does 2gig of ram OC better than 1gig?

[E6700]

i've notice every overclockers have atleast 2gigs ram or more in their system, so i was wondering if 2gig gives better overclocking than 1 gig. thanks

 

[StopSign]

No it doesn't. I use 2 gigs because it's more future proof. If you look at what happened in the past ~2 years, the standard memory size has increased dramatically. When I built my first system 2 years ago, people were still saying that 512 is fine. Several months later, 1 gig became the standard and anything lower is "not enough." Nowadays 1 gig is enough but what about on year in the future? Memory is one of the transferable parts in a computer and if I decide to upgrade in the next couple years, I can still use my 2 gigs (which will probably still be enough by the future standards) if DDR2 is still used.

But most people here use 2 gigs because they play games and some big titles require a lot of memory.

 

[Noubourne]

You use 2G because you need it.

More RAM actually overclocks worse. The more chips you have, the higher the chance is that one of them will not be able to stand up to the intense voltage and heat often caused by overclocking. In the old days (ok, 5 years ago), people used to boast the highest CPU overclocks with 256MB of RAM, because a pair of sticks to get the typical 512MB in the rig which was basically needed for gaming would often prevent them from reaching the highest CPU clocks.

 

[Shimmishim]

I think back in the ddr1 days, more ram = worse overclocking... but it appears with DDR2 that is not the case.

Even for benching, most peole tend to use 2x1gig and get great results.

 

[nanaki333]

Originally posted by: StopSign
Memory is one of the transferable parts in a computer and if I decide to upgrade in the next couple years, I can still use my 2 gigs (which will probably still be enough by the future standards) if DDR2 is still used.

not if they change memory standards again for the next round of cpu/mobos 😉

 

[Noubourne]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
I think back in the ddr1 days, more ram = worse overclocking... but it appears with DDR2 that is not the case.

Even for benching, most peole tend to use 2x1gig and get great results.

I can't really speak for whether or not this is the case in practice for DDR2 b/c I don't have experience with it, but more and bigger chips still increases the chances of hardware failure, especially when stressed.

I should have mentioned that I believe the reason people are stuffing more RAM into their overclocked rigs today (UP to 2GB, rarely OVER 2GB), is that the goals have changed. It used to be who can get the highest CPU clocks and boot into Windows, period. Today, the community is more developed/matured (or for whatever reason) and people are now shooting for world record benchmark scores. Since those scores are often dependent on more than just the CPU (3dMark, and even SuperPi for example), extreme enthusiast overclockers are now including more powerful supporting hardware to boost the performance of their extreme overclocked CPUs. I think it's a good trend. LN2 CPU-Z validated 5+Ghz screenies aren't that impressive to me. I want to know what OC I can shoot for 24/7 for gaming.

You still aren't likely to see much paired 2GBx2 DDR2 RAM kits in the world record OCs, because it is VERY, very hard to get that much RAM to run at good timings without pumping insane volts through it, and when you do that, you get heat issues. There is still a physical limit that people are hitting with DDR2, so I am not sure that it's true that DDR2 doesn't have the same issue. It's just that manufacturing has improved and that limit is now higher.

It will probably take Vista to really show this, since XP doesn't use more than 3GB for a single application or something like that, and nobody makes dual-channel 3GB kits that I know of anyway...

 

[Shimmishim]

I agree with you that more is more stressful...

with ddr1 you'd see 2x256 and 2x512 for benching..
with ddr2 you see 2x512 and 2x1024 for benching..
with ddr3... ? who knows? maybe the trend will continue... and it helps, like you said, that we now have Vista which can use more memory

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: nanaki333

Originally posted by: StopSign
Memory is one of the transferable parts in a computer and if I decide to upgrade in the next couple years, I can still use my 2 gigs (which will probably still be enough by the future standards) if DDR2 is still used.

not if they change memory standards again for the next round of cpu/mobos 😉

So let's kneel and pray that DDR3 doesn't come out for another couple years at least.

 

[E6700]

thanks for the responses guys 🙂

 

[Noubourne]

Originally posted by: StopSign

Originally posted by: nanaki333

Originally posted by: StopSign
Memory is one of the transferable parts in a computer and if I decide to upgrade in the next couple years, I can still use my 2 gigs (which will probably still be enough by the future standards) if DDR2 is still used.

not if they change memory standards again for the next round of cpu/mobos 😉

So let's kneel and pray that DDR3 doesn't come out for another couple years at least.

AMD's K10 is supposed to come out with DDR3 support in Q3 last I heard (though that could have changed), and FWIW, Video Cards are already moving to DDR4. I can't remember when Intel plans to move to DDR3. Moving to 1066 or 1333 FSB doesn't seem to give them much of a boost on C2D, so DDR3 support may not do much for them.

FB-DIMMs don't seem to be going anywhere at the moment. I think they were removed from both Intel and AMD roadmaps awhile back.

 

[StopSign]

K10? What happened to K9?

 

[Noubourne]

They scrapped that design a long time ago.

 

[Roguestar]

Also trademark issues.

 

[Pens1566]

Originally posted by: StopSign
K10? What happened to K9?

It was a dog of a CPU!!!

 

[StopSign]

It was also a movie starring Harrison Ford...

 

[JEDIYoda]

depends......most of the time the amount of ram isn`t associated with over clocking.....
But if I may....
I am told that if you have 4 sticks of say 512 meg memory x4 sticks....
Say you have 2 sticks of 1024 meg
Both equal 2 gigs but the 2 sticks will over clock much better than the 4 sticks.....

Other than that in my own over clocking memory has has not been a factor.
whether I use 3200 or 3500 memory verses a highend brand of memory verses a cheap brand of memory makes all the difference in the world.
Yet for mild over clocking even the cheap memory is over clockable.

Good Luck!!