Why no performance increase?

[ICTech]

I just installed 4gb of Crucial Ballistix ram and my "Windows Experience Index" went from a 5.3 w/ stock 3gb to a 5.1 with the Crucial ram. Here's my pc:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16883107696

Here's the new ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820148212

Do I need to do something? Did I waste my money?

Thanks

 

[masteryoda34]

What timings is your memory running at?

If you don't know, then download CPU-Z and take a screenshot of the memory tab and post it here.

 

[ICTech]

OK. I have the screen shot but I don't see how to attach it to this reply.

BTW, I installed the sticks in slots 1 and 2. I hope that was right. It says "Single" channel on the memory tab of CPU-Z. Should that be "Dual" channel?

 

[imported_harlanpepper]

Should be dual channel, which in my experience (check your motherboard manual) is usually slots 1 & 3.

 

[ICTech]

Unfortunately I don't have a mobo manual and the only info I could find on HP's site about it didn't specify that type of info, but, if the usual is 1&3 then that explains it. However, the speeds shown on CPU-Z are 5-5-5-18 and my new memory should be 4-4-4-12. Would the wrong slot cause that too?

 

[ICTech]

On another note, would leaving my original 1gb sticks in the two open slots give me anything? I'm not running Vista-64 and the original ram was PC2-5300.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Try moving the module in the 2 slot and put it into the 3 slot and test again.

 

[ICTech]

OK. I'm now in slots 1 & 3 and the "Windows Experience Index" is now a 5.5, up from 5.3 stock.
The memory tab of CPU-Z is now showing dual channel but the timing still shows 5-5-5-18. Is that something I need to update manually or am I misreading something?? I breezed though the bios setup but didn't see anything in there.

 

[Yellowbeard]

On an HP, you won't be able to adjust these latencies due to HP locking the BIOS.

 

[ICTech]

Sounds like I wasted some money. :frown:

Was I correct in that I will see no benefit from reinstalling 2gb of my old ram in the open slots?

 

[Yellowbeard]

Originally posted by: ICTech
Sounds like I wasted some money. :frown:

Was I correct in that I will see no benefit from reinstalling 2gb of my old ram in the open slots?

Don't base your evaluation on some nebulous Vista rating. If you "need" 4GB of memory, you'll see the advantages when your system memory usage exceeds 2GB. If your memory usage never approached 2GB in the past or if you were not paging a lot of data to the page file, then you will likely see very little gain with the extra 2GB.

As to the old 2GB, I would only install it if you "need" more than 4GB.

 

[DSF]

A lot of the time that's something you'd have to set up manually. However, Dell and HP don't generally include those options in their systems to prevent people from damaging anything.

 

[ICTech]

I'm not using the Vista rating as my only evaluation. I've rendered some HDV files in Sony Vegas before and after and have seen no performance increase at all. From what I understand, this is a memory intensive operation.

I'm on the HP website and am looking for alternatives to my BIOS. Is this a waste of time? Has someone chased that rabbit already?

Oh, btw, stock was 3gb (2 1gb sticks and 2 512mb sticks of PC2-5300). I just assumed that better quality memory would help me with my render times.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Originally posted by: ICTech
I'm not using the Vista rating as my only evaluation. I've rendered some HDV files in Sony Vegas before and after and have seen no performance increase at all. From what I understand, this is a memory intensive operation.

I'm on the HP website and am looking for alternatives to my BIOS. Is this a waste of time? Has someone chased that rabbit already?

Oh, btw, stock was 3gb (2 1gb sticks and 2 512mb sticks of PC2-5300). I just assumed that better quality memory would help me with my render times.

The video renedering is going to be more affected by CPU cycles than by memory. You might have seen some improvement going from 1GB to 2Gb. However, if you were not running out of memory or thrashing the HD from page file usage, this program will not benefit from more memory.

And, you won't find a BIOS that will allow you to OC. As DSF noted, HP locks this to keep users from damaging their system or renedering it inoperable.

 

[ICTech]

Well poo. I appreciate everyones help. Thanks.

 

[n7]

HP BIOS = you shoulda just bought the cheapest DDR2-667 5-5-5 1.8v you could find...there's zero point in buying high end RAM for prebuilts as you cannot touch anything in the BIOS.