533MHz to 667MHz

As you can see in the sig, I have 2gb of 533MHz ram. How much of a difference would I see with 2gb of 667MHz? Noticeable? Worth buying? Wait for the future to get cheaper?

 

Generally 667MHz ram has higher latency than 533Mhz ram and as such there is very little difference in performance. As your cpu fsb is 667MHz the faster ram might have a small effect, but not enough to warrant replacing your current ram with.

 

I doubt you will ever notice the difference between the two. As moon angel said it's not worth upgrading. There is really no point.

 

To address another angle of your question: it's not worth the money for the very small increase in performance you would get. Best to just get faster RAM with your next system rather than spend money trying to keep your current system up to date.

 

Save your money for the Santa Rosa platform and the 800MHz fsb.

 

ha and how much will that cost me?

 

what to upgrade or get a new notebook with it in it?

 

Will we see any improvement due to the faster FSB or will all the latencies just increase and result in the same physical time for the various memory activities? The higher frequency will also tend to increase power drain. I await with interest to see whether Santa Rosa will draw less current than the 945 chipset.

John

 

Erm...pretty much a whole new laptop lol! Santa Rosa a.k.a Centrino Pro will use a whole new motherboard im guessing that supports the 800 MHz fsb so you will then need to buy 800mhz capable ram to take advantage of that.

 

Some 800MHz desktop ram has low enough latencies to make a good improvement over 533 and 667... I wonder if laptop ram will be the same...

 

If your CPU runs uses 667mhz your ram may be running that speed already.

My Alienware M5750 does not support a downclock divider for the memory to run at 533 while the system bus is at 667.

CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com may be able to help you determine if your ram is already at 667mhz.

 

Desktop RAM can be given more voltage (= more heat) but it is easier to provide better cooling. 667MHz notebook RAM has been around for well over a year and seems to be stuck at CL=5. I saw one module (Corsair VS2GSDSKIT667D2) which claims to be CL=4 but maybe this is the 533MHz latency. Corsair's website doesn't list this part (2 x 1GB kit) but their 1GB module (VS1GSDS667D2) is rated at 5-5-5-15-2T.

So, if no one has figured out how to drop the latency of 667MHz SODIMMs within the voltage and power constraints applicable for notebooks, then I think there is little chance of seeing low power low-latency 800MHz parts in the near future. And if/when they do come up with such parts, we may find that very low latency 533MHz hits the sweet spot for power and performance. Unfortunately, most notebooks don't offer the user the chance to tweak the memory timings.

John

 

The program "memset" allows adjusting of many values for memory timings. In most cases CAS latency cannot be adjusted, but you could re-write the SPD of the memory using several tools available (I will refrain from publicly listing them as they can cause the memory modules to become useless..).

As it stands, the difference between CAS4 or 5 is minimal at best and on some chipsets and/or BIOS setups can give no or negative performance gains. Most DDR-2 is capable of about 400mhz at CAS4 or 5 at 1.8v anyways, so what you buy almost doesnt matter..

Here is memset, it is pretty much harmless. I use it with my Kingston PC2-4300 1GB modules which use Infineon FP-C4 chips to run 4-3-3-14 timings at 667mhz (CAS4 at 533, no 667 setting so they default to CAS4).

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=92190&highlight=tweaker+chipsets+intel

 

The problem with hi fsb is the higher power consumption.
I’ve been reading a lot about santa rosa in the last months, and I’m curious about battery life from notebooks using the new platform. Many publications are point in this direction of higher power demand.

Let’s see if will affect the battery life before place our bets

 

dude, it will cost you arm, leg, and head.

I think Intel should stay Santa Rosa FSB at 1066, not really on 800. AMD already 800 ready, what's the point to follow the lead?