DDR2 vs. DDR3

[thejesus1]

I have a 3 year old homebuilt computer and I am currently running 4gb of DDR2 with Windows XP. I guess the question I have is : Is DDR3 memory a substantial speed boost over DDR2? If it is then I must upgrade the memory, the board, and maybe even the operating system (to Windows 7). I figure all this will cost me another $500 or so.....so do you guys think there will be a SUBSTANTIAL speed increase? Thank you in advance for all your posts. = )

 

[4745454b]

Heres and article I dug up showing the differences between DDR2 and DDR3 on the P35 chipset. Its old and his system uses the faster IMC instead of the FSB so I'm not sure how that changes things.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2232/7

Looking at the scores, using the same CPU moving from DDR2-800 CL3 to DDR3-1333 CL 9 gets you an extra 2 FPS or so depending on if you were using the 965 or P35. You could get an extra 5FPS if you have slower CL5 or 6 DDR2. While 5FPS might sound like a lot, remember that when dealing with numbers this large its only an extra 5.5%. Not a whole lot. Last, depending on the speed and timings, you could actually get better results with ultra fast DDR2 (1066 CL4 scored 108+) over slower DDR3 (1066 CL7 scored 102, CL9 scored 103.)

Option 2 isn't bad. But I'd prefer to get more if I'm spending the $$$. Also keep in mind that larger SSDs have more memory controllers/channels, so spending that $50 on a bigger SSDs could net you an even faster drive.

 

[thejesus1]

Best answer selected by thejesus1.

 

[Will762]

Meh. CF 5770 isn't really that nice. Not now the 5850 and other cards have hit sub $200.

I can confirm CF 5770 is 'Meh'!

 

[no1spank]

The price of memory? I go to the shop for a 2gig stick of RAM and ask how much. The guy in the shop hands me a stick of DDR3 and says that will be £10 please. I hand it back and tell him my rig takes DDR2, "That will be £20 please" he says.
Hang about "Isn't DDR3 better and much faster than DDR2?"
"yes" he says.
"Well shouldn't it be cheaper then?".
I was so pissed off I came out of the shop empty handed on principle, it's like going to car showroom to buy your Mrs an old Ford Fiesta and being told you can have this brand new Focus for half the price of the Fiesta. You can't buy the Focus because it is too big, you need a Fiesta.
Surely shops should be selling older parts at cheaper prices??!! What else would you buy that's half as good and pay twice the price? Part worn tyres for double the cost of new?

By the way on an AMD chipset you can gain more benefit from running with a faster northbridge which controls the memory controller with ddr3. I'd expect to see a 5 - 10% gain doing that with CL9 1333mhz DDR3 compared to running average DDR2 800.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr