Have you ever wondered what all of the fuss is about when it comes to memory? Memory manufacturers are going out of their way to sell you what they consider to be the best memory on the market for gamers, while also trying to push you into spending more money on more memory because - according to the memory makers - 2GB of memory is now becoming the industry standard for gaming systems.
The question is, whether doubling your current 1GB configuration to 2GB will be beneficial to your gaming experience or not. There are several options to take, too. Should you keep your current 512MB DIMMs and add another two to give you a total of 2GB, accepting the drawbacks (if there are any) from using the 2T memory timing?
Or, should you attempt to sell your current modules and purchase a pair of 1GB DIMMs?
Alternatively, could you get away with just sticking with your existing setup?
There are so many options on the market today, and we're going to attempt to answer these questions over the next few pages, while deconstructing some of the confusion that surrounds memory timings.
Test Setup:
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60+ (operating at 2600MHz, 13x200MHz); ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16); Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/3500PCX Golden Sample (GeForce 7800 GTX operating at 470/1300); Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10000RPM SATA 150 Hard disk drive; OCZ PowerStream 520W Power Supply; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 standalone version 6.82 WHQL; NVIDIA beta Forceware version 82.12.
Memory used:
2x 1GB Corsair XMS4000 Pro operating at 400MHz 2.0-3-3-7 1T;
2x 1GB Corsair XMS4000 Pro operating at 520MHz 3.0-4-4-8 1T;
4x 512MB Corsair XMS3200XL Pro operating at 400MHz 2.0-2-2-6 2T;
2x 512MB Corsair XMS3200XL Pro operating at 400MHz 2.0-2-2-6 1T.
Final Thoughts...
The differences between the 2x1GB and 4x512MB, and essentially the differences between using a 1T command rate versus the slower 2T timing, are relatively small in a selection of today's most popular games. However, there were instances where we found that we were able to play games with less frame rate lag and hitching as a result of having 2GB of memory using the 1T command rate timing.
However, the bottom line is that you will not see the same 10% performance increase in real games that we saw in SiSoft Sandra.
Memory timings are going to make the same subtle performance differences too, so it's a question of whether you can afford the faster modules that are capable of using tigher timings. The choice will ultimately depend on what memory you are currently using in your system and also how much you're willing to spend.
We'd recommend making the upgrade to 4x512MB over 2x512MB, even with the slight drawbacks we experienced in one of the four games we tested. That's because there are many other uses for your computer (aside from gaming) where you'll see the benefit of 2GB of memory. The general desktop experience is improved by 2GB of RAM, and I'm sure you'll never look back if you make the jump.
If you're willing to take a bit of a gamble (dependant on whether you'll be able to sell your current memory or not), we'd recommend swapping out your current memory for 2GB - it's just a case of whether you choose to buy the cheaper modules with looser timings, or whether you opt for memory capable of reasonably tight timings at DDR400. That'll ulimately come down to whether you're planning to overclock or not.
For the complete review visit Bitech
The question is, whether doubling your current 1GB configuration to 2GB will be beneficial to your gaming experience or not. There are several options to take, too. Should you keep your current 512MB DIMMs and add another two to give you a total of 2GB, accepting the drawbacks (if there are any) from using the 2T memory timing?
Or, should you attempt to sell your current modules and purchase a pair of 1GB DIMMs?
Alternatively, could you get away with just sticking with your existing setup?
There are so many options on the market today, and we're going to attempt to answer these questions over the next few pages, while deconstructing some of the confusion that surrounds memory timings.
Test Setup:
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60+ (operating at 2600MHz, 13x200MHz); ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16); Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/3500PCX Golden Sample (GeForce 7800 GTX operating at 470/1300); Western Digital Raptor 74GB, 10000RPM SATA 150 Hard disk drive; OCZ PowerStream 520W Power Supply; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; DirectX 9.0c; NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 standalone version 6.82 WHQL; NVIDIA beta Forceware version 82.12.
Memory used:
2x 1GB Corsair XMS4000 Pro operating at 400MHz 2.0-3-3-7 1T;
2x 1GB Corsair XMS4000 Pro operating at 520MHz 3.0-4-4-8 1T;
4x 512MB Corsair XMS3200XL Pro operating at 400MHz 2.0-2-2-6 2T;
2x 512MB Corsair XMS3200XL Pro operating at 400MHz 2.0-2-2-6 1T.
Final Thoughts...
The differences between the 2x1GB and 4x512MB, and essentially the differences between using a 1T command rate versus the slower 2T timing, are relatively small in a selection of today's most popular games. However, there were instances where we found that we were able to play games with less frame rate lag and hitching as a result of having 2GB of memory using the 1T command rate timing.
However, the bottom line is that you will not see the same 10% performance increase in real games that we saw in SiSoft Sandra.
Memory timings are going to make the same subtle performance differences too, so it's a question of whether you can afford the faster modules that are capable of using tigher timings. The choice will ultimately depend on what memory you are currently using in your system and also how much you're willing to spend.
We'd recommend making the upgrade to 4x512MB over 2x512MB, even with the slight drawbacks we experienced in one of the four games we tested. That's because there are many other uses for your computer (aside from gaming) where you'll see the benefit of 2GB of memory. The general desktop experience is improved by 2GB of RAM, and I'm sure you'll never look back if you make the jump.
If you're willing to take a bit of a gamble (dependant on whether you'll be able to sell your current memory or not), we'd recommend swapping out your current memory for 2GB - it's just a case of whether you choose to buy the cheaper modules with looser timings, or whether you opt for memory capable of reasonably tight timings at DDR400. That'll ulimately come down to whether you're planning to overclock or not.
For the complete review visit Bitech