Memory

Neo · Post by **Neo** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 10:35 am

What exactly does better memory do for a system as far as gaming is concerned?

For example, what advantage does a system with RDRAM have against a system like mine with el cheapo DDR400? How exactly would my system improve if I put low-latency DDR400 in it?

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:19 am

If I am not mistaken ... better memory will allow you a better overclock ... You will be able to turn up the FSB bandwidth farther.

Xamindar · Post by **Xamindar** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:20 am

I think it depends on what other devices you have in your system. There will always be a bottleneck somewhere. Depending on what you buy it could be the cpu, video card, ram, hard drives, motherboard, and so on. I wish I could point you to some benchmarks and help you out with your question.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:49 pm

Conventional wisdom comes out on the side of vanilla flavoured RAM. AnyOldRam(tm) is good enough. If you are running DDR400. in dual channel mode, then there's no reason to upgrade your RAM.

The price difference between AnyOldRam and SuperFreakyFastRam is huge, and the return on investment does not justify the price difference, unless you are a complete wanker with more money than brains.

The money you save by buying AnyOldRam can be better employed in the CPU or Video Card purchase; extra money on these items returns much higher performance per dollar.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:28 pm

The problem with "AnyOldRAM" is that alot of the time its really cheap ★■◆●, which produces an unstable system. ALWAYS buy name brand parts when it comes to building/upgrading computers. Just because you see something with a nice low pricetag doesn't mean its any count.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:55 pm

If you've got a Pentium system the latency won't improve performance to much. However, if you've got a Athlon 64 the latency makes a larger impact because of the direct link to the RAM throught the onboard memory controller.

It all comes down to prices in the end, but I'd rather pay a bit more for some bitchen 2-2-2-5 memory then skimp and get some 3-4-4-8 crap.

Neo · Post by **Neo** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:10 am

MD-2389 wrote:The problem with "AnyOldRAM" is that alot of the time its really cheap ****, which produces an unstable system. ALWAYS buy name brand parts when it comes to building/upgrading computers. Just because you see something with a nice low pricetag doesn't mean its any count.

So, you're saying that the worst thing it could do is produce an unstable system?

heh You Aussies/Kiwis and your "wankers."

Just playing, Mobius.

Well, thanks for the advice. I know exactly where the bottlenecks are on my system, but I don't necessarily know why. ^_~ Now, time to prepare to make my next post. ^_~

Pun · Post by **Pun** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:25 am

If you plan on overclocking, buy the best RAM you can afford. If you dont, buy good, name brand RAM, but not the premium stuff.