Another Build

[flareback]

Thanks to both for the answer.

[Verran]

@Praz

That's good info on the tRd and real-world benefits of straps/dividers. I can at least finally see where some benefits could come from there. I'm still a little washy on quantifying those benefits though. It'd be awesome to see someone knowledgeable enough (like yourself) to do a side-by-side test and see the difference in some benches (gaming specifically, but even FP and mem stuff just as FYI). I may try it on my own but I'm not sure I know enough to demonstrate it properly. I've admittedly never taken the time to care much about micro-management tweaks.

 

I guess my over-all look at it really hasn't changed much, though. Realistically, when you split out the percentage of people who are really going to tweak tRd at all, it's a pretty small sub-set. If it's not the standard [CAS][RAS to CAS][RAS Pre][TRAS] I'd say 90% of the people here will probably never touch it. Most people don't even touch command per clock now that we've moved on to DDR2. But even assuming you're one of these types, I still think the upgrade price of going to higher speed RAM would usually be more beneficial when spent on upgrading something else (usually the vgu).

[wevsspot]

Kind of expounding on Praz's observations. I've made the mistake in the past of buying higher frequency RAM with looser timings only to find that my other components couldn't really maximize the full potential of the RAM, actually resulting in worse performance than had I stayed with a kit rated at lower speeds, but with tighter timings. It was a mistake I never repeated.

[Verran]

Kind of expounding on Praz's observations. I've made the mistake in the past of buying higher frequency RAM with looser timings only to find that my other components couldn't really maximize the full potential of the RAM, actually resulting in worse performance than had I stayed with a kit rated at lower speeds, but with tighter timings. It was a mistake I never repeated.

This was classic in A64 (oooooold skool these days )

 

People would "upgrade" their low latency DDR400 to high latency DDR500 or 550. The numbers are higher, so it's better... right? So they plug in the new sticks and meanwhile they haven't actually changed their HTT settings at all, so all they've really done is moved over to higher latencies. And it was even worse over there in A64-world because the Integrated Memory Controller handled memory so well that no one even considered positive memory dividers. DDR500 was only worth it if you were fairly convinced your chip would hit 250+, and even then, why not just run a divider and drop it down?

 

The problem is that a lot of people don't understand why the memory speed on the box isn't necessarily what you're going to get. It depends on the chip and the OC.

[wevsspot]

The A64/NF4 was the exact platform I made that mistake on Never again!

[Verran]

The A64/NF4 was the exact platform I made that mistake on Never again!

Me too! Luckily my Opt148 ran 300FSB

[dr_bowtie]

true on AMD you have to be able to run high fsb to use the full potential of the ram...

 

Even on one of my AM2 rigs I have Crucial Ballistix ddr2-1066 and it will NOT run the rated latencies at anywhere near the rated speeds...

 

but did allow me to obtain a higher overclock in general...I actually was able to hit 3400mhz on a Brisbane 4000-X2

 

But on the 939 platform I still have some of the famed Patriot-XBLK ddr400 that I was able to run a stable 340fsb with...also on a Opty 148

 

that was 1:1 on the ram....TCCD forever...lol

[EllisD]

Between a Dual and a Quad...well, you're a folder, lol Quad or bust

[flareback]

Actually, with the lowered price in the RAM I'm going to splurge a little and get:

Q9450

I've gone with a little less expensive case in order to get the CPU.