Matching Memory Speed with the Processor, Anybody?

Question

Hi, I have an interesting question. when i bought my Dell back in July of this year, i was amazed at how many different types of Memory available, and the different bandwidth Speeds these memorys were Rated for. What I am wondering is what should be the Correct memory speed to get Based on the speed of the processor you are buying. For example, right now you can get the same Intel Pentium 4 Processor 400mhz FSB in the Dell

Dimension 2300 2.0ghz CPU with PC133 SDRAM @ 1060mb/s,

or 4550 2.0ghz CPU with PC2100 DDR SDRAM @ 2100mb/s, (DDR266)

or 8200 2.0ghz CPU with PC800 RDRAM @ 3200mb/s,

or you can also get the same Intel Pentium 4 Processor with the 533mhz FSB in the Dell Dimension 4550 2.8ghz CPU with PC2700 DDR SDRAM @ 2700mb/s, (DDR333)

or 8200 2.8ghz CPU with PC800 RDRAM @ 3200mb/s

or 8250 2.8ghz CPU with PC1066 RDRAM @4200mb/s,

well it seems to me that there is a pretty Big span of bandwidth in each of the 3 sets of memory that you can get for the Same speed processor. Does anybody know if there is some kind if formula, or a General Rule of thumb to use to determine what speed of memory that you need to get the maximum Perfomance for a given processor, am I making any sense here. You would not want to get memory that was to slow for the processor, that would be a waste of processor, on the other hand you also would not want to get memory that was to fast for the processor either, that would be a waste of memory.

Would'nt you want to match up the Memory to the Processor as Close as possible more or Less.

Thank you for any answers in advance.

Message Edited by MViani on 11-09-2002 08:22 PM

Message Edited by MViani on 11-09-2002 11:17 PM

Thereal-dbk4297 · Answer

Hi,

In general you would want the fastest speed memory for any CPU speed.
With CPU speeds so high now the system memory is the bottleneck in performance. But if you are asking if one type of memory can replace another in a system, the answer is no. The motherboard determines the type of memory required, and the speeds of that type that can be used. Some newer DDR systems with the 533MHz buss can use the faster PC2700 and the slower PC2100. But the 400MHz buss systems can only use PC2100.

Here is some memory reading for you -
http://www.deviantpc.com/articles/systembus/p4.shtml

Mis Dos Centavos,
Darrell
Helping Dell talkers here since 1997
Memory upgrade information Find the - "How much can my system hold", and other memory information by using the Crucial RAM picker.

MViani · Answer

Thank you very much for the Info Darrell, the article at that website was very extremly helpful and informative. I would recommend it to to anyone interested in learning more about the memory in their computers, and what makes a computer tick.

So then , the conclusion that I can draw is that you need to match up the memorys bandwidth speed that comes closest to the processors front side bus speed in order to get a perfect match that would give you the maximum processor perfomance for any given system. Then based on the 3 sample systems in my previous post, all with the same 2.0ghz CPU and 400mhz FSB @3200mb/s capacity (approx.) the

Dimension 8200 2.0ghz 400fsb with PC800 RDRAM @3200mb/s is the only one in the group that is a correct Match for the processor, the other two systems memory bandwidth fall far short in speed with only 1000mb/s for PC133 on a model 2300, and 2100mb/s for PC2100 DDR on a model 4550.

The same for the other three 2.8ghz CPUs with the 533mhz FSB @4200mb/s capacity (approx.) the

Dimension 8250 2.8ghz 533fsb with PC1066 RDRAM @4200mb/s is the only one in the group that is a correct Match for that processor, the other two systems memory bandwidth also fall far short in speed with only 2700mb/s for PC2700 DDR on a model 4550, and 3200mb/s for PC800 on a model 8200.

Thanks again

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Matching Memory Speed with the Processor, Anybody?

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