Memory - How much difference between 3-3-3-11 & 2-2-2-11 ?

[Asghar]

Currently using Crucial PC3200 ram at 200FBS with 3-3-3-11 timings on an Abit NF7-S v2.0.
Will the be much of an improvement if I upgraded to Crucial Ballistix PC3200 with tighter timings of 2-2-2-11. I realise that a small drop in Cas does not make much difference but what about the rest of them. Plus I could use the Crucial Ballistix when I hopefully upgrade to a A64 later this year.

[Thorsson]

In real world terms though you are not talking about a huge difference, maybe 5%, but of course it does depend on the program. Things won't be different on an A64.

The big boost comes if you want to overclock - the faster RAM will also likely overclock much better - although you will have to loosen the timings. BTW the Ballistix officially runs at 2-2-2-6, but it will go tighter than that at 200FSB.

[shiato storm]

the 11 at the end is actually faster than lower numbers. there's an interesting article around somewhere about it. I don't claim to know all there is to know but its quite interesting

[Salazaar]

I'm running generic Crucial pc3200 at 3-3-3-11 myself on a DFI Lanparty NF2. I've actually got the FSB up to 240 Mhz and it seems to be perfectly stable.

[Firelord]

2-2-2-11 will give you great results and if you are in to benchmarking or hardcore video encoding then it will make a big difference.

Athlons do do a lot better at CAS2 over CAS3 though as they like the tight timings

[SilentDeath]

2-2-2-11 will give you great results and if you are in to benchmarking or hardcore video encoding then it will make a big difference.

Athlons do do a lot better at CAS2 over CAS3 though as they like the tight timings

Not entirely true..

Athlons prefer tight timings over FSB, agreed.

The value for money, from upgrading ram is poor though. I doubt you would notice it. Its only about 5% at most, whats that in FPS?

There are better things to get... Like a faster gfx card, mobo and cpu.. Yep, itll cost more but itll be a lot faster..and more future proof, if there is such a thing.....

If you cant afford it, then im sure you can get another 50mhz out of your 9800 (which would give more noticable difference than paying loads for new ram) ...

[jimborae]

Not entirely true..

The value for money, from upgrading ram is poor though. I doubt you would notice it. Its only about 5% at most, whats that in FPS?

There are better things to get... Like a faster gfx card, mobo and cpu.. Yep, itll cost more but itll be a lot faster..and more future proof, if there is such a thing.....

If you cant afford it, then im sure you can get another 50mhz out of your 9800 (which would give more noticable difference than paying loads for new ram) ...

Agreed, unless you're into hardcore overclocking, it would be a waste of money. Plus there's better memory out there than Ballistix, so save your pennies and invest it else where. If you want to overclock or try tighter timings have a go with the stuff you've got, you maybe surprised and it may run with tighter timings.

[Asghar]

I've decided to stick with the memory I have now.
I was going to hopefully overclock the Ballistix later on when I upgraded to a A64 system but I wait and buy some decent memory if/when I upgrade.

[Chimpie]

Eeeeeh... Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought AMD64 like FSB more than tight timings?! That's becoz the memory controller is on-chip now, so tight timings are far less influence compared to AMD-XP. Of course, tight timings help though...

When upgrading to AMD64, u might consider Samsung TCCD instead of Crucial Ballistix. I run Crucial too, but TCCD's run far higher clockspeeds with a decent amount of volts. My Crucials can't really run any higher than 250MHz, no matter what vdimm...

[nakajima]

my crucial value ram runs up to 230 fsb @ 3-2-2-10 1T stable at 3V. have u tried to tighten you timings?
btw the chips are mT -5BC ones, which are similar to the ones used in OCZ EB series. give yours a try

[Firelord]

A64s seems to like 2.5-3-3-7 timings as this is where they get their max fsb

[Chimpie]

What about the thing I keep reading about that tRAS should be 10, and not anything else? Is 2.5-3-3-7 really better?

[Thorsson]

10? 11? Mysterious articles? Have any of you benchmarked this yourselves?

[Dorza]

Asghar if your interested Custom PC will be having a round up of all the latests DDR memory thats on offer in their March issue. Its not in the shops yet but when it is it may be worth a read. They rated the ballistix memory as a good performer but not a good overclockers memory.

[Olly1234]

Take a look here for NF 2.0 benchmarks

http://www.geekextreme.com/modules.p...howpage&pid=30

[Thorsson]

That looks pretty convincing, but I wonder if every stick is the same or whether there is some variation? I'll have to run some tests myself.