K7S5A: How much faster will a system be if using DDR instead of SDR ram?

[JEDI]

i friend of mine has a XP1500+ with k7s5a mobo using SDR ram. if he buys DDR ram, how much of an improvement will he get?

 

[Peter]

Depends heavily on the application. From nada to 80 percent.

regards, Peter

 

[JEDI]

i take it if he's using internet explorer and word, no noticible speed increase?

how about w/gaming, like serious sam2? (he has a geforce3 ti200)

anyone have a link to articles about speed increases when going from sdr to ddr? THX

 

[Athlon4all]

I'd take a look at Anandtech's August Socket A Chipset Roundup. Although that is a tad old, it still compared KT133A, KT266 (non-A version), AMD 760 and SiS 735 with DDR and 735 with SDRAM. On SiS 735, its about 5-6% in Office and CC Apps, while usually around 10% in games.

 

[JEDI]

ahh.thx..so not that much of a difference..certainly not justified to go and buy ddr just to replace the sdr ram

 

[steell]

Or you could check out Thugsrook thread in the O/C Forum where he just posted benchmarks on both 😀

 

[mechBgon]

I did some 3D modelling/rendering/animation benchmarks in Caligari trueSpace 4.3 using a K7S5A with both Crucial PC133 CL2 and Crucial PC2100 DDR, both set to the most-aggressive memory timings. The performance differences amounted to between 0% and 10%, and DDR was faster if there was any difference.

 

[McCarthy]

Hmm, good thread. Been wondering how much my SDR is holding me back on my Iwill KK266-R (KT133A), but considering it's around the same or better than the SIS with SDR and the SIS with DDR isn't too bad my "upgrade" nerves just quieted down a bit. Lot of extrapolation there from one board with one chipset to another with another, but it made sense to me. Benchmarks are nice, but they're like Cliff's Notes for telling a story.

--Mc

 

[Athlon4all]

Hmm, good thread. Been wondering how much my SDR is holding me back on my Iwill KK266-R (KT133A), but considering it's around the same or better than the SIS with SDR and the SIS with DDR isn't too bad my "upgrade" nerves just quieted down a bit. Lot of extrapolation there from one board with one chipset to another with another, but it made sense to me. Benchmarks are nice, but they're like Cliff's Notes for telling a story.

I'd like to comment. SiS 735 is hardly the fastest DDR chipset for the Athlon anymore. If you forget KT333, and DDR333, and just compare SiS 735 to KT266A. Now in office apps, KT266A is usually around 10% faster than a SiS 735 with PC133 or even KT133A. However, in games, the KT266A is anywhere from 10-25% faster than KT133A and SiS 735 with PC133. You see the difference? And those numbers are with an Athlon-C. The XP benefits more from DDR than the Athlon-C. The performance difference is real between SDR and DDR now.

 

[McCarthy]

Oh sure, make me want to upgrade again. Curses!