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right i know this is a noob question but i always thought that the faster the frequency of the RAM the better it was so basically some ddr2 6400 was better than ddr2 5200 but is this only true when overclocking, and if your not overclocking will the 6400 out perform the 5200??
thanx in advance
fresh
if you run the 6400 at DDR800 it will outperform the 5300 running at 667.
Is that your question?
Faster RAM allows you it to keep up with the FSB, which has some performance benefit. But once the RAM is beyond FSB, I suspect that latency/timing might actually count for more.
[Although faster RAM tend to be able to do tighter timing at lower speed anyway]
Also depends on the cpu, I was reading an artical about this (i'll find the link)
basically AMD's get a bigger performance boost from tighter timeings, where as Intel's get better boosts from faster memory.
But as TooNice has said it's also connected to fsb speeds.
With overclocking faster is better because as you increase the fsb speed it tends to also increase the ram speed aswell so slower ram can hit it's max speed and limit the potential oc before the cpu does.
To 'keep up' with the FSB on a core 2 duo you only need PC4200 ram.
The CPU clock on c2d is 266mhz, so you only need 266mhz ram, which is DDR533, which is PC4200/4300.
If you want, you can run a divider, and run the RAM faster than the CPU, and you'll gain a small % performance increase. Or if you're overclocking you can run the CPU clock faster, and both your CPU and RAM will run faster.
right well thanx for all the info, i understand now and will go with the 6400 ram.
fresh