vjbharadwaj

hi
i have 2gb of ddr2 533mhz
there are 2 things i want to know

1.what is latency n how much does it matter for playing games
2.how do i find out my rams latency

Underclocker

Latency measures how fast the memory is in retrieving data. It's better to have a lower latency, which means it's faster per clock. It's sometimes possible to get up to a 5% gaming performance increase with a lower latency memory.

You can try using CPU-Z which will show you the standard latencies of your RAM as well as the current settings:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

vjbharadwaj

thanks a lot....i ran the cpu-z it says
dram freq- 250.5mhz
fsb dram- cpu\8
caS#latency-4 clocks
ras to cas delay-4 clocks
ras#percentage 4 clocks
cycle time-11 clocks
bank cycle clock 15 clocks


wat does this mean?????????????????????????
and it says my bus speed is 200.04mhz is this good or bad

blackduck30

It seems that your latencies are not bad.

Your dram freq relates to your DDR2 533 as DDR is double data rate

Your bus speed relates to your FSb speed, the frequency of your bus is quad pumped so a bus speed of 200MHz equates to a 800MHz FSB

vjbharadwaj

i want to add some more ram....wat specifications should i look into now that i got this.....should i get another with 4-4-4-12(if this is wat i have)
or is it possible to get a better performance with 3-3-3-12(can i??).

blackduck30

It is always better to get the same spec when adding ram, there is no advantage to getting faster stuff unless you plan to replace the older units soon. Your ram will only run as fast as the slowest units installed. Your system will slow the faster stuff down to match.
so for instance if you purchased DDR2 667 your system would slow it down to 533.
Also if possible try and match the brands for compatibility, not all brands of ram like to work together

vjbharadwaj

thanks a lot i found ur advice very useful i would have wasted a lotta money on faster ram(which would have been useless).......cheers...
by the way how much performance diff will i get with a ddr2 800mhz over 533

blackduck30

well it won't be break neck improvement but it will seem snapier

The think you have to take into account is that your motherboard actually supports DDR2 800 because if it does not it won't run at those speeds and will default back to the max speed supported, say 667 for example.

do you know what motherboard you have and i can possibly check for you if you want

vjbharadwaj

i have an asus m2n pv mx mobo.


http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...69&modelmenu=1

blackduck30

this is a really good deal at the moment

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $29 ( after rebate )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034

vjbharadwaj

wats the difference btw single channel and dual channel........i have 2gb 533 at 4-4-4-12 so do i scrap it or can i use it along with the dual channel 800

blackduck30

well your 533 will be running in dual channel if you have 2X1G in there.

Dual channel provides more bandwidth for your system to tranferr data to and fro

With dual channel ram the 2 sticks are matched together so both perform the same ( not one better than the other )

As for should you get the 800, well I don't think you will get a WOW effect but your system will run faster when loaded I think

vjbharadwaj

i first used to have a 1gb 533mhz ram with 4-4-4-12, then i added another 1 gb(of the same brand) but this was 667mhz with 5-5-5-15. they both are running at 533mhz now with 4-4-4-12......but because of this i found that when i start my comp it takes forever to boot windows.....n games run faster but i had some freezing effects in game after 30 secs...i suspect this is because of mismatch of 533 and 667....now will adding 800 increase the mismatch n cause more delay in load time n freezing in games??????

blackduck30

Well not if you just run DDR2 800

if you really wanted to you could run the DDR2 800 I listed above 2X1G $29 (after rebate )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034

and this to bring you up to 3G

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $24

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145040

The thing you will have to do tho is if you run this ram you should go into the bios and set your ram voltage manually to 2.1V.

If set at auto there is a chance your system will only select 1.8V and you could run into trouble