DDR2-667 and DDR2-800

i read the sticky on this so i know what it means but what i want to know is will i really notice the difference between having 667 and 800?

i upgraded from 800 to 1066 ram and noticed absolutely no diff, so i took the 1066 back after a day.

When building a system just simply going for a faster cpu won't always see a big difference. A performance gain is generally seen when a system is fine tuned overall not with just one item while going for the faster memory might see a noticable improvement for certain games or apps.

Here I run DDR2 800 performance memory with one of the two fastest AM2 model cpus with a mid range not low end video card to note differences on a new build over the last with DDR400 there. Both have 2gb of memory installed while the old 939 saw Kingston ValueRam and Hyper X on the AM2 now used. What was really noticed was going from a single core 3500+ 2,2ghz on the 939 to the dual cored 6000+ X2 3ghz model now in use.

What a difference in dual core and faster cpu speed more then noticed with the faster performance memory used. Burning video projects, data backups, and cd/dvd burning no longer tax the system. Games also notice improvement with the performance memory and mid range video card now used. But that also brings a video card into the mix not just memory alone.

I think many people get a misnomer that Random Access Memory is mainly what determines your speed. This may come because so many systems come with very little RAM and upgrading this would dramatically increase processing speed.



There is a lot of intelligence in what PC Eye wrote in the above post. It's not just Random Access Memory that determines processing speed though it is an important part of your system.

You wont notice the difference, so upgrading from 667 to 800 is pointless. However if you are buying a new PC or upgrading RAM for more of it, then splurge for the DDR2-800.

On the older systems prior to DDR2 you would match the memory to the model cpu to see the highest fsb setting. That would be 200mhz for DDR400 PC3200 memory with an Atholon XP3200 Socket A model cpu for one example. PC2700 memory used would have to see the 166mhz setting instead. From a 400mhz fsb you would then see that lowered to 333mhz.

On the newer boards for AMD as well as Intel HyperTransport finally replaced the front side bus once and for all. The following explains how that was done and why the actual speed of the memory installed now has less of a bearing. OCers on the other hnad will use the slower 667mha memory while stock systems would see the DDR2 800 when planned out.

Front-Side Bus Replacement

The primary use for HyperTransport is to replace the front-side bus, which is currently different for every type of machine. For instance, a Pentium cannot be plugged into a PCI bus. In order to expand the system, the front-side bus must connect through adaptors for the various standard buses, like AGP or PCI. These are typically included in the respective controller functions, namely the northbridge and southbridge.
In theory, a similar computer implemented with HyperTransport is faster and more flexible. A single PCI↔HyperTransport adaptor chip will work with any HyperTransport enabled microprocessor and allow the use of PCI cards with these processors. For example, the NVIDIA nForce chipset uses HyperTransport to connect its north and south bridges. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport

thanks for the responses. one last thing though, will upgrading from 2gb of ram to 4gb do anything? or will the system just never use that?

Some claim they notice a difference while gaming. But I find that rather hard to believe except in Vista with all the gadgets running. The increase from 1 to 2gb is where you see a big jump start however. Large programs and overall system stability with the amount of things running in the background improve if more are are added.

Usually a good combination of things is what sees a large boost not just ram unless you run CAD or some resource hogs. When burning a data dvd or video project the change from a single to dual core spu as mentioned earlier is what saw a big gain there. The gain from ValueRam to Hyper X obviously saw a small gain while gaming. Now if I go for another pair of 1gb dimms I could offer even more on that at a later date since I usually multitask things here.

Intel does not have Hypertransport, where did you come up with that? They still use the FSB like they always have. There coming out with CSI-Common System Interface in the future. As far as memory theres no reason if your board supports DDR2 800 to use DDR2 677 if your overclocking, 800 will overclock just as well as 677. Plus if your board supports DDR2 800 and the small price difference between good 677 and 800 there no reason to use 677. If you already have DDR2 677 there really no reason to get DDR2 800 but if you have neither get DDR2 800

"The primary use for HyperTransport is to replace the front-side bus, which is currently different for every type of machine. For instance, a Pentium cannot be plugged into a PCI bus." "a Pentium" certainly isn't any AMD model I know of.

But the point in question is about any noticable differences between 667 and 800mhz memory.