Memory Question

Quiet-Storm

Hello,
Im building a computer which is going to be soley for gaming. Ive gotten all the parts except for the memory. Ive got two questions on the memory. Im going to go with a 2GB setup (2x1024MB) and narrowed it down to two choices of memory, they are...the OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 1024MB Platinum Edition Dual channel (DDR 500 with timings of 3-3-2-8) and OCZ DDR PC-3200 2GB Platinum Edition Dual Channel (DDR 400 with timings of 2-3-2-5).
My questions are 1)Which one of these two memories would give me the best performance in games if i was to run them out of the box at stock speeds/times?

Question 2) Whats the difference between DDR 500 PC-4000 With loose timings and DDR 400 PC-3200 with tight timings? Which one of the two is faster out of the box at stock settings? Would the DDR 500 PC-4000 with loose timings be better for games or will the DDR 400 PC-3200 with tighter timings be better for games?

Thank you...these are the parts I allready have:
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego
DFI LanParty SLI-DR
EVGA e-geforce 7800GTX KO
Western Digital Raptor 74GB Serial ATA150
PC Power And Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Express/SLI

Leonardo

General rule is that tighter timings will give better speed. In this case, unless you will be overclocking your CPU along with the HTT, the DDR 400 2-3-2-5 should provide faster system response. If you will be overclocking the CPU with the HTT (FSB), then you would need DRAM that can operate at a higher frequency, giving the tentative nod to the DDR 500.

With my own mostly unscientific testing, I've found that often DRAM at CAS 2.0 at X frequency will often keep up with or outperform the same DRAM at CAS 2.5, X+ frequency.

Quiet-Storm

So..by going by what you said the DDR PC-3200 would give me better performance in games out of the box at stock speed/timings than the DDR 500 PC-4000..correct?

ryko

it really depends. some apps like more memory bandwidth and some don't respond that much to an increase.

in any case, i think you need to get up around 275 (ddr550) at 3-4-4-8 to compete with ddr400 @ 2-2-2-5. since the timimgs you posted are a little different so it is hard to say. i think anandtech had an article on this very issue a while back....

here you go...

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2497

"So, while our recommendation for not needing higher bandwidth DDR memory remains as is for single core Athlon 64 owners, if you happen to be a heavy multitasker, you’ll find that the Athlon 64 X2 can benefit from higher speed memory in scenarios like the ones that we’ve outlined here today."

mmonnin

The OCZ DDR PC-3200 2GB Platinum Edition Dual Channel (DDR 400 with timings of 2-3-2-5) will give you the best performance at stock settings, end of story.

RWB

In what order do you guys place those timings? On my motherboard they are 2,3,6,3... I dunno which number is which such as tRAS... I know CAS Latency is always first generally.