempron but the k8 sempron with the memory controller) OCed to 2.2 ghz
Asus k8n bios rev 1010
radeon 9500 with unlocked pipes at radeon 9500 pro oced to 360/350 core/mem
1 stick 256 meg DDR 400 kingston valueram
1 stick 512 meg DDR 400 kingston value ram
1 stick 256 meg DDR 333 kingston value ram
timings 2.5-3-3-7 1T
maxtor PATA 160 gig drive
Antec true power 350 watt supply
cdroms and such too

It depends on your requirements. In my situation I have a locked AXP 2800+ and want to get the FSB to 200. I also want to do dual channel with 1GB total. A lot of research led me to get the OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB (2 x 512MB) for $103.44. I 'could' have spent have spent more than twice as much for little, or no, usable gain.

Edit: Of course I could also have thrown the dice and got the cheapest RAM available on the day I ordered, last Friday, and hoped that everything would be OK. The $25 or $30 savings just wasn't worth it to me.

sorry but ill take the higher rated ram any day of the week for performance in games.

avalanche83 said:

Well I just read it and it wasn't too impressing. Pretty much all the test showed that having faster ram improved scores. It wasn't the best in terms of FPS because that is up to the video card to process. Anyone should know that if you want more FPS in video games to get a faster video card. He also mentions spending a fortune on ram isn't worth it, and I agree. There is alot of ram that cost a little more than value ram that will blow the doors off of the value stuff. It would be up to the user to decide whether or not they want fast ram. If they like pc3200 then they should get pc3200. If they like fast ram get some cheap TCCD or 5B G.

Think of the mobo and its components as a huge video card that does alot more. In relation think of a video card with DDR3. Faster core and ram is better.

Click to expand...

Exactly my point, spending 100$ more on faster RAM will give you only a small performance boost over spending that 100$ in a better video card!

sorry but ill take the higher rated ram any day of the week for performance in games.

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Its your money, waste it as you wish.

to help your arguement too the cheaper ram is getting better and better in quality. As I stated before the kingston value ram I have is performing great. It is currently overclocked to 240 mhz on the FSB at timings of 2-2-2-4 1T while I can hit 260 at 2.5-3-3-7 1T easily matching the the stock speed of the faster 184 pin modules out there at better timings. So you could easily get cheaper ram and OC it too.

This is not an argument on buying cheap RAM vs. expensive RAM, its about getting PC4000+ vs. PC3200 and investing the rest of the money in other components that will give you much bigger boost in performance for the money.

Flip-Mode said:

Its your money, waste it as you wish.

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far from a waste. and yes its my money .

I think with DDR being matured the companies purposely bin the ram to only run at those speeds. The only ram that I would get at pc3200 is 5B G or TCCD. 1Gb, UTT, and value ram would be the only sticks that I would get at pc4000 because they don't stretch the FSB very well. They are all around the same price as one another.

Xtreme Barton said:

far from a waste. and yes its my money .

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I feel like you are attacking me here.

Well, I have PC3200 ram right now, but it can only go up to PC3840. If I sell it I could probably get $150ish, and then pay an extra $50 to get PC4000.

But that's just to hit a 250FSB. Is it really worth it? That's still up for grabs. I would say most of the members on this forum overclock for a hobby and don't really "need" anything better than what they currently have.

Maviryk said:

Well, I have PC3200 ram right now, but it can only go up to PC3840. If I sell it I could probably get $150ish, and then pay an extra $50 to get PC4000.

But that's just to hit a 250FSB. Is it really worth it? That's still up for grabs. I would say most of the members on this forum overclock for a hobby and don't really "need" anything better than what they currently have.

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And lets say you put those 50$ in buying a 7800GT instead of the X800XL, how much performance boost would you get? a heap more then going from PC3200 me to PC4000 mem.
Thats my point, we are not all on bottomless computer part budget and we need to spread our funding wisely.

Flip-Mode said:

I feel like you are attacking me here.

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why were you beaten as a child ??

im not attacking you, i feel since you said that you are attacking me



its cool homes ... but im simply getting at my machine runs better when my memory is faster than 400fsb. especially in games.

Xtreme Barton said:

why were you beaten as a child ??

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I'll ask my shrink....

Flip-Mode said:

I'll ask my shrink....

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shrinks are magic ... they make your wallet shrink

Flip-Mode said:

And lets say you put those 50$ in buying a 7800GT instead of the X800XL, how much performance boost would you get? a heap more then going from PC3200 me to PC4000 mem.
Thats my point, we are not all on bottomless computer part budget and we need to spread our funding wisely.

Click to expand...

I'd say get the pc4000 because the x1800xl is a great card IMO.