Need to know PC133 is really worth it

[swayinOtis]

I have a Duron 650@950 in a KT7. I currenly have 64MB of PC100 ram. I want to get a 128MB stick of PC133 but I am not sure if it is really worth it. I am not worried about the price so much as the performance. Is there enough of a performance difference between the two? I got mixed up after reading an old article somewhere that said it wasn't that much of a difference. Given my hardware, what do y'all think?

Thanks for any info.

 

[jinsonxu]

Try clocking your ram to PC133 and CAS2 first. If it can hold up, you've got cool ram. If not get a 128MB PC133 stick.

I've posted before on a similar thread a month or so back. The performance increase from PC100 CAS3 to PC133 CAS2 is something like 15%. When benchmarking pure memory performance, it's 32%.

 

[Vpham97]

You don't have to consider Pc133 alone in your decision.

Jumping from 64 to 128 would be worth it.

Unless, of course, you plan on waiting until early next year to build a whole new system and use DDR memory.



Firing Squad's Pc100 Vs. Pc133; Cas 2 Vs. Cas 3 Test

 

[robinhung]

The difference between the price of PC133 and PC100 is small. Maybe a generic PC100 ram is cheaper, but it may have a compatible problem with KT7.

 

[swayinOtis]

Thanks for the link to the FS's test. To me it doesn't look like PC133 is worth it so I will probably just stick with PC100. This system is really just a temporary budget model until DDR becomes the norm so I don't want to put too much into it, even with the price of ram falling.

Thanks.

 

[RoadRuner]

I went from pc-100 on my duron using 9.5x100 to
8.5x110 cas2 with some mushkin and i'd have to say its about 30% real world speed increase.

notice 8.5x110 is slower than 9.5x100, but the overclocked fsb simply rocks hard.

 

[teras]

pc-150 from mwave..105 shipped...best damn choice i ever had to make....spanks my old pc-133 ram.....

 

[snow patrol]

The real benefit of PC133 RAM is with overclocking Intel based CPUs, where you're overclocking via the FSB rather than the multiplier. In such cases it's vital to have RAM that can hack the higher bus speeds, especially so on BX motherboards.

PC133 RAM (particularly cas2) is faster than PC100 and does offer a magional performance boost. If you're buying new RAM anyway, you may as well shoot for PC133.