DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 vs. DDR2-800 5-5-5-18

[Sheeze]

Would one get the same performance out of these two specs? I was wondering about the relationship between data rates and timings, like if the faster rate makes up for the slower timings.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

They are about the same... Tighter timings might be *slightly* faster, but higher speed lets you OC a bit more.

 

[DSF]

Most DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 or 5-5-5-18 will generally do DDR2-667 4-4-4-12. It's basically the same. RAM timings are just about the last thing to worry about in terms of performance for most applications anyway.

 

[Denithor]

Why would you even buy DDR2-667 memory today? DDR2-800 is the standard and you often need at least that much speed to fully overclock a cpu these days.

And BTW, memory timings has nearly no impact (<1% even in most benchmarks, let alone actual applications) on performance.

 

[n7]

Roughly the same, though in synthetics, 800 5-5-5 will likely be a tiny bit faster.

 

[Sheeze]

Thanks for the answers. I was just wondering since I had replaced a couple of DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 sticks with DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 and didn't really have a way of quantifying any performance increases.