DDR2 800 @ 5-4-4-12 good timing or bad?

J

junwang0808

New Member
thinking about buying Mushkin 4GB(2x2GB) 240-pin DDR2 800 (PC2-6400) RAM 2GB sticks. just wondering if the timings are good for gaming and for DX10
 
Yes they are good. You should be able to find 4-4-4-12 but that's not going to make much of a difference and chances are good that you can run that RAM at 4-4-4 anyway.
 
32bit OSs can't address all 4GB of RAM. They have 4GB of address space but the upper portion of it (the actual point varies but its usually around 3GB) is used for addressing devices.
 
You should see the problems seen on the newer boards with 8gb or 16gb total. On an 8gb model 1gb is lost right off of the top simply due to the chipsets being designed around 2-4gb model boards. Plus you always lose 64mb taken for video memory no matter what board you go with. The taking of system memory to match the size of the video card's own onboard memory can be increased in the bios by increasing the size of the video aperature from the default 64mb to 256mb or higher.
 
wafflez said:
wait...why don't you just buy much cheaper ram and lower the timings yourself?
Click to expand...

Latencies are controlled by memory design. The only setting changes possible are seen in the bios. Gee? The matched pair of Corsair xms series DDR400 memory saw 3-3-3-8 on the old build. You won't see that much on DDR2 and won't on DDR3.
 
Just up the voltage slightly and adjust the timings, I did, and I will probably take them lower..
 
wafflez said:
wait...why don't you just buy much cheaper ram and lower the timings yourself?
Click to expand...
Not all RAM is of the same quality, even within the same manufacturer. For instance, the RAM modules in the Corsair ValueSelect models and the Corsair Dominator aren't the same. The Dominator models are picked because they are stable at a high speed and with lower latencies, which is why you can't spend less on the value RAM and set it to the same voltage, timings, and speed as higher quality RAM, and expect it to run the same.
 
[-0MEGA-];741902 said:
Not all RAM is of the same quality, even within the same manufacturer. For instance, the RAM modules in the Corsair ValueSelect models and the Corsair Dominator aren't the same. The Dominator models are picked because they are stable at a high speed and with lower latencies, which is why you can't spend less on the value RAM and set it to the same voltage, timings, and speed as higher quality RAM, and expect it to run the same.
Click to expand...

I agree and disagree, it is a matter of finding a happy medium and pushing something to its most stable brink, getting the best bang for the buck.. :-P
 
ETSA said:
I agree and disagree, it is a matter of finding a happy medium and pushing something to its most stable brink, getting the best bang for the buck.. :-P
Click to expand...
No doubt, for instance I bought a set of XMS2 DDR2 800 RAM @ CL5 and raised it to DDR2 950 @ CL5, but thats not saying that if you bought a set of DDR2 1066 it wouldnt go higher :P
 
That can be like comparing applies to oranges there. Would you try ocing GEIL memory or go with a far better brand like Corsair, Kingston, OCZ? Obviously you would want a good name to start off with over cheap ram.
 
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