9262 4GB DDR2-800 vs 8GB DDR2-600

have seen bits and pieces of this argument so I thought I would dedicate a thread......

what are the differences and how would they manifest themselves? trying to understand if it is worth the extra $800ish. If it helps for my config i am going with the q9650 2- 320 7200(raid 0), 1 500 - 5400, 9800 gt sli, blue ray burner etc etc etc and will be using the rig to game mostly.

 

I have 3 gigs of ram, and I never use more than 2 gigs even when gaming. I would get the faster ram.
$800 difference?! why?

 

what programs are you gonna run? I don't think you will need 6.5GB for gaming. (Yes 9262 can only see 6.5GB)

 

will probably run all the games I can get my hands on.......crysis COD warhammer online diablo 3 starcraft 2 etc etc etc

 

how about the apps? like CAD? or video editing?

 

8gigs of ram would be pretty much useless for gaming purposes. If you were running CAD or some type of rendering or editing software, then it would be good to have. 4gigs is more than enough for a gaming rig, plus it is a faster speed as well. Save your money!

 

Isn't it 6.8GB that the D901C/NP9262's chipset can see? Also, does anyone think a BIOS update in the future can make it so that 8 GB of 1333 MHz RAM could be used and SEEN in the D901C? I mean... just a possibility... I am not interested in having that much RAM and do not see it being feasible in the upcoming future. Just curious.

 

No, the limits are physical.

 

I have 4gigs now and I have yet to go over 2gig while gaming, thats even playing with conan....and firefox in the background...

but in the other hand my system runs a lot smoother then when I had 2gigs only.

 

Ah, you mean like pin count or something?

 

4GB is more than enough.. i can game, play music, and have ie running at the back and it doesn't take more than 3GB? unless you're running intensive apps that sucks ram.. =/ i use photoshop cs3 which takes up bout 1gb.. save the 800 to get accessories

 

or just pocket the money, for a future upgrade i.e. HDD, very nice carrying bag, or another Laptop...

 

I would save the money so you can get the most-likely GTX SLI, whenever that comes out. That's what I'm doing (granted the upgrade is worth it, and I can sell my 9800GTs for close to at least 60% or so of original price).

 

After being told the 9800M GTX's were under testing by nVidia soon, Eurocom rep made it sound that there is a distinct possibility that it might be delayed further and not come out in SLI, if at all. He mentioned another mobile card that distributors said would be coming out next year, and that it should be compatible with the D901C. I thought he said something like "280", but I do not know this card. Also, he mentioned an 18-inch notebook that is coming out that will have 4 harddrives (down from 5 that he mentioned earlier). In my opinion, 18 is too big, 17 is already big enough). He said this will be their 2009 model, and he didn't say Clevo or who... but I assume Clevo.

Either way, I think my choice to go with the 9800M GT is a good one as he said the other card will blow the 9800M series out of the water. Who knows. Rumors? I have not been reading the future news. Does anyone know anything about any of this?

 

If that rep is right about a mobile version of the GTX 280, the strongest desktop card on the market today, then that is pretty incredible, even if there is even a 20% reduction of power.

 

oh my. now the 280 comes in... =/
thought this thread was about the ram difference =/

(offpoint: i'd rather get the 9800GT in SLI.. already fast enough...)

 

No, not physical is the sense of how many physical RAM chips can be plugged in; rather, the limitation is built into the chipset, which can only provide the CPU with a logical address space of up to 8GB of logical addresses that can be mapped to all of the different resources, including RAM, that the CPU needs to address.

Think of it this way: pretend that, when the CPU communicates with a resource, it sends a letter to that resource, but in order for that resource to receive the letter, the resource has to have a mailbox in the Chipset Postoffice assigned to it. Now, the CPU, being 64bit, can send letters to over a terabyte's worth of addressees; however, the Chipset Postoffice only has 8 gigabytes' worth of mailboxes it can assign to any particular combination of system resources. Now, the Postmaster in the Chipset Postoffice must assign a certain number of those mailboxes to things like the GPUs, the USB hubs (the internal ones that govern the USB slots on the outside of the system), and all of the other devices on the system, in addition to assigning mailboxes to the bytes of physical RAM.

Since the Postmaster in the Chipset Postoffice has a maximum number of mailboxes equal to 8GB, and since some number of those must be assigned to other non-RAM resources, it necessarily follows that there will always be fewer than 8GB worth of mailboxes - aka logical addresses - that can be assigned to the bytes of physical RAM. Thus, even though the 9262 can accomodate up to 8GB of physical RAM, it can only assign something like a little more than 6GB worth of logical addresses to bytes of physical RAM, which means that the CPU can only send letters to - i.e., communicate with - that many bytes of RAM, irrespective of how many bytes of physical RAM are actually onboard.

Finally, on the OP's original question - unless the OP is going to be doing a massive amount of very intensive video/photo editing, or serious CAD work, there is no need to pay the huge premium to buy the 8GB RAM that's currently on offer for the NP9262 - that's wasted money that would be better spent on more hard drive space or upgrading to the fastest CPU available, or, if you've already maxed everything else out, stick it in the bank and wait for the price of 4GB sticks of RAM to come down.

 

oh yes, I wish the new model will come with Nehalem CPU, GTX280. I would definitely order one next year . I dont need that much HDDs though, but who know if I need more memory space in the future. did he mention any specific time of the year?

 

wait for eyetop bro.

 

I want to but dont need one rightnow, so there should be no problem for waiting that happen!