More memory=more speed? Not quite...

[The JoJo]

Check this out, the link is straight to the benchmarks over at Firingsquad:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/building_gaming_opteron_2003_Part2/page16.asp

 

[LunarMist]

That refers to an old article that has since been refuted by many others, including one at Lost Circuits (IIRC). Anyone with 4GB will tell you that they were smoking something. RAM rocks, as Greg would say.

 

[time]

They used four 512MB DIMMs to get to 2GB. I'd guess that there was a major timing issue filling all four slots on the tested motherboard with these particular DIMMs.

However, that doesn't negate the review findings at all. If it won't work as expected, most people would rather know in advance.

In the days of the 430TX (and VX) chipset, performance dropped noticeably when total RAM size passed 64MB, thanks to another brain-dead design from Intel.

 

[Santilli]

HMMM. Perhaps as the amount of ram increases, the neccessity for registered ram comes into the picture???

S

 

[LunarMist]

Time,

You are quite correct that the results are valid for that particular system. However, many people read that article and infer that more RAM will significantly slow many or most systems.

Greg,

Registered RAM may be a lesser issue with dual-channel memory.

 

[e_dawg]

RAM doesn't make that much difference as long as you have enough of it

Seriously, though... if you have enough RAM that you don't need to rely on virtual memory or significant paging to run apps, then the main difference you'll see IMO is the amount that can remain cached in RAM versus paged out to disk.

While more RAM will mean less waiting to page unused stuff back into RAM when needed again, I think I read somewhere that ultimately Windows likes to page all unused files out to disk whether it has 1.5 GB of free physical RAM or 0.5 GB. In other words, the system with more RAM may be able to hold onto unused files a little longer in the system cache, but wait another 20 minutes and it will be paged out too.

The above statement is really conjecture on my part; I am not sure about this. Can anybody verify one way or another?

 

[Santilli]

I've yet to add ram, and think the machine was slower.

I would love to have another gig,....
s
:mrgrn: