Ram speed = FSB speed? Few questions on OCing.

[Desipher]

Im told by a few people that if my FSB speed is faster then my ram speed, I wont get any performance increase when overclocking my cpu, just extra heat. Is this true? I overclocked my XP 3200+ barton to 213x11=2332mhz, from 2.2ghz (I cant get it any higher ={) and the vcore is currently at 1.75v. Im using a thermaltake silentboost heatsink, and my case is cooled pretty well (120mm intake on front, 120mm on rear) I also have a 400w SilenX PSU.

Right now my ram is is PC2700 333mhz OCed to 352mhz, and my FSB is at 213x2 like I mentioned. Any tips I can get from you guys?

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Desipher
Im told by a few people that if my FSB speed is faster then my ram speed, I wont get any performance increase when overclocking my cpu, just extra heat. Is this true? I overclocked my XP 3200+ barton to 213x11=2332mhz, from 2.2ghz (I cant get it any higher ={) and the vcore is currently at 1.75v. Im using a thermaltake silentboost heatsink, and my case is cooled pretty well (120mm intake on front, 120mm on rear) I also have a 400w SilenX PSU.

Right now my ram is is PC2700 333mhz OCed to 352mhz, and my FSB is at 213x2 like I mentioned. Any tips I can get from you guys?

I've always run the memory and fsb at the same speed, for me that gives the most stability and performance. If I was you I would ditch the PC2700 memory and get PC3200 memory and run your cpu and memory at the same speed ie 200mhz.

 

[Desipher]

ok... so whats the point of buying nice ram if your gonna underclock it?

 

[Margalus]

are you running dual channel ram? if you have it dual channel it won't matter as much. If you are running single channel, it will hurt your performance a bit since your cpu will be starved for memory bandwidth. With amd's, running single channel with the memory and fsb the same you get the best results. Then the cpu and the memory both have exactly the same bandwidth, if you run the memory slower you decrease it's bandwidth and thus don't give the cpu all it needs to run efficiently. If you have dual channel ram with an amd though, you can do that since you will double the memory's bandwidth and thus supply the cpu with all it wants, even with the memory running quite a bit slower.

 

[BiPolar]

but if you run the dual channel at the same speed as the cpu, will you get even better results? Can you run it a higher speed and get better results or is it a case of diminishing returns?

 

[Margalus]

Originally posted by: BiPolar
but if you run the dual channel at the same speed as the cpu, will you get even better results? Can you run it a higher speed and get better results or is it a case of diminishing returns?

with an amd system it won't help. Your cpu can only use so much bandwidth. With dual channel memory at the same speed your memory will be supplying twice as much bandwidth as the cpu can use. So your memory will only be working at 50% efficiency. It is of no real help. As long as the bandwidth supplied by the memory is at least equal to what the cpu needs your will run at optimal speed. Increasing the memory beyond that point isn't of much use.

the reason dual channel is of so much help with p4's is because they need twice as much bandwidth as ddr at the same speed can supply.