Ram speed framerate.

Cassius · 12-05-2009, 11:32 PM

Seen as my computer went to hell in a rather spectacular way and is probably being used by Hitler right now to look up and make motifake pictures of himself, I am in the process of upgrading.

I was wondering, how much impact does the ram speed all else being equal, have on framerate ?
4 gig DDR400 Ram would be about 100 Euro, while 4 gig of DDR3 1600 can cost as much as 190 Euro.

How much impact would that have ? Are we talking of a difference of 3-6 frames per second between the slowest ram you can slap on the board and the fastest, is the difference more signifcant than that, or is there no difference at all, with even the slowest ram not being slow enough to act as a bottleneck ?

GoreZiad · 12-06-2009, 07:36 AM

Depends on what kind of Windowns you have. Xp 32 can only use 2 gigs and XP 64 4 gigs afaik. Vista needs alot. I have xp 32 and 4 gigs of cheap ram and it runs fine. If I were you I'd go with 2, and make sure your graphics card have enough on it. Humans can only detect 30 frames so it shouldn't matter that much. Though when using video capture software it could be alot better, though that's not related to the RAM. A good fast spinning harddrive can also make the difference as it will read alot faster. And if your motherboard supports it, set your RAM in dual channel, that way you can do even more with less RAM.

Brummy · 12-06-2009, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoreZiad

Depends on what kind of Windowns you have. Xp 32 can only use 2 gigs and XP 64 4 gigs afaik. Vista needs alot. I have xp 32 and 4 gigs of cheap ram and it runs fine. If I were you I'd go with 2, and make sure your graphics card have enough on it. Humans can only detect 30 frames so it shouldn't matter that much. Though when using video capture software it could be alot better, though that's not related to the RAM. A good fast spinning harddrive can also make the difference as it will read alot faster. And if your motherboard supports it, set your RAM in dual channel, that way you can do even more with less RAM.

32 bit = 4 GB
64 bit = depends on OS

Mad-Mike · 12-06-2009, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brummy

32 bit = 4 GB
64 bit = depends on OS

Im upgrading my ram soon, I have 2GB atm.
I have Windows 7 64bit.
So what RAM do you think I should get, doesnt really matter on price just not over the top

[R-CON]Burton · 12-06-2009, 07:42 AM

Technical Discussion?

jbgeezer · 12-06-2009, 08:06 AM

I used to have only 2gigas of ram on my 64bit vista. Maps like fallujah lagged like hell. Then I bought myself another 2gigas of ram, and got a much better framerate

Snazz · 12-06-2009, 08:22 AM

The OP asked about ram speed not ram quantity.

Personally I don't notice the difference between using my 800mhz and 1066mhz DDR2, I'm sure there is a difference but I doubt it's as significant as quantity.

Psyrus · 12-06-2009, 10:50 AM

Good catch snazz, people went in the complete wrong direction.

Cassius, the ram speed is not a bottleneck and therefore will not affect your frame rates to any degree of relevance (perhaps 0.05 fps?).

Higher Ram speeds are useful primarily with overclocking your CPU, as there is a proportional relationship between the FSB frequency for the CPU and the ram frequency, set in your motherboard. For a quick example, I'll use my setup:

Q6600 - 2.4Ghz [266mhz FSB, 9x multiplier]

Now I overclocked, and had purchased DDR2 667mhz RAM. Because my motherboard stipulates a minimum of 2:1 FSB -> RAM ratio, at 266mhz FSB my ram was running at 533mhz. This gave me a 134mhz leeway to play with. Due to the 2:1 ratio, that means a 67mhz FSB opportunity. Adding this 67mhz to the stock 266mhz yields 333mhz on the FSB, which in turn is 667mhz on the RAM.

With the 9x multiplier, the 333mhz FSB gives a (333 * 9) 2997mhz or 3ghz clock speed. This means that without overclocking the ram, I was able to get 3ghz from my CPU. But then I wanted more, 3.2 or 3.4ghz, but my 667mhz Ram wouldn't be enough to handle that, right? 3200 / 9 = 356mhz, which is 712mhz on the ram. So I sold my 667mhz ram and bought a set of DDR2 800mhz ram, this allowed me to set the FSB to 400, which in turn yields a clock speed of (400 * 9) 3600mhz or 3.6ghz.

I hope that helps you understand. The ram speed is useful for overclocking, that's the crux of the matter.

TheLean · 12-06-2009, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brummy

32 bit = 4 GB
64 bit = depends on OS

Wrong, it is usually around 3 gig for xp and vista.

Hoboknighter · 12-06-2009, 11:18 AM

Wrong again, it is 4GB for 32 bit. A small portion is subtracted for the onboard bios memory and such like video cards, but thats not much. 64 bit is only realistically limited in terms of operating system limitations. (No one can possibly reach the maximum limit of roughly a few exobytes or something).

In this case, quantity over quality wins. For speed, it doesn't matter as long as it can keep up with the FSB of the Northbridge that runs the proccesor. A bigger factor than speed is the memory latency timings, which can be REALLY big for DDR3 memory.

TLDR; Buy some cheap memory, and buy alot. You can never have enough.

12-05-2009, 11:32 PM	#1
Cassius Join Date: Apr 2008 Italy Location: Cologne Germany Posts: 2,832	Ram speed framerate. Seen as my computer went to hell in a rather spectacular way and is probably being used by Hitler right now to look up and make motifake pictures of himself, I am in the process of upgrading. I was wondering, how much impact does the ram speed all else being equal, have on framerate ? 4 gig DDR400 Ram would be about 100 Euro, while 4 gig of DDR3 1600 can cost as much as 190 Euro. How much impact would that have ? Are we talking of a difference of 3-6 frames per second between the slowest ram you can slap on the board and the fastest, is the difference more signifcant than that, or is there no difference at all, with even the slowest ram not being slow enough to act as a bottleneck ?

	Last edited by Cassius; 12-05-2009 at 11:45 PM..

12-06-2009, 07:36 AM	#2
GoreZiad Join Date: Feb 2008 Denmark Posts: 2,239	Re: Ram speed framerate. Depends on what kind of Windowns you have. Xp 32 can only use 2 gigs and XP 64 4 gigs afaik. Vista needs alot. I have xp 32 and 4 gigs of cheap ram and it runs fine. If I were you I'd go with 2, and make sure your graphics card have enough on it. Humans can only detect 30 frames so it shouldn't matter that much. Though when using video capture software it could be alot better, though that's not related to the RAM. A good fast spinning harddrive can also make the difference as it will read alot faster. And if your motherboard supports it, set your RAM in dual channel, that way you can do even more with less RAM.
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12-06-2009, 07:42 AM	#5
[R-CON]Burton PR:ArmA2 Contributor Join Date: Sep 2009 Canada Location: Banff, Alberta Posts: 788	Re: Ram speed framerate. Technical Discussion?
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12-06-2009, 08:06 AM	#6
jbgeezer Join Date: Jun 2008 Norway Location: Norway Posts: 877	Re: Ram speed framerate. I used to have only 2gigas of ram on my 64bit vista. Maps like fallujah lagged like hell. Then I bought myself another 2gigas of ram, and got a much better framerate
	Live by the sword, die by the sword... To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Ingame:G-LockCobra To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 1 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

12-06-2009, 08:22 AM	#7
Snazz Join Date: Feb 2009 Australia Posts: 1,462	Re: Ram speed framerate. The OP asked about ram speed not ram quantity. Personally I don't notice the difference between using my 800mhz and 1066mhz DDR2, I'm sure there is a difference but I doubt it's as significant as quantity.
Snazz Join Date: Feb 2009 Australia Posts: 1,462

12-06-2009, 10:50 AM	#8
Psyrus Join Date: Jun 2006 Japan Location: Utsunomiya Posts: 1,432	Re: Ram speed framerate. Good catch snazz, people went in the complete wrong direction. Cassius, the ram speed is not a bottleneck and therefore will not affect your frame rates to any degree of relevance (perhaps 0.05 fps?). Higher Ram speeds are useful primarily with overclocking your CPU, as there is a proportional relationship between the FSB frequency for the CPU and the ram frequency, set in your motherboard. For a quick example, I'll use my setup: Q6600 - 2.4Ghz [266mhz FSB, 9x multiplier] Now I overclocked, and had purchased DDR2 667mhz RAM. Because my motherboard stipulates a minimum of 2:1 FSB -> RAM ratio, at 266mhz FSB my ram was running at 533mhz. This gave me a 134mhz leeway to play with. Due to the 2:1 ratio, that means a 67mhz FSB opportunity. Adding this 67mhz to the stock 266mhz yields 333mhz on the FSB, which in turn is 667mhz on the RAM. With the 9x multiplier, the 333mhz FSB gives a (333 * 9) 2997mhz or 3ghz clock speed. This means that without overclocking the ram, I was able to get 3ghz from my CPU. But then I wanted more, 3.2 or 3.4ghz, but my 667mhz Ram wouldn't be enough to handle that, right? 3200 / 9 = 356mhz, which is 712mhz on the ram. So I sold my 667mhz ram and bought a set of DDR2 800mhz ram, this allowed me to set the FSB to 400, which in turn yields a clock speed of (400 * 9) 3600mhz or 3.6ghz. I hope that helps you understand. The ram speed is useful for overclocking, that's the crux of the matter.

12-06-2009, 11:18 AM	#10
Hoboknighter Join Date: Mar 2009 United States of America Location: Minnesota Posts: 150	Re: Ram speed framerate. Wrong again, it is 4GB for 32 bit. A small portion is subtracted for the onboard bios memory and such like video cards, but thats not much. 64 bit is only realistically limited in terms of operating system limitations. (No one can possibly reach the maximum limit of roughly a few exobytes or something). In this case, quantity over quality wins. For speed, it doesn't matter as long as it can keep up with the FSB of the Northbridge that runs the proccesor. A bigger factor than speed is the memory latency timings, which can be REALLY big for DDR3 memory. TLDR; Buy some cheap memory, and buy alot. You can never have enough.

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