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PC2-6400 vs. PC2-8500

D

dR.Jester

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 7, 2004
Messages
2,763
Is there any real difference?

On another forum a poster claims that running 1:1 will actually slow your system down and its better to have DDR2 800 with lower timings.

Need comments.

I'll be building a C2D system around February and was planning on doing 1:1 but which would be faster? PC2-6400 or PC2-8500...?
 
Any specific reasons that I can relay for some good old fashioned "I told ya so?". :D
 
unless you're running benches and counting every fps, you won't notice a difference, aside from in your wallet. the performance difference between ram speeds is pretty small ;)
 
If you where going with a E6300 C2D with its low multiplier of x7 AND where trying to get a max overclock the pc6400(800MHz) stuff might limit your overclock due to the high FSB needed. Not so much with E6400 (8x mulit) and not at all with cpus with multis higher than 8. And of course if you are not intending to reach max overclock, nevermind.

7 x 400 = 2.8 GHz on E6300 which still keeps ram in spec and is a very respectiable OC.
 
PC-6400 or PC-8500 doesn't mean anything as far as how fast the ram will be in your system. Good 6400 will be faster than bad 8500.
 
boshuter said:
PC-6400 or PC-8500 doesn't mean anything as far as how fast the ram will be in your system. Good 6400 will be faster than bad 8500.
Click to expand...

I don't know. Look at this review:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1979&page=4

Keeping the CPU speed the same, 8500C5 comes out slightly ahead of 6400C3 in every game.

That is with AMD though, I think Anandtech has the better Intel benchmarks with far more different types of RAM:

http://anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2900&p=6
 
There are a ton of factors involved.

So we can't really give you a generic answer.

But if you are asking if it's faster to run 1:1 tighter timings vs. 4:5 or 2:3 with higher frequency & looser timings, i have the answer for you here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1971132

Summary:
Bandwidth > timings unless you are able to run 1:1 1T.

So short answer to your question is that the PC2-8500 > PC2-6400, as long as you are clocking it properly.
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
yes, slightly being the key here. worth the extra money for the faster ram? i'm gonna say no :p
Click to expand...

Agreed, the difference compared to even PC2-6400C4 is marginal and not worth 2x the cost, but cost is usually the last thing that comes to mind when trying to OC to the limit, right? :)
 
theelectic said:
Agreed, the difference compared to even PC2-6400C4 is marginal and not worth 2x the cost, but cost is usually the last thing that comes to mind when trying to OC to the limit, right? :)
Click to expand...

at that point, money is still better spent on a nicer cooling method or motherboard :p
 
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