Question: RAM and performance

[CarbonatedWater]

Hello,

I was looking at ram prices and saw something I liked so I figured I'd ask..

current system:

1ghz amd tbird
192MB PC100 Ram
Geforce 2 MX 32MB DDR PCI

anyways, curious if anyone thinks I'd see any improvement if I
traded the 192MB PC100 for 256MB PC133


computer is slow.... well, the video card doesn't help the speed lol.. but I can't afford better right now.

 

[Viper GTS]

Got news for you, you could drop a stick of "PC166" in that machine & it would still run at 100 MHz.

That being said, you'd likely notice a performance increase from the 33% increase in physical memory.

Viper GTS

 

[CarbonatedWater]

"Got news for you, you could drop a stick of "PC166" in that machine & it would still run at 100 MHz"

curious as to what ya mean...

why would it still run at 100mhz?

 

[smp]

Depends on your board. Let us know what board you have. If your board supports ram @133 then yeah, sure, otherwise no.
I think that ViperGTS mixed it up a bit and figured that since you have an Athlon B, you have 100 FSB .. I hava an Athlon B too, but my A7V can run the ram at 133, and it is better than at 100. At least, benches are

More ram might be better. If you are running 98 then you probably won't notice, but if you are running 2000 or XP then yeah, you would notice that more memory might be better (less paging).

 

[CarbonatedWater]

Hmm,

it's an asus board....

manual says a7v133

200/266mhz fsb AGP pro/4x
JumperFree pc133/vc133

 

[Viper GTS]

<< Depends on your board. Let us know what board you have. If your board supports ram @133 then yeah, sure, otherwise no.
I think that ViperGTS mixed it up a bit and figured that since you have an Athlon B, you have 100 FSB .. I hava an Athlon B too, but my A7V can run the ram at 133, and it is better than at 100. At least, benches are

More ram might be better. If you are running 98 then you probably won't notice, but if you are running 2000 or XP then yeah, you would notice that more memory might be better (less paging). >>



Presuming his current memory is running at 100 MHz, any new RAM he drops in will also run at 100 MHz.

If his board is capable of running the CPU & memory at different speeds, then he could raise the memory speed to 133. Or, he could lower the multiplier on his TBird to 7.5 & run both CPU and memory at 133.

CarbonatedWater

Is your TBird a 100/200 MHz or 133/266 MHz chip?

If it's a 100, you should unlock it & lower the multiplier to 7.5. Then you can run both CPU and memory at 133 Mhz.

Viper GTS

 

[CarbonatedWater]

I wasn't speaking of just dropping in the new chip with the pc100 chips, was talkin about changin em...


dunno about the tbird.... just got it like a month ago...

 

[CarbonatedWater]

where I purchased it from just says

THUNDER BIRD 1GHZ (SOCKET A) (200MHZ)

 

[Viper GTS]

<< I wasn't speaking of just dropping in the new chip with the pc100 chips, was talkin about changin em... >>



If your memory is PC100 you most likely have a 100/200 TBird. Of course you could be running your PC100 at 133.

[EDIT]OK, you definitely have a 100 MHz TBird. Unlock it & lower the multiplier, then you can run your entire system at 133. You should see a decent performance boost that way.[/EDIT]

Viper GTS

 

[CarbonatedWater]

Thx for the info,

not gonna mess with something I dunno nothing about (unlocking and stuff)

guess to get some more performance I'll get a new video card one day lol... gf3's are so damn expensive.

 

[BreakApart]

Here you go... PC133 -vs- PC100
Great article that explains how CAS ratings and 100 vs 133 come into play on the average system.


Here is another article... Memory Bandwidth Explained
Another good Article.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

the issue here is running memory at 133 with a 100 fsb cpu,
you gain memory bandwith, but also wait states because of cpu and memory running asynchronously.

the overall improvement - 100/133 vs 100/100 - is not significant.

upgrading from 192M 100/100 to 256M 100/133, you won't see significant improvement.
if you're using win2k or xp, you should upgrade to 512M.

how about upgrade the vga card first?

 

[veryape]

I don't know why you guys are all saying he won't see any increase in performance by going to 133 memory, especially if he runs it at cas 2 he should see a decent performance increase. It won't be earth shattering but it will definitely be noticable, at least it was when I upgraded my memory to pc133 on my AK72, which has the option of running the memory at 133 and the FSB at 100. As long as he has that option he should see an increase IMO.
[EDIT] I think you guys have forgotten what it's like to run a measly Athlon or a TBird. Every bit counts. I think you guys are spoiled by DDR and the new XP chips.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

<< I don't know why you guys are all saying he won't see any increase in performance by going to 133 memory, >>

We never said he won't see any increase in performance. The fact is the performance increase is not significant, he'll only see it in benchmark program, he won't see it in normal use.

 

[extreme100]

IMHO, there should be some differnce, since now you have FSB bandwith (2x100 MHz)
of 1.6 GB/s, and memory bandwith of (100 Mhz) 0.8 GB/s. If you put PC133 (and set memory
frequency in BIOS to 133MHz), you will get 1.05 GB/s bandwith of RAM, and it will less
bottleneck your system.