gamerman4
Active Member
OMG.....the "post thread" button should link to google.com.....
Now regarding your actual question, I've not seen any research on whether the density effects the performance. Manufacturers use low density mostly because low density chips are cheaper and more compatible with comps.
You could argue this, but I can see how high density RAM would be slower since the computer would have to weed through more information per module to find the data it needs rather than having more modules but less to look through but this is just my opinion. Even if there is a performance difference, it would most likely be small and not noticeable during normal use and only seeable through benchmarks (for example, overclock your CPU 20Mhz and see if you can find any difference.)
If you need an explanation on the differences then....
Density:
When a RAM module is built, the manufacturer can design it using high
density or low density chips. For example, modules built with 4 x 64Mb
chips, 8 x 32Mb chips or 16 x 16Mb chips all come out to 256 MB
of RAM. However, the memory controller circuit in a computer must be
able to address the chips on the module - if the memory controller
cannot address higher density chips, that computer will only function
with modules built with lower density chips.
from:
http://www.ordersite.com/canadaram/terms.htm
To explain the above,
Look at this RAM module, it is a stick of 256MB DDR
seeing as there are 8 chips on this side, the other side will in all probability have the same amount. This is 16 chips alltogether. ok now being 256MB, this means 256Mb is divided between 16 chips. Simple math 256/16 = 16. it uses 16 16MB chips to amount to 256MB. These are low density since each chip only contains 16MB of RAM. If you were to somehow find a 256MB DDR chip with 8 RAM chips. then it would be 8 32MB chips to equal 256MB. Most companies will make low density chips for sale since they are compatible in almost anything that supports that RAM standard (DDR, SDRAM, etc).
Now regarding your actual question, I've not seen any research on whether the density effects the performance. Manufacturers use low density mostly because low density chips are cheaper and more compatible with comps.
You could argue this, but I can see how high density RAM would be slower since the computer would have to weed through more information per module to find the data it needs rather than having more modules but less to look through but this is just my opinion. Even if there is a performance difference, it would most likely be small and not noticeable during normal use and only seeable through benchmarks (for example, overclock your CPU 20Mhz and see if you can find any difference.)
If you need an explanation on the differences then....
Density:
When a RAM module is built, the manufacturer can design it using high
density or low density chips. For example, modules built with 4 x 64Mb
chips, 8 x 32Mb chips or 16 x 16Mb chips all come out to 256 MB
of RAM. However, the memory controller circuit in a computer must be
able to address the chips on the module - if the memory controller
cannot address higher density chips, that computer will only function
with modules built with lower density chips.
from:
http://www.ordersite.com/canadaram/terms.htm
To explain the above,
Look at this RAM module, it is a stick of 256MB DDR
seeing as there are 8 chips on this side, the other side will in all probability have the same amount. This is 16 chips alltogether. ok now being 256MB, this means 256Mb is divided between 16 chips. Simple math 256/16 = 16. it uses 16 16MB chips to amount to 256MB. These are low density since each chip only contains 16MB of RAM. If you were to somehow find a 256MB DDR chip with 8 RAM chips. then it would be 8 32MB chips to equal 256MB. Most companies will make low density chips for sale since they are compatible in almost anything that supports that RAM standard (DDR, SDRAM, etc).
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