512 SD or 256 DDR???

[Razorblade2000]

I wanna buy some RAM
Should I add 256MB more SD PC 133 (then I would have 512MB)
OR should I replace my 256MB PC 133 with 256MB DDR???
What would boost my encoding speed more???

[Doom9]

the difference between 512 and 256 is in most cases of no particular importance.. so I'd say ddr would make more of a difference.. but it's not ddr alone that makes a difference.. you have to throw in fast ddr ram and a good platform into the mix to be really able to get a measurable speed difference..

[SpEeDaMiGo]

regarding encoding speed there won't be much of a difference I'd say ... it's mostly cpu load
when dealing with applications which don't take more than those 256mb ddr will be faster
but hey ... 256mb are filled quite fast when dealing with video or whatever stuff (believe me!) and then your hd turns in ... swapping, which is f****** slow
furthermore, as far as I understand you got a mainboard for both sdr and ddr, right ? as a result I bet ddr on your platform will only make a slight MEMORY burst performance difference

IMHO go for additional 256mb sdr

I got 512sdr too, 2x 256mb apacer with infineon chips at 2-2-2 and 150mhz ... bet those would reach the level of some older ddr platforms

[diji1]

Hey - i agree with the other posters on speed, i'd say there 10% speed difference between sd and ddr in terms of encoding speed, other things being equal. Slightly higher increase would be likely if you use athlon xp or p4 cpu on a newer chipset. if u plan on playing games or other running other ram intense proggies that use a large amount of ram at the same time as encoding then i say 512 megs is a must, unless u like waiting for your hard disk a lot :).

[Milkman Dan]

DDR is going to be better, and I'll tell you why.

It's true that the CPU is the biggest influence on the speed of your encoding session.

However, if you do AVIsynth work and use filters, be aware that every frame that passes from filter to filter is being copied to memory several times. In that instance, the bandwidth becomes the bottleneck.

So if you're just dropping AVI's into VirtualDub to encode straight to Divx, DDR won't matter so much. But if you're adding filters to your script, SDR will fall behind.

Also, from your wording of your post, I will also give you a heads up that you can't just drop in DDR memory. You need a motherboard that supports DDR. The DIMM slots for DDR memory are different than SDR.

SO it isn't as simple as just the cost of the memory. You have to factor in the cost of a new board as well.

[theReal]

DDR-RAM really isn't that much faster than SDRAM, I think you profit more from 512MB SDRAM (even moreso on the same board, if your board supports DDR-RAM at all).

My system uses more than 256MB RAM quite often on encoding, so get more SDRAM.

If you want to change to DDR-RAM and buy a new board, be sure to get some fast PC2700 or PC3000 RAM and a board with 1/5 PCI multiplier. You can reach insane FSB speeds from 166 to above 200 with such a combination. That will really make your RAM faster.
The "Double" Data Rate doesn't double the speed at all.

[diji1]

hi - if by "PC3000 RAM" you mean "ddr333" i would be careful. JEDEC has not released final specs for "ddr333" ram yet afaik ( hence it being called "ddr333" ) and there is a possibility that a mobo you buy now will not maintain compatibility with future releases of in-spec "ddr333". from all accounts i have read there seems to be a really minimal performance gain to be had by moving up to anything faster than PC2700 with the current crop of cpu's anyway.

[theReal]

Wasn't sure anymore what it was called, I only heard about it on amdmb.com, only knew it was supposed to be still faster than PC2700

I stand corrected: go for PC2700 RAM! :)

[omol]

Originally posted by Razorblade2000
I wanna buy some RAM
Should I add 256MB more SD PC 133 (then I would have 512MB)
OR should I replace my 256MB PC 133 with 256MB DDR???
What would boost my encoding speed more???

But how can you have DDR ram as a drop in replacement for SDRAM? Unless you are using a mobo that has both kind of ram slots, I don't see it's possible.

regards,
omol

[PipeBom]

Yes, such boards exist. They are both SD and DDR compatible ie) they have both SD and DDR ram slots on the board.
Answer to your question: Get rid of the motherboard :) . Having both types of ram being on the same board decreases the performance for both; ie) the board isn't optimised for either type of ram. It has to go between on performance.

Just my thought.

PipeBom

[rui]

I have been reading this thread carefully, because i have the same doubt.
I have a MSI K7T Turbo2, with 256 MD Sdram Cas2, and wanted to know if it will make a diference to upgrade to DDR.
But now i am considering a new option: since to make the upgrade i will have to buy a new board and memory, maybe i can wait til the end of the year, and then buy a all new AMD Athlon 64 bits!

There are already benchmarks with a Clawhammer in the net, with a speed of 800Mhz, that are simply amazing! Correct, those benchmarks mostly games, but if video compresion gets that increase on speed also, it will be a killer ;)

And i will also like to know if would be possible to encode using the future Win XP 64 bits, which will support x86-64 extensions.
Would we notice any increase in the encoding just by working in a 64 bits aware OS?? (this if xvid/divx supported this OS, of course)

[theReal]

I'd also say better wait a while and make a real upgrade (if we can really hope for the clawhammer by the end of this year...).

The tests by tecchannel were made in 32 bit compatibility mode and didn't show any of the 64 bit capabilities. I think to see a difference, you'll need 64 bit compatible software in addition to a 64 bit OS (I guess? I'm not sure).
However, to see the 800Mhz clawhammer sample perform so good in 32 bit makes hope for more (probably the first available clawhammer will be clocked to something like 1600Mhz)