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DDR RAM??

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mad3329

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Jun 25, 2001
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How big of a difference does ddr ram actually make, especially in gaming?
Im building a new computer....mostly for gaming...what type of ram do you recommend...? (sd, ddr, rd)
thanks...
 
Depends on the CPU and motherboard. If you are going to use an Athlon XP then DDR is definitely the way to go, you will find a noticeable performance difference over SDRAM. However if you are going for a P4 then RDRAM seems to be the thing, although it is considerably more expensive.
 
The deciding factor of whether or not DDR memory gives a speed boost is what chipset the motherboard uses. VIA's KT266 and ALi's Magik (something, don't know the exact name), both of these chipsets are horrible at using the full potential of DDR ram and you will not see any noticable speed increase.

AMD's 760/761 chipset and SiS's 745 chipset (I think that's the number...) did show improvements, but it's VIA's KT266A & nVidia's nForce chipsets where you see the power of DDR ram being used, and the advantage is noticable.

DDR ram is definately the way to go. RDRam for a P4 is just way too expensive and you don't get back the speed increase to justify the cost until you get up into the 2GHz P4's.

Check out a hardware review site like or if you want further details.
 
hi

i ran an athlon with 256@100 (sdr old skool) and then upgraded to athlon 256DDR. the difference i found is in boot up time both for windows and applications. definately worth investing m8 as games are beginning to be designed with DDR in mind. T3/\/\p()
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The chipset is the key!
Some earlier DDR handling chipsets hardly improved over SDram equiped systems namely the Via KT266 and Ali Magik 1
A 5-10% gain was had with AMD 760/761 and SIS 745 chipset based boards.
A 10%+ gain with the Via KT266a chipset
But the new king has to be Via's KT333 chipset which not only supports all the existing DDR types but also the new DDR333, with USB 2, ATA133 support and 8X AGP, Via KT333 equipt motherboards are the ones to buy (if you can get hold of them)
Boards are already released from MSI (KT3), Gigabyte, Assus and Abit. Martin Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.
 
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