Do the newer 266 FSB Mboards require DDR ram to use the full speed of 266 Mhz T-birds ?

[Ken20]

Do the newer 266 FSB Mboards require DDR ram to use the full speed of 266 Mhz T-birds ?

In other words, will 133 Mhz SDRAM nullify the remaining two parts of the triangle of CPU, MB FSB speed and ram speed ?

In other words, would the use of 133 Mhz SDRAM force the 266 speeds of the MB and CPU to be brought down to a max of 133 Mhz ?

Or would high quality ram, such as compuwiz1? s 133 ram (and possibly to 155 Mhz) work fine with 266 Mhz speed and yet permit a 266 Mhz T-Bird to run to its full max in a 266 FSB Mb such as the Iwill KK266 ?

Thanks,

Ken

 

[nealh]

If you have good sdram...Mushkin, Mosel, Crucial, etc...that can do 133+ then you will have a fsb of 266+...you only need and can use the ddr ram on mobos that support it...the DDR will perform faster than the SDRAM

I have a 1.2(12x100)@1.4 9.5 x 147....my ram is at 294fsb...on Asus A7V133

There are people who are running a higher fsb like 150 with there SDRAM

I am not familiar with the DDR mobos but have heard that some do not have a multiplier adjustment....but this is second hand...

So yes the SDRAM that can do 133+ will run the 266 fsb tbirds fine...

 

[AndyHui]

Using SDR and DDR have no effect on the FSB of AMD Athlon and Duron processors. The processors operate on their own double data rate bus independent of whether or not you are using DDR RAM.

Using DDR RAM in a system will show a performance advantage over SDR, but not to the point of doubling performance.

 

[Ken20]

Thanks, Andy and Neal,
The 266 Mhz T-birds are dropping in price recently and are not that much more than the slightly slower incarnation. Thus, and please enlighten me if I am off here, building a 266 MB and 266 T-bird will just leave me with the DDR ram to make a system more attuned to the future, than would a 133 MB and a 200 Mhz T-bird.
Or am I mistaken in any way that you can see ?

Thanks, Ken

 

[DarkMajiq]

You may want to look at the cost issue though, DDR RAM only gives about a 5-10% performance boost in most cases, and yet costs a lot more. AMD 760-based motherboards (the only DDR chipset on the market at the moment) are also fairly expensive, and lack the features of the KT133A from VIA.

 

[btac]

Ken20,
You will get better performance with a DDR motherboard using the 266mhz FSB T-bird. As Darkmajiq said, though, there is a cost difference. There are several good articles in Anandtech's reviews about the DDR mainboards vs. the KT133a mb's. That information is a lot easier to digest than listening to our opinions - the review on KT133a's VS. DDR SDRAM (http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1386)
is excellent for evaluating this question. It comes down to price vs. performance. DDR has been slow to catch on and the kt133a set may be a thorn for it to get any better.

 

[Ken20]

Thanks guys,
This is what I thought. In that ram is the fastest element in any system, and in that SDRAM boards have had a chance to mature, the value of the DDR, at least until the prices come down, is not going to be that great. So? go with a mature 266 board which accepts SDRAM and a 266 T-Bird and enjoy for a while.
Make sense ?
Best, Ken

 

[smp]

yeah.. i think I read in an anandtech article that the athlons vs the P4's aren't Bandwidth hungry.. they perform almost as well off of SDR as they do DDR.. even if your ram is pc100, your 266 tbird will run at 266.. it's not only talking to the ram..

 

[MowSow]

Why are you forgetting the ALi Magic chipset ... it is killing the AMD 760 !

 

[Ken20]

Interesting. Elaboration, MowSow ?