DDR3/DDR2 Motherboards?

F

FatManSam

New Member
Hi there, used to have an account on here a while with several hundred posts. However, i lost interest in the forums because of a couple of users. They seem to have disappeared and hence i am back :)

I've been relatively out of touch with technology over the last year, though, my PC needs a bit of an upgrade. The OC on my cpu never lasts more than a few days and new games/programmes are beginning to get more and more laggy. So i thought its probably time for an upgrade in the next couple of months.

You can see the specs of my PC below. Im wondering if its possible to get a motherboard that would take an i5/i7 cpu and also use DDR2 RAM? Or is DDR3 that much better its just worth upgrading straight to that as well?

Any suggestions are much welcome and im glad to be back on the forums, cheers guys!
 
Your system should still be more than enough to play any game, though if you really want to upgrade

You can't use any memory but DDR3 with the i series of processors. Unlike socket 775 and earlier boards, the memory controller is no longer on the chipset, it is now on the same die as the CPU, and the memory controller only supports DDR3 memory, so you will need to get a memory upgrade too.

I would wait until the end of February when the new, fixed socket 1155 boards are out, or wait until Q2 and get a socket 2011 system, though they will be pretty pricey.

What power supply do you have by the way?
 
Disregard, Aastii already said it.:o

The i5/i7 have an OBMC and that does not support DDR2 I believe so you need DDR3. And yes the DDR3 is all that. A significant reason is the OBMC. Mind you I have a notebook so numbers are generally lower than desktop. My last notebook with same family chipset as yours. DDR2 bandwidth 6.5GB/s my new with i7 15GB/s RAM clocks alone do not explain the difference. The DDR3 I am getting closer to the theoretical than with the DDR2.

Here in the States RAM is cheap so DDR3 is the way to go.
 
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Aastii said:
Your system should still be more than enough to play any game, though if you really want to upgrade

You can't use any memory but DDR3 with the i series of processors. Unlike socket 775 and earlier boards, the memory controller is no longer on the chipset, it is now on the same die as the CPU, and the memory controller only supports DDR3 memory, so you will need to get a memory upgrade too.

I would wait until the end of February when the new, fixed socket 1155 boards are out, or wait until Q2 and get a socket 2011 system, though they will be pretty pricey.

What power supply do you have by the way?
Click to expand...

Ah yes, forgot to put that in my signature, i'm using a Corsair 620Watt modular psu. I think i might look into getting some more cooling into my system and increasing the voltage on the cpu to make it a bit more stable, that might help with performance. The q8200 isnt really an ideal processor for games because it has quite a low cache. The other alternative at the time when i bought it was the q6600 (i think thats what it was?). But yeah, ill keep an eye a bit more on the market and see what comes out. Thanks for the reply ;)
 
powerpack said:
Disregard, Aastii already said it.:o

The i5/i7 have an OBMC and that does not support DDR2 I believe so you need DDR3. And yes the DDR3 is all that. A significant reason is the OBMC. Mind you I have a notebook so numbers are generally lower than desktop. My last notebook with same family chipset as yours. DDR2 bandwidth 6.5GB/s my new with i7 15GB/s RAM clocks alone do not explain the difference. The DDR3 I am getting closer to the theoretical than with the DDR2.

Here in the States RAM is cheap so DDR3 is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Well some DDR3 is all that. By that I mean 2 things:

Some is very low quality, an example is OCZ who crapped out on parts, their DDR2 is phenomenal, but their DDR3 is far from

Also, in the same way as when DDR2 first came out, same frequency memory is actually the same speed or slower than the previous standard. If you go for 1333MHz+ DDR3 memory with some tight timings, it will indeed by higher performance, but if you were to go for 1066MHz, it would use less power, but compared to DDR2 1066 memory, it would be.

It is worth the upgrade though definitely
 
For OP just to be clear because I guess I wasn't. RAM clocks and latency are RAM clocks and latency DDR2/DDR3. If they are the same they are the same. It is very much like what is going faster a Ford truck at 60mph or a Corvette doing 60mph. Or my favorite what weighs more? A ton of bricks or a ton of feathers.

That said and out of the way. No RAM ever reaches it's theoretical bandwidth. There are reasons that can't be altered latency is generally significant part of that. But beyond that the memory controller is important in this. Prior to the "i" series Intel had the memory controller on the chipset. You could test the same RAM and generally the newer chipset had greater bandwidth.

The Intel 45 chipset supports both DDR2 or DDR3. DDR3 did not perform any better than DDR2. Real world DDR2 was faster because DDR2 has tighter timings just as DDR has tighter than DDR2.

Intel's jump to the onboard memory controller operating at CPU clocks greatly increased the bandwidth (ATI did first, HT). "i" only supports DDR3 so not like we can compare DDR2. But if we could it would perform the same if clocks and latency are the same. The original DDR2 JEDEC standard only outlined up to 800MHz, 1066MHz was outlined in a later revision. DDR3 while I think 800MHz is outlined it's CL (cas latency/timings) is 5 at the lowest. DDR2 800MHz can have CL4. The more normal for 800MHz is DDR2 CL5 DDR3 CL7. All things being equal (memory controller) DDR2 would be faster as lower CL. 1066MHz is the same. DDR2 CL5 DDR3 CL7.

DDR3 takes a latency hit as it's I/O bus is quad pumped. It needs greater latency for stability. But with the greater I/O it can achieve much greater clocks. DDR2 is double pumped.

Remember though CL is clock cycles so if something is twice the clocks if it has twice the CL the CL hit is the same. Then add the increased clocks and you have clear advantage. DDR3 does not double the latency so it wins hands down with the higher clocks. faster clocked RAM with higher CL can actually be less of a time penalty than lower clocked lower CL. It is a math equation not hard to do if you want to.

Intel's switch to onboard memory controller greatly increased the performance of the RAM itself. If it could use DDR2, DDR2 would get the advantage but that is not an option so DDR3 is the way to go.

Everyone have a great day, pp is snowed in and a little cabin fever must be setting in.:D
 
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To hell with going to bed, I decided to read it first powerpack :P

What powerpack said is absolutely correct, for someone reading that and learning it for the first time, rewritten very simplified:

lower timings = better, higher frequencies = better

in an ideal world, you would have both, in reality, it is one of the other

DDR2 = lower timings and lower frequency
DDR3 = higher timings, higher frequency.

So, for comparable frequencies, up to 1066MHz, DDR2 is better because it has the lower timings

Once you get the higher frequencies, 1333MHz+ which DDR2 can't achieve, DDR3 takes the edge performance wise, whilst still using much less power.

The memory controller on the CPU die, whilst restricting what type of memory can be used, is actually much better and much more efficient, so improves performance
 
Yea I did not make mention of voltage. DDR3 is 1.5v DDr2 is 1.8v, DDR was 2.5v. For us notebook guys even more important.
 
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