Would I notice a difference between 2x512 DDR PC2100 and 2x 256 DDR PC3200?

[GameAddict]

I'm buying me a AMD Athlon XP 2800 or 2700 (depending on price difference) and a A7N8X nForce2 mobo for Christmas

Anyway I already have 2 512 sticks of PC2100 DDR. I heard with Dual DDR333 or DDR 400 CL 2.0 PC3200 the CPU will beatout the P4 2.8 GHz. You guys think I would notice a big difference in the two? I'm not sure how much 2 512 sticks of DDR 400 would be but I have a feeling it would be alot and I'm cutting it close already.

And does Dual DDR just mean 2 sticks or is that something new as well?


Anyway, thanks for the help! I always get good info on this board.

 

[Rick]

No, I'm afraid. In benchmarks it might actually make a difference, but it is not going to make ~$200 USD dollars of difference.

The thing is, having a higher memory bandwidth does NOT make your system faster... But it allows it to be faster. Whether or not it is faster is then left up entirely to your system. I would only recommend this type of setup for the absolute top-of-the-line computer right now. I seriously doubt that any practical gaming computer would use that kind of bandwidth and even the best PC out there probably doesn't come close to matching this kind of bandwidth.

Athlon XPs use less bandwidth than P4s, so I'm guessing that if you decide to go AMD, then spending your money elsewhere will make a bigger difference.

 

[Didou]

The nForce 2 chipset works best when running in synchronous mode, meaning if your FSB is 166, you will get best performance by running the memory at 166 ( 333 ddr or PC2700 ).

PC3200 isn't worth the price tag & PC2100 will somewhat limit the performance of your system.

PS. Shouldn't this thread be in "CPU,Chipsets & Mobo" ?

 

[Vehementi]

DDR400 is in it's infancy stages, and is not near the level of DDR333. What Didou said was correct, I'd say get DDR333 and run it synchronously. You'll get alot more overclocking potential out of it if you choose, as well.

Also, you may want to consider selling the 1GB. You could get a few bucks, either off eBay or wherever...