HELP! SHOULD I KEEP 1.5GB OR STICK WITH FAST 1.00GB??!?! AGH

[hobojoe58]

Ok, so i currently have 1.5gigs if PC3200 RAM, that consists of a 1GB stick of Patriot that is 400mhz, and a 512MB stick of supertalent that is only 200mhz fast, so and i was wondering if i should toss the 512MB stick and keep the 1GB stick?!?! (cause i think that the 1GB stick is running at 200mhz because of the 512MB stick)
Would i see performance increase/decrease? should i let it be? PLEASE HELP!!! ANY RESPONSE IS WELCOME! THANKS!

 

[4Ryan6]

Just use the 1G 400mhz the other 512 is killing your performance, you may need to clear the CMOS to get the machine to reset if it doesn't automatically go straight to the 400mhz, if its dual channel you may need to acquire another matching 1G 400mhz but get that 200mhz out.

 

[hobojoe58]

Ok, so I removed the 512MB of 'PC3200' and on the side it says its 2700?! WTF, CPU-Z said it was PC3200 @ 200mhz, and now it is sayin that the 1GB stick I JUST BOUGHT AND HAVE THE PACKAGING FOR STILL, is 200mhz?! WTF?! is CPU-Z wrong i hope, is there a better program that i should be using for such things?! AGH.

 

[hobojoe58]

Ok, so I removed the 512MB of 'PC3200' and on the side it says its 2700?! WTF, CPU-Z said it was PC3200 @ 200mhz, and now it is sayin that the 1GB stick I JUST BOUGHT AND HAVE THE PACKAGING FOR STILL, is 200mhz?! WTF?! is CPU-Z wrong i hope, is there a better program that i should be using for such things?! AGH.

 

[hobojoe58]

Ok, so I removed the 512MB of 'PC3200' and on the side it says its 2700?! WTF, CPU-Z said it was PC3200 @ 200mhz, and now it is sayin that the 1GB stick I JUST BOUGHT AND HAVE THE PACKAGING FOR STILL, is 200mhz?! WTF?! is CPU-Z wrong i hope, is there a better program that i should be using for such things?! AGH.

 

[r0x0r]

Triple post. I know of only one other person who've attained such a dubious honour. Me 😀

Good to see I'm not alone in that respect then.

Seriously though...

Firstly you wrote...

1GB stick of Patriot that is 400mhz

And then you wrote...

512MB of 'PC3200'

400Mhz and PC3200 are the same thing. Which RAM is what speed?

 

[4Ryan6]

Triple post. I know of only one other person who've attained such a dubious honour. Me 😀

Good to see I'm not alone in that respect then.

Seriously though...

Firstly you wrote...
1GB stick of Patriot that is 400mhz

And then you wrote...

512MB of 'PC3200'

400Mhz and PC3200 are the same thing. Which RAM is what speed?


DITTO Man!

His facts are all screwed up :roll:

 

[trinitron64]

hmm... incorrect cpu-z interpretation and tripple posting is a sure sign of bad ram

I suggest reseting your computer with the cmos battery removed, then swallow the battery and throw the tower out the nearest window.

 

[Alsone]

I suggest reseting your computer with the cmos battery removed, then swallow the battery and throw the tower out the nearest window.

Just a warning this will kill you!

The speed disadvantage to running 1.5GB is that many boards can't run dual channel on uneven or unmatched ram modules and since dual channel effectively doubles the speed of your ram, this can hit performance hard. Ultimately how much dual channel is needed is also related to your fsb speed and how your computer is making the memory and fsb speeds match.

EDIT: Just read the bit above CPU-Z reporting it as 200mhz. Thats correct if the ram is DDR! Its still running 400mhz though. CPU-Z is reporting the core speed and the core speed of 400mhz ram is 200mhz. Its DDR = Double Data Rate so it sends 2 instructions per cycle and this effectively doubles the speed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM

CPU-Z is the best!!!

 

[trinitron64]

In my experiences cpu-z comes up with incorrect values in the ram fields all the time.

 

[djgandy]

DDR400 = 200mhz = PC3200.

They are the same.

The speed disadvantage to running 1.5GB is that many boards can't run dual channel on uneven or unmatched ram modules and since dual channel effectively doubles the speed of your ram, this can hit performance hard. Ultimately how much dual channel is needed is also related to your fsb speed and how your computer is making the memory and fsb speeds match.

This is total rubbish! Dual channel doesn't double speed. The real world increases are minimal. Allthough theoritically it it's mean to.

No matter how fast your ram is, when you are swapping to disk constantly all that super speed is gone. I can't believe people are telling someone to use a system with 1GB ram over 1.5GB!

 

[Alsone]

I've always found it highly accurate.

This is my system all correctly reported:

My memory is at 667MHZ - corrrectly reported by cpu-z as 333mhz core speed, all the timings are spot on as they're tighter than recommended for the voltage in the mmeory and manually entered making it impossible for cpu-z to use standard figures and on the other tab (not in view below) the timing spreads recommended for the different speeds match exactly those recommended.

 

[Alsone]

The speed disadvantage to running 1.5GB is that many boards can't run dual channel on uneven or unmatched ram modules and since dual channel effectively doubles the speed of your ram, this can hit performance hard. Ultimately how much dual channel is needed is also related to your fsb speed and how your computer is making the memory and fsb speeds match.

This is total rubbish! Dual channel doesn't double speed. The real world increases are minimal. Allthough theoritically it it's mean to.

Yes it does as it sends 1/2 the signal to 1 bank and 1/2 the signal to the other thereby doubling speed, provided of course your FSB needs the extra the speed, if not your system on auto will throttle the speed / memory ratio back to match.

If dual channel doesn't double speed, explain my memory speeds.

I'm on a 1333mhz FSB at 1:1 FSB Ratio.

My memory is running at 667MHZ equivolent (333mhz core speed). Yet I have a perfect 1:1 ratio.

667 mhz x dual channel (2) = ?

You can check the figures in the cpu-z pic I posted above.

 

[trinitron64]

now don't quote me on things i didn't say...

anyways, what i was saying about cpu-z is that, although my system is 24hour prime95 stable, CPU-Z sometimes tells me that instead of having 512 x 2 I have 3032 x 1 and 1gb x 1 ... which is very very very incorrect lol

So sometimes its best to check bios or use another application.

 

[Alsone]

Trinitron you deleted the post after I quoted you so don't complain about the quote. If you got it wrong admit it, no-one will think any the less of you.

Agree no harm in checking the BIOS.

 

[djgandy]

If dual channel doesn't double speed, explain my memory speeds.

I'm on a 1333mhz FSB at 1:1 FSB Ratio.

My memory is running at 667MHZ equivolent (333mhz core speed). Yet I have a perfect 1:1 ratio.

667 mhz x dual channel (2) = ?

You can check the figures in the cpu-z pic I posted above.

huh?

Your FSB clock is 333mhz. Intels FSB is quad pumped thus 333 x 4. This is nothing to do with dual channel.

 

[Alsone]

The FSB frequency is quad pumped, not the memory.

 

[djgandy]

The FSB frequency is quad pumped, not the memory.

Yes I know, I'm not sure what you are going on about though with your 1:1 ratio stuff.

DDR2-667 has a core clock of 333 -> 1:1 with your fsb. Nothing at all to do with dual channel.

 

[Alsone]

You can't compare actual speeds because the FSB can handle quad pumped instructions whereas DDR can only handle double data rate.

So 333mhz on the FSB = 1333 whereas 333mhz on DDR only equals 667. What needs to match are the equivolent speeds ie 1333mhz:1333mHZ.

Also, read the Tom's Hardware OC guide then because they disagree with you:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/04/overclocking_guide_part_2/page6.html#p965_chipset_settings_for_intel_processors

Dual-channel mode allows a pair of DDR2 modules at 533 MHz data rate to provide the same bandwidth as Intel's FSB1066, and keeping memory at a 1:1 ratio with the CPU will assure adequate performance up to the overclocking limit of the CPU or RAM.

 

[djgandy]

You can't compare actual speeds because the FSB can handle quad pumped instructions whereas DDR can only handle double data rate.

So 333mhz on the FSB = 1333 whereas 333mhz on DDR only equals 667. What needs to match are the equivolent speeds ie 1333mhz:1333mHZ.

Also, read the Tom's Hardware OC guide then because they disagree with you:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/04/overclocking_guide_part_2/page6.html#p965_chipset_settings_for_intel_processors

Dual-channel mode allows a pair of DDR2 modules at 533 MHz data rate to provide the same bandwidth as Intel's FSB1066, and keeping memory at a 1:1 ratio with the CPU will assure adequate performance up to the overclocking limit of the CPU or RAM.

Yes it doubles bandwidth, problem is if all the memory requests are for data that is on 1 single module then its useless. It just means you can use 2 memory modules simultaneously. Like i said, no real world performance gain. If it was to truely double performance it would have to be setup like a RAID for memory.

 

[djgandy]

Ok this thread went way too far. Why did dual channel even come up anyway? He has a 1GB module and a 512mb module. How would just using the 1GB give him dual channel?

@OP

Your pc2700 might be able to run at pc3200 speeds, i'd leave it in there tbh. The extra ram is better than the tiny amount of speed lost if it runs at pc2700.

 

[Mondoman]

...

Yes it doubles bandwidth, problem is if all the memory requests are for data that is on 1 single module then its useless.

Yes, but that almost never happens because the chipset interleaves the memory addresses across the two channels, so consecutive memory blocks are accessed on alternating channels. Thus, in practice it does effectively almost double throughput.

... If it was to truely double performance it would have to be setup like a RAID for memory.

It IS setup like RAID 0. It does double throughput.

 

[hobojoe58]

So should i put the other 1GB of PC2700 ( CPU-Z says that 512MB of it is PC2700 and says the other 512MB of it is PC3200, but on BOTH of the sticks it says PC2700) or should I just stick to the 1GB (that is definately PC3200) or slow down and mix match my RAM with different speeds and types?!?!?

 

[Mondoman]

First, I suspect that you are getting the list of manufacturer-approved conservative speed settings in the DIMM's SPD confused with the actual speed the DIMM is being run at. Check out these posts for some info: http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1233230#1233230
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1249881#1249881

Second, it will almost certainly be best just to plug in all the memory DIMMs you have. This is not something to angst about.

 

[r0x0r]

Now you've further confused me...

1.5gigs if PC3200 RAM, that consists of a 1GB stick of Patriot that is 400mhz, and a 512MB stick of supertalent that is only 200mhz fast

So we've got a stick of 400Mhz/PC3200 and a stick of 200Mhz/PC1600 RAM (Could you please check that 200Mhz isn't the SD speed?); or at least I thought so...

So should i put the other 1GB of PC2700 ( CPU-Z says that 512MB of it is PC2700 and says the other 512MB of it is PC3200, but on BOTH of the sticks it says PC2700) or should I just stick to the 1GB (that is definately PC3200)

Where did PC2700 (333Mhz) come from?

Also why don't you run a few bechmarks with 1Gb and 1.5Gb. Then you'll have your answer.