1GB Performance vs. 2GB Value

[Bona Fide]

Here's the scenario:

- 2x512MB OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 DDR400 Memory (2-2-2-5) $169
- 2x1024MB OCZ Performance Memory DDR400 (3-3-3-7) $215

Money is not the concern here. The problem is that the 2GB memory is much slower than the 1GB. And I'm most likely gonna be overclocking to around DDR520 speeds. I know the Platinum can run that 1:1, but not sure about the other one. I may have to put a divider and run it at 5:4, which would be DDR416, technically.

Is the performance gain of double the memory, evened out by the speed of the Platinum sticks?

 

[imported_rod]

It depends. If your planning on planning big new games like BF2, the 2GB would probably be better, but older games would never utilise that much, and would benefit more from faster RAM.

I'd probably go with the 2GB. You can probably tighten up those timings a little, to cas2.5, or maybe cas2.0 if you're lucky.

RoD

 

[TankGuys]

You can typically OC the 2x512 better than the 2x1gb. I agree wtih rod, if you are playing really new games (ala BF2) then you'll see a nice improvement with the 2Gb. Otherwise, stick with the 2x512... there aren't many programs for home users which benefit from 2Gb yet.

 

[sandorski]

P4 or Athlon 64? If Athlon64, 2gb . If you need the space, 2gb.

 

[Acadien]

What I am doing on my current build is buying OCZ VX (1GB) and when I get another 200 bucks im buying another gig. I wont be able to OC the same, because different slots on the DFI SLI-DR OC better, btw, it will still kick ass.

 

[hectorsm]

I also agree with the 2GB memory upgrade. The faster timming will only give you a small boost in performance. 2GB will give you a big boost in performance as more games and application start using over 1GB memory.

If you like playing games, you will end up needing that extra gig. I play BF2 and its hard to play the games at times due to the slow down caused by virtual memory usage.

 

[alexXx]

why not get 1 gb of value ram.. and take your girl somewhere nice. Honestly you wont see much of a difference with tighter timings(except for overclockability, or in synthetic benchmarks)

 

[Bona Fide]

Originally posted by: alexXx
why not get 1 gb of value ram.. and take your girl somewhere nice. Honestly you wont see much of a difference with tighter timings(except for overclockability, or in synthetic benchmarks)

I hope you mean 2gb .

It was just a matter of 2gb performance. If 1gb of fast RAM can keep up with twice as much physical memory, no point in getting that extra memory. But yes, I'm going to be playing games (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2) and yes it's an Athlon 64 (3700+...gonna OC quite a bit), so I guess I'll go with the 2GB solution. Thanks!

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: alexXx
why not get 1 gb of value ram.. and take your girl somewhere nice. Honestly you wont see much of a difference with tighter timings(except for overclockability, or in synthetic benchmarks)

What's wrong with 7/11 burgers? Commercial television? Dancing to the AM Oldies Station? Come on man, get your priorities straight!

 

[ryanv12]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: alexXx
why not get 1 gb of value ram.. and take your girl somewhere nice. Honestly you wont see much of a difference with tighter timings(except for overclockability, or in synthetic benchmarks)

What's wrong with 7/11 burgers? Commercial television? Dancing to the AM Oldies Station? Come on man, get your priorities straight!

You obviously don't have a girlfriend

 

[Bona Fide]

Nice, guys...

Back to the topic at hand?

 

[imported_Starman]

I own the OCZ Platinum 2GB kit which is 1024MBx2 PC3200 2-3-2-5 1T :thumbsup:

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: ryanv12

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: alexXx
why not get 1 gb of value ram.. and take your girl somewhere nice. Honestly you wont see much of a difference with tighter timings(except for overclockability, or in synthetic benchmarks)

What's wrong with 7/11 burgers? Commercial television? Dancing to the AM Oldies Station? Come on man, get your priorities straight!

You obviously don't have a girlfriend

True, but neither would I even consider doing that.

 

[SGtheArtist]

Games dont care how fast your RAM is they only care how much you have. Video cards & CPUs do more for games then the difference between the timings of those 2 DDR400 modules.

So my vote if for 2GB.

 

[KoolDrew]

The 2GB of Value RAM would be my pick.

 

[drifter106]

Originally posted by: Starman
I own the OCZ Platinum 2GB kit which is 1024MBx2 PC3200 2-3-2-5 1T :thumbsup:

ditto...i wonder why?

yesterday i went from 1 gig of ocz 3200 plat r2 to 2 gig of ocz (2-3-2-5)

i noticed a difference in loading, exiting (speciallly bf2...big difference) other games were a little bit more snappy as well, loading up windows was snappier also

mbm5 seems to run 1 or 2 degrees higher (don't know if this is in direct correlation to the ram or not...duvie or someone might touch on tha one)

didn't really notice any significant change in fps

you can probably get cheaper ram and be as well off as the higher stuff, i wanted the timings from this ram

 

[evilbix]

If you're running an intel rig, I'd go for the 2 x 512mb.

If you're running an amd rig, I'd go for the 2 x 1gb

Intel chips improve greatly from tighter timings. AMD doesn't seem to benefit the same. Lots of tests have been done and there is such a small performance gain from performance memory on A64's. Generic memory had a less than 1% performance boost on operations that were testing only the memory. In games it normally did not affect the fps by more than 3 or 4 fps at most (in games like quake 3 where you're scoring in the hundreds). I remember seeing a huge post on this one, some guy did a really specific test. Try searching for it, unfortunately I do not remember the name at all.

BUT.. If you overclock on the AMD system I'd hands down go for the performance memory. You'd be able to achieve much higher speeds with it. But then again.. you could always just buy memory rated at higher speeds instead of guessing how fast you're gonna get that to go.

 

[coomar]

use a divider, get the 2 gigs

 

[Rhoel]

I just went from 2x512mb of OCZ vx4000(11x243, 1.5-2-2) to 2x1gig of Giel Value(12x200, 2.5-3-3). BF2 is much smoother now. It's a better gaming machine now even though it doesn't bench as well as it did, although it still does break 6050 on 3dmark05 at stock.

 

[Acanthus]

Just a small note, you can get value ram with the same timings much cheaper than that OCZ you listed. The corsair PC3200 in my sig is only $77 for a 1GB stick (at least last week when i bought it)

 

[Bona Fide]

Well that's individual 1GB sticks...will they work in dual-channel?

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide

Originally posted by: alexXx
why not get 1 gb of value ram.. and take your girl somewhere nice. Honestly you wont see much of a difference with tighter timings(except for overclockability, or in synthetic benchmarks)

I hope you mean 2gb .

It was just a matter of 2gb performance. If 1gb of fast RAM can keep up with twice as much physical memory, no point in getting that extra memory. But yes, I'm going to be playing games (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2) and yes it's an Athlon 64 (3700+...gonna OC quite a bit), so I guess I'll go with the 2GB solution. Thanks!

Bona Fide, check out Mushkin's new HP3200 Dual Pack. Its' rated at 2-3-2-6 at 1T!

It isn't the greatest for OC'ing, but in several tests by different reviewers' it was able to reach DD416 at 2-3-2-6 1T Timings. By loosening the timings a little slightly better overclocks were obtained (these are 1 GB each module). These reviews used different mobos too so it seems safe to say that if you have a board used by one of the reviews you can run this memory. The Rojack Pot review used my K8N Neo2 board. I ordered a 2GB HP3200 from Mushkin on Friday. Can't wait till it gets here.

OCTools even ran the HP3200 2GB Dual Pack against a Corsair TwinXP1024-3200XL 1GB (2x512MB) at 2-2-2-5 1T for comparison. This Mushkin stuff is right in there and actually surpasses the performance of the Corsair due to the extra capacity.

Two things that are important to note:

(2) These modules DO NOT use Mushkin's famous 6-layer black PCB as stated in the reviews and on Mushkin's web site. Instead, they use Brainpower 808 PCBs'.

(2) These modules use 5ns Infineon HYB25D512800BE-5 ICs. These chips are rated at DDR400 CL 3-3-3, but apparently Mushkin was able to get them to run at their rated 2-3-2-6 (at 1T) using the Brainpower PCBs.

Heres are links to various reviews:

http://www.systemcooling.com/mushkin_pc3200_2gb-01.html

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=229&var2=0

http://www.octools.com/index.cgi?caller=articles/mushkin/hp3200/hp3200.html

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/memory/other/mushkin/DDR1/hp3200/index.shtml

Enjoy...
EDIT: Deleted links to reviews at Bitbender and Bytesector forums because they were actually links to the Viper Lair review. Added link to SystemCooling.com review.

 

[Bona Fide]

Wow...thanks man! Very informative. Now if you could just tell me where you acquired these sticks.

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: Bona Fide
Wow...thanks man! Very informative. Now if you could just tell me where you acquired these sticks.

Oops, sorry man. I gues that would be helpful. I got them directly from Mushkin for $266.00 (plus tax because I'm in California). If you order them off Mushkin's web site shipping is FREE. Muskin's web site is:

http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail.asp?ID=194

If you order them on the phone they charge you for shipping. When I called them I spoke to Diane and requested purple heatspreaders but they were out so I got black heatspreaders.

Note, if you let Diane know you want a specific color they will accomodate you if even if you order online (assuming they have the color you want). I would give them 1st, second, and third color choices just in case. She'll make a note to send you your color preference when the order is ready to be "picked" for shipping.

NOTE: The default color is BLUE.

Newegg also sells this Dual Pack for $288.00 plus shipping (and obviously tax if you are in California). Hope this helps.

 

[rise]

thats the stuff i got here. i'd prefer to have a distributor beating up mushkin then me if i have a problem.

but not a problem here. the sticks i got are unbelievable-
2-3-2-7 @225
2.5-3-3-8 @250

i can get 257 2.5-3-3-8 but my cpu can't handle much more than 11x250

heres a lil mushkie luvin'