Is DDR 3 way better then DDR 2

[choliscott]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to decide if I want to add another 4 gigs of DDR 2 to my system (goto 8 gigs) or to go & get a new board & get DDR 3. Part of my reasoning is a) DDR 3 is cheaper b) Can get more ram added c) friend wants to upgrade their machine & I had thought about giving him my old board & ram.

So my question, has anybody noticed a difference between ddr 2 & 3 (just in general usage). I do some video editing

Thanks

 

[Blain]

It's not worth a new MB + memory.
Just add another 4GBs of DDR2 (if you feel you need more).

 

[ScottAD]

With the new board will you be going SB? If so, and even if not, get DDR3. The costs is on par with DDR2 or even cheaper in some instances.

DDR3 uses less power and performs faster. What's not to love? 3200-8533 MB/s vs 6400-17066 MB/s. There's no reason not to really.

 

[choliscott]

SB = Sandy Bridge? I assume thats the new intel line of processors (I'm guessing based on some of the other messages I've been reading). If I am correct, I wasn't planning on getting a new processor. At the moment I'm using a 1090-T O/C to 4 ghz

With the new board will you be going SB? If so, and even if not, get DDR3. The costs is on par with DDR2 or even cheaper in some instances.

DDR3 uses less power and performs faster. What's not to love? 3200-8533 MB/s vs 6400-17066 MB/s. There's no reason not to really.

 

[frostedflakes]

Not really. You can actually find DDR2 vs DDR3 reviews using AM2+ and AM3 boards. Makes for a really good comparison since you can use the same CPUs, same chipsets, etc. Pretty much isolates memory as the only variable affecting performance

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-955,2278-3.html

Looking only at the performance, it's not worth it to get a new board and DDR3 IMO.

 

[IGemini]

If you're just talking about a new board/RAM, it's not worth it, just go with the 4GB. I rebooted and set my RAM to full speed just to test this...my memory results were only getting beaten by systems that had CR1 speeds and/or triple channel. And forget the power savings, it won't even pay itself off in your electric bill to balance with getting a new motherboard.

AT looked at this some time ago. Even though DDR3 can clock higher it doesn't really make a difference in performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2232/1

 

[Emulex]

Is DDR3 1333 CL9 faster than DDR2-667 CL4?

honestly - the more ram you can get on the board stable the better. to that end i'd take alot of DDR2-ECC over any amount of DDR3- non-ecc. Or DDR3-ECC.

nowadays 8gb DDR3 are per GB the same as 4gb in 2R which is a good thing. the 1Rx4GB chips are even cheaper to produce which should be a solid bet too.

DDR3 has 1 massive gain - RDIMM ECC. you can have 18+ dimms per socket solid. you won't get that with unbuffered dimms and FB-DIMM DDR2 is just insane in price.

RDIMMS are stupid solid.