2GB > 3GB?

[clarkey01]

I have 32-bit Vista and I game a lot

online I get lag on BF 2 running medium settings

Would going from 2GB to 3GB make much difference?

Also because I have 32 bit vista and have a GTS with 640MB then I can only have a max ram of 3GB as 32-bit windows can only see 4GB?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

The lag time is probably caused by your ISP. 3GB will help, but not not by a huge amount unless you're running out of physical memory at 2GB.

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
The lag time is probably caused by your ISP. 3GB will help, but not not by a huge amount unless you're running out of physical memory at 2GB.

I'l have to buy another 2GB pair to keep my dual channel wont I ?

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: clarkey01

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
The lag time is probably caused by your ISP. 3GB will help, but not not by a huge amount unless you're running out of physical memory at 2GB.

I'l have to buy another 2GB pair to keep my dual channel wont I ?

You can still run dual-channel if you add a 2 x 512MB kit to your existing 2 x 1GB kit

 

[JustaGeek]

I was running out of memory with 2GB of RAM playing Quake 4 in Ultra Quality settings.

It was sometimes showing 99%, causing "jittery" gameplay.

My new maximum with 3GB is about 72%, or about 2.18GB, and the gameplay is much smoother.

Using Logitech G15 keyboard and its memory meter.

 

[alcoholbob]

Don't you have to overlock your RAM to make up for the latency loss from 1T (two identical sticks) and 2T (everything else).

What I'm saying is, from what I've read, 1024x2 and 512x2 versus just 1024x2 forces you to default to 2T timings.

Also I believe 4GB is possible in Vista 32bit (2GB x 2), you need to enable memory remap on certain motherboard BIOSs as well as install a Windows Vista update (probably means you have to start out with 2GB, then put the other 2GB stick in later).

 

[JustaGeek]

There is almost no latency loss between 1T and 2T on Intel platform, and in most of the cases 1T is not even possible (stable).

We've had multiple discussions here on AT about running >=4GB of RAM, and based on what I've learned, it is not possible to address more that 4GB on a 32-bit OS. Any 32-bit OS for that matter.

Read this:

http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

And this, "short and sweet":

http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsu...M_w-Windows_08Ap07.pdf

 

[alcoholbob]

Ah...sorry didn't notice it was Intel platform lol.

I still have a neolithic AMD 939 platform so I assumed there was gonna be a decent performance loss moving from 1T to 2T. (I had mulled the idea of 2x1GB and 2x512mb, but I didn't want to drop down 20% in memory speed which is associated with moving to 2T on an AMD platform.

 

[clarkey01]

I may stick another 2GB, just having trouble finding a place in the UK that sells Gskil

Plus I know I have 6400 800 Mhz DDR2, but from the stuff I seen there seems to be a few Gskil products with that description, is they a program which can Identify what ram I have exactly?

I may mix Geil and Gskill, aslong as there at the same speeds I'm ok arnt I ?

 

[JustaGeek]

You should be OK if you mix two differend brands, as long as:

1. The rated Voltage is the same (most important!!!)
2. The rated frequency is the same - e.g. PC6400/DDR2-800
3. The timings are the same: e.g. 4-4-4-12.

Good luck!

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
You should be OK if you mix two differend brands, as long as:

1. The rated Voltage is the same (most important!!!)
2. The rated frequency is the same - e.g. PC6400/DDR2-800
3. The timings are the same: e.g. 4-4-4-12.

Good luck!

I may just go and buy 4GB. Infact I am going to do that


Will board support 1066Mhz ram?

Also will my overclock still work?

which is the best brand for 4GB, i dont mind spending up to £200 ($350) ish on the ram

 

[mouthwash]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
You should be OK if you mix two differend brands, as long as:

1. The rated Voltage is the same (most important!!!)
2. The rated frequency is the same - e.g. PC6400/DDR2-800
3. The timings are the same: e.g. 4-4-4-12.

Good luck!

i am new to this ram mixing thing, so basically what will happend if any one of those 3 points not matched, what kind of symptom might occur? something serious or just not able to boot? thanks

 

[JustaGeek]

What might happen is theis:

Re: 1. The rated Voltage is the same (most important!!!) You must set the voltage to the higher rating, that might damage the stick rated for lower voltage.

Re: 2. The rated frequency is the same - e.g. PC6400/DDR2-800 The sticks rated for 667MHz will (most likely) not be able to run at 800MHz, so you should set all of them for lower frequency, and hope that they can run stable at that frequency.

Re: 3. The timings are the same: e.g. 4-4-4-12. If you mix ex. 4-4-4-12 and 5-5-5-15. you might have to set all of them for slower 5-5-5-15. This is the only drawback, so this seems like the "least" important issue.


Each and all of the above might cause instability: freezing, crashes, BSOD's, failed POST.

Not worth the risk, IMO.

 

[lopri]

I am afraid to say that the stability of running 4 slots (and to a certain extent 4GB) is more dependent on the board/chipset than individual sticks with Intel platform. And when you can't successfully run all 4 sticks at their rated speed/latency, memory vendors will tell you that those specs are only guaranteed under 2x1GB configuration. Most of the time, 4x1GB will work at non-overclocked setup. (such as 266FSB/DDR2-667, 266FSB/DDR2-800 or 333FSB/DDR2-800) And I haven't seen a DDR2-667 stick that can't do DDR2-800, although timings/voltages might need adjustment. But the situation changes dramatically when you start overclocking FSB like 400+. Board/chipset will start acting funny and it's very likely that you won't hit the same CPU/memory overclock that you were able to achieve with 2x1GB configuration. There is, however, slight performance boost by way of interleaving (under exact frequency/latency, 4 sticks will give better performance than 2 sticks) and that can make up a little bit of loss on the CPU/FSB overclock.

The best compromise in my opinion is to relax chipset/memory timings when going from 2GB to 4GB. That way you don't lose out on CPU speed and at the same time you get much better computing experience thanks to the increased capacity of RAM. You will lose out on the memory overclocking (be it frequency or timing) but as we all know memory overclocking makes little difference in actual usage scenarios. I did notice that high performance memory benefit smaller L2 CPUs more than larger L2 CPUs, which is kinda natural if you think about it. Just don't buy those uber mega ultra extreme turbo belly memory that are sold for ridiculous premium.

 

[mouthwash]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
What might happen is theis:

Re: 1. The rated Voltage is the same (most important!!!) You must set the voltage to the higher rating, that might damage the stick rated for lower voltage.

Re: 2. The rated frequency is the same - e.g. PC6400/DDR2-800 The sticks rated for 667MHz will (most likely) not be able to run at 800MHz, so you should set all of them for lower frequency, and hope that they can run stable at that frequency.

Re: 3. The timings are the same: e.g. 4-4-4-12. If you mix ex. 4-4-4-12 and 5-5-5-15. you might have to set all of them for slower 5-5-5-15. This is the only drawback, so this seems like the "least" important issue.


Each and all of the above might cause instability: freezing, crashes, BSOD's, failed POST.

Not worth the risk, IMO.

i see, thanks alot for the info, sure didnt know that before, in my old comp, i always mix 2 set of ram with other 2 sets of different brands and rated speed, could be lucky as it was running alright.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: clarkey01

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
The lag time is probably caused by your ISP. 3GB will help, but not not by a huge amount unless you're running out of physical memory at 2GB.

I'l have to buy another 2GB pair to keep my dual channel wont I ?

You can still run dual-channel if you add a 2 x 512MB kit to your existing 2 x 1GB kit

Huh you can?! I was under the impression you needed 4 identical sticks if you wanted to do dual channel with 4 sticks.

 

[Sphexi]

I went from a kit of 2x512MB OCZ Gold DDR2 800 by themselves up to 3GB with an additional kit of 2x1GB OCZ GOld DDR2 800. Works fantastic. I have noticed that while playing HL2 and Overlord and a few other newer games that there's well over 2GB of memory being taken up, but I tend to leave other programs (Maxthon, Steam, Trillian, etc) running, so that may be why. I'd probably say that 3GB is worth it.

 

[TedKord]

No, you just need identical sticks on each channel. I ran 2X1gb Corsair PC2-6400 and 2X512mb Kingston ValueRam PC2-6400 for a while in dual channel. The only problem I ran into was the differing timings of each - memtest86+ errors. So I had to ditch the KVR and got two more sticks of the Corsair, for a total of 4GB. Of course, my XP Pro only sees 3GB, but 3GB was what I was going for anyway, but now no memtest errors.


But the point is the 2X1GB and 2X512MB ran in dual channel. And really sped up my video editing software. Just this morning I came downstairs to 12+ hours of memtest with no errors.


Oh, I should have mentioned - Either the Corsair or the KVR would run error free in Memtest86+ alone, but only when I put in all 4 sticks did I have a problem. Even the Corsair had errors when set to auto timings. I had to manually put in the factory recommended timings, and bump the voltage from 1.8v to 2.0v.