memory performance question

[dani82]

yesterday, my mobo finally decide to give in...

to keep a long story short:

i had about 3 month warranty left, they offer to replace my existing ecs(ddr33) mobo with an pc chips (ddr266) mobo (only took 40 min)

so what kind of performance drawbacks should i be expecting since i'm using ddr333?

[tareek]

because of downgrading from DDR 333 to 266 you're loosing 22.22% .

DDR 266 / PC 2100 : 64 bits (8 Bytes) x 266 MHz (133MHz Clock x 2 (Double Pumped)) = 2.1 GBps . 128 bits DCT BW is 4.2 GB/s .

DDR 333 / PC 2700 : 64 bits (8 Bytes) x 333 MHz (166MHz Clock x 2 (Double Pumped)) = 2.7 GBps . 128 bits DCT BW is 5.33 GB/s .

2.7 - 2.1 = 0.6 GBps (Giga Bytes Per Second, GB/s) .
0.6 is 22.22% of 2.7

BW = Band-Width . DCT = DRAM Controller .

[tareek]

thats by math, but in real situation... as most stuff on & attached in the board can't take advantage of that full BW, you're obviously loosing less than 22% .
data transfer speed between the north~south-bridge, mct~cpu, chipset(SB/NB)~peripheral, etc vary greatly in between different chipset, so if pcchips' chipset is better, it may compansate that loss .

[dani82]

i am aware that my memory will be runnig at a lower capacity

as for you 2nd reply, can you dumb it "real" down; all i know is: more is good, faster is better (but how so)

[CWR03]

That's a really tough question to answer, because it depends a lot on how much more or how much faster, plus RAM is utilized differently between programs. For most purposes more is better than faster, especially if the "faster" is a small amount, say 256 MB. A gig of faster would almost always be better than 2 gig of slower because your page file usage would still be minimal.

[theReal]

When your RAM is underclocked on the "new" board, you could try to lower RAM timings (if not already very low) and gain at least 20% RAM speed back.

Also you can maybe O/C the FSB on the new board and end up faster than you were before because of higher bus speeds and CPU frequency (but that's a matter of luck and good cooling...)

[tareek]

i have 2 para . which one you're referring?
in the case of memory amount and speed, then as you've said "more is good, faster is better" ... is true in most cases .
but cannot be applied in all case . different hardware (& software) depends and operates on many different factors, where we can see/find "more is bad" and "slower is better" .

for example, overclocking (of memory, uP, etc) to a more faster speed will result in unstable operation, so we need to find a slower speed which is safe & stable and better .
bigger SDRAM causes more delay by taking more addressing latency time . when there is more ram dimm module (in a single channel/bank), it actually lowers the overall system performance .
more component uses more power, and faster component uses more power too, unless you change the component itself .
too many I/O calls lowers the overall system performance . so if more peripherals or other devices are present, it consumes more resources and bad for your setup .
the cache memory amount used in the standard HW MPEG decoder, when exceeds more than 2 MB, then it brings no extra benefit, just waste of money .
some seagate (scsi) drives have 16 cache segments, good for Windows, bad for Mac, Setting it to 0 is better for Mac .

when engineers/scientists developed a better memory accessing technology/architecture, which accessed memory faster, then it was accepted(/adopted), than those modifications, which increased only the speed .
for example, SDRAM & RDRAM, both was beaten by DDR-SDRAM because of newer architecture which resulted in faster accessing time . similarly, EDO (and also FPM, DRAM, etc) was beaten by SDRAM, because of bett... arch... DDR will be beaten by SLDRAM or its variant .

it wasn't the "rabbit" but the "turtle" who won .

i guess, when there is a balance and harmony in the data distribution, processing, feedback, in-between different necessary (& re-organized) components, then job/work is done better . in another words, its the "way", better technique is better .

if possible please pardon me because i'm talking too much ... indication of dumbness, in some areas at least :)

theReal already gave us few pointer how to increase performance . among other things, CWR03 pointed us also to the different memory access/usage scheme implemented by different soft which is a factor in overall performance .

to calculate the overall performace difference more precisely ... more info on that (current) PC and the previous one are required, like, previous & current motherboard's chipset number, or, manuf company & model #, processor type & speed, amount of RAM, type of RAM, OS, previous & current free memory, total threads, total process when Windows finishes starting up, etc . please post available info on these , so one of us can at least try to calculate the performance loss , in their free time .

what was meant in my previous post's 2nd para ...

for example, a main/motherboard with VIA K8T800 chipset, its north and south core(VT-8237R)'s bridge communication (aka V-Link) bandwidth is 533MB/s , where as, a board with SiS 756 chipset, its northcore and south core(SiS-965)'s bridge communication (aka MuTIOL) bandwidth is 1.2GB/s . more than double . so more higher sustained/continuous data transfer rate between the different peripheral devices are possible . so, easily, a VIA board can be beaten by a SiS board (similar like this) in performance power .

as AMD processors incorporates the memory controller(mct) inside the processor itself, (along with other enhancement,) it performs better than Intel , even though AMD processor speed is slower than Intel processor . where as MCT is placed outside, in the main board's northcore chip, in a board for Intel (faster) processors .

[dani82]

@tareek

the 2nd paragraph; the 1st paragraph is pretty much the conclusion to your 1st reply

both boards are identically the same, the only difference is the whole 266/333

i don't anyone wasting their valuable time on my behalf on those calculations, when i already know the answer; i should have never accepted that mobo

i will not accept the fact that my pc is more obsolete now, then is was a week ago (meaning i'm stuck at pc2100, w/o the consideration of o/c)

i don't care if it takes another 40min...

[tareek]

as you've got exact board, processor, etc back, except only the RAM with different speed, then my 1st post answers that . thanks .

[tareek]

and i feel the pain that all your previous customization in windows and in other soft were lost and you had to re-install restart everything . my windows crashed couple of times, in very close intervals, after i've done the customization in many different soft, in the end, i was able to pinpoint the source of the problem, it was the bad corrupted backup cd of win xp , which i was using again and again . now my setup is working fine.

[dani82]

50mins later, they offer to refund my money after 21 months of use (since there was no possible way of getting a ddr333 mobo)

+$14 i was able to purchases a new cpu/combo, now it's the other way around (somewhat)

my sempron 3000 has a fsb400, and i still have ddr333, will my memory cause my cpu to perform slower than it should?