How much performance am I losing?

[Sideswipeitman]

Last week a put together a system for my wife on a strict budget - it ended up being an AMD 64 X2 5200+, on an Asus M2N-E motherboard. The only ram that I had available to use was 2 GB of 400 Mhz DDR2.

I realize that is very slow ram copared to the 800+ mhz that you mostly see now, but as it was basically free, I used it. The system runs fine now, but I have to ask: how much performance is being lost by using 400Mhz RAM? The computer is mainly just used for playing World of Warcraft and basic e-mail stuff, so it's not super demanding. I just want to know how much I gimped the overall performance with sub-par ram.

Can anyone give me any idea? Maybe a FPS type comparison?

 

[JustaGeek]

If you are on a strict budget, why are you asking "negative" questions...?

If she can play her games smoothly, that is all that really matters. You are not going to spend $100 on the DDR2 800, right...?

BTW, the performance hit might be just a few FPS, depending more on your Video Card than the RAM speed.

 

[drakore]

Depends on how tight you have the timings.

When it comes to ram, speed isn't everything. With that speed, yes you will lose performance. But if you have it running at CAS3, then the performance hit won't be extremely horrible. You could gain some performance with DDR2-667 or 800 at really really tight timings. Cas 4 minimum.

In the grand scheme of things, you probably aren't losing that much. I can't give you a numerical value.

 

[Sideswipeitman]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
If you are on a strict budget, why are you asking "negative" questions...?

If she can play her games smoothly, that is all that really matters. You are not going to spend $100 on the DDR2 800, right...?

BTW, the performance hit might be just a few FPS, depending more on your Video Card than the RAM speed.

I am asking negative questions I guess because I'm usually a speed nut (my own computer DOES have DDR2 800 for example). If I was cutting down the system performance by like 40% because of the RAM, I'd probably look to upgrade it when I can, but if it's not (which it sounds like), I won't bother.

I just wanted to be sure I wasn't gimping her computer with that ram. Thanks for your help!

 

[JustaGeek]

I fully understand.

My wife's computer has the same C2D E6600 as mine, but running at stock 2.4GHz with DDR2 667 RAM, in ASRock 775Dual-VSTA MB and BFG 7800GS AGP VC.

She plays exclusively Sims 2, and just from time to time I would ask if the computer is running fine.

She seems perfectly happy - I hope your wife is happy with her machine, too.

Definitely no gimping here!

 

[drakore]

post the timings and i can give u a more accurate estimate of performance lost...

You may want to consider getting some ddr2-800 with tight timings... ddr2-667 with tight timings will also work... ram is pretty cheap especially for those in the US...

may be worth the 100$