K, here's the story I am building a new computer as soon as I can get my hands on a 6800 and I am stuck on which ram to use. I am going to put corsair ddr in there but was not sure whether to put in 500 mhz ram or 400 mhz ram. The 64 bit cpu I am getting only has a fsb of 400mhz so would the 500 mhz ram be beneficial or would the cpu just be a bottleneck and make the extra 100 mhz a waste. Am I better off to just get a matched pair of extra LL 512 400mhz sticks? Any help with this one would be great as its the last little niggle I have with deciding on parts ..... other than speakers but I think I will settle on the Itriuge 2.1's.
Don't be in a hurry to answer though I am sure knowing my luck the geforce cards will take forever to reach Australia :P.
The cpu won't bottleneck the ram because you will run the fsb/ram ratio enabling the ram to run at 500mhz while the CPU is at 400mhz. It won't necessarily increase performance though.
If you go with the 400mhz ram it just means that if you do overclock the ram will need to be overclocked - which is not entirely desirable. However, if you don't intend to overclock the system then I reckon save a little and go with the 400mhz.
As for the matched pair - it's not necessary to get a 'matched pair', it's more of a marketing gimmick than anything. With the 64bit CPU's low latency ram is a must as higher latencies tend to slow the performance of the 64bit Athlon - something to do with the on-die memory controller etc etc.
Thanx, will keep all that in mind :) - I don't really have any intention of overclocking at this stage- I mean I really shouldnt need to with rig I am putting together. Think I will go with the 400 mhz then . thanx
Yeah good choice, coz in fact, running 500Mhz Ram with a 400Mhz FSB will actually degrade performance, and will also cause the system to be unstable. And even more with 64 Bit I think. Just make sure the board supports Dual Channel, as the 64Bit REALLY needs this to stretch its legs. Just enquiring are you getting the 3200?
A64's don't support dual channel afaik, only 64-FX's do, and they cost a shitload as well as requiring registered DIMM's which also cost a shitload. You won't get dual channel memory support on a board either, because athlon 64's have the memory controller on die.
as seqo said, go for the 400mhz, the athlon 64's like lower latencies as opposed to the additional mhz.
Quote from Phoenix: Yeah good choice, coz in fact, running 500Mhz Ram with a 400Mhz FSB will actually degrade performance, and will also cause the system to be unstable. And even more with 64 Bit I think. Just make sure the board supports Dual Channel, as the 64Bit REALLY needs this to stretch its legs. Just enquiring are you getting the 3200?
*sigh* it doesn't cause any instability because you run in ratios so each one, FSB and RAM, are running in spec. And I doubt it degrades performance - if anything it just won't increase performance.
Not sure about the Dual Channel, and couldn't be f'd looking it up, but I have a sneaking suspicion the nForce 3 mobo's support dual channel... at least in their latest incarnations... Could be wrong though :) the VIA boards don't support Dual Channel at all IIRC.
^^ Yeah the new N Force boards do support dual channel. I'm looking at mobo's now too still undecided. I swear putting a pc together used to be easier than this :P.
Quote from Phoenix: Yeah good choice, coz in fact, running 500Mhz Ram with a 400Mhz FSB will actually degrade performance, and will also cause the system to be unstable. And even more with 64 Bit I think. Just make sure the board supports Dual Channel, as the 64Bit REALLY needs this to stretch its legs. Just enquiring are you getting the 3200?
yeah I am getting the 3200 unless there is a drastic price drop in the 3400 b4 the gc's come out.