RAM Comparisons

[kleinicus]

I was reading the thread about SDRAM vs. DDR SDRAM, and it got me thinking about performance issues in varying amounts of each type of RAM.
Suppose I have a P4 1.5 GHz. with 768 MB of SDRAM. Now suppose I have that same P4 with 256 MB of DDR SDRAM. Which one would run faster? I would think it's the one with 768 MB of RAM, but I'm not sure. Anybody have any insight into that?
Also, what the hell ever happened to RDRAM? No one seems to talk about it much anymore. I realize DDR is priced much more reasonably, but isn't RDRAM a lot faster?

 

[apex1x]

You can get started learning at

http://www.crucial.com/library/ddr_vs_rdram.asp

Really, speed depends on a lot of things, including system specs, opererating system, frequency of RAM, ammount of RAM, and type of RAM. If you can understand it, you probably don't.

 

[cdogg]

kleinicus,
You bring up a lot of good questions. In a case like yours, is it worth going from 768MB of SDRAM to 256MB of DDR SDRAM? Well, the answer depends on several factors:

- type of apps you run
- amount of RAM that your system actually uses on average
- your operating system (Win98/2K/XP)
- type of DDR (PC1600, PC2100, PC2700)

In most cases, you'd be better off with 256MB of DDR. If you were using PC2700, for example, the memory bus would be running at 166MHz as opposed to PC133 which runs at 133MHz. Also, DDR can send 2 bits per clock cycle vs. PC133 which can only send 1. Because of this widened data path, you are effectively running at 333MHz with PC2700 (166 x 2).

Besides the obvious speed advantage, you need to assess whether the apps/games/programs on your pc need a large amount of RAM. A good example would be a database program like Access which may run slow if you have under 512MB of RAM interacting with large databases. Another example might be if the PC is used as a server in a domain. Since cases like this aren't very common on the average workstation, DDR is probably the better choice.

Last but not least, the operating system is a factor as well. 2K and XP need large amounts of memory, especially XP. So, 256MB would probably be OK in Windows 2000, but might slow the pc down in XP. It just depends. You won't really know until you try...


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein