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Memory Timing Question

N

Nybbles

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 17, 2002
Messages
1,234
I've been looking to get some good memory for cheap. Well, Best Buy has some 512 MB Kingston HyperX PC4000 for $100. This RAM is rated for 3-4-4-8-1T at PC4000.

My question is this. I was thinking about putting this on an Asus A7N8X-Deluxe, and my RAM only runs at 2700 at the moment (gonna try to get it up to 3200 once I get new RAM).

My question is this, if I get this RAM and run it at 3200 speeds instead of 4000, how likely is it that I may be able to get the timings down to say 2-3-2-6 or close??

Thanks.
 
well, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think that those timing settngs have anything to do with the speed of the DIMM. But I don't know for sure.
 
Well typically if you have RAM that's PC3200 and you wanna push it closer to 3500, u may have to change the timings on the RAM in order to overclock it.

Now I was wondering if anyone knows if you can go the other way. Buy RAM that runs at 4000 and UNDERCLOCK it so that you can run tighter timings.

Make sense? It makes sense to me but does anyone know for sure?
 
It doesn't work that way. PC4000 doesn't use the same chips that PC3200 and PC3500 does. PC4000 uses Hynix chips which have very poor timings. My suggestion to you is to buy Mushkin PC3200 or PC3500 lvl 1 which is about $213 for 1GB. Corsair or Kingston HyperX PC3200 or PC3500 will be fine too.

Current processors dont need PC4000 bandwidth. The extra bandwidth doesn't benefit you any. Games especially run best with tight timings. Tigher timings will increase your performance anywhere from 3-5%. And that is quite a bit when you consider something like the performance difference between the Pentium 4 and A64 in gaming is usually 3-5% or less.
 
Ok, then how about this....

I can get some Mushkin Level 1 that runs a 2-3-2-6 timings, or some Mushkin "222 special" that will do 2-2-2-6.

How much of a performance difference will this make?? I want to see if it seems like enough to justify the extra cost.
 
Originally posted by Nybbles
Ok, then how about this....

I can get some Mushkin Level 1 that runs a 2-3-2-6 timings, or some Mushkin "222 special" that will do 2-2-2-6.

How much of a performance difference will this make?? I want to see if it seems like enough to justify the extra cost.
Click to expand...

There will be very little difference between those two at stock speeds. Not even 1% if i had to guess. The real difference is overclockability. The 222 special uses BH-6 ships which are 166Mhz chips. They wont overclock real far so i dont know how they perform vs the CH-5 chips on the lvl 1. The BH-5 chips were the shit cause they overclocked really well and you could keep your 2-2-2-5 timings.
 
I have that memory from Best Buy. I can't seem to get it stable at lower timings. I'm not hung up on timings anyway, so I don't care. I don't think they make a huge difference...haven't in testing that memory against my CAS2 Corsair.
 
It depends on the area how much benefit you'll get from tighter timings. I never see the need for PC4000 so i try to discourage people from buying it for current processors that dont need that much bandwidth. Heavy applications like Photoshop and what not can probably benefit more from the bandwidth and looser timings. Games though will get around a 3-5% increase from the 2-2-2 timings compared to the PC4000 timings.
 
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