RAM Help! Is it now Faster or Slower?

[EasyFast]

I have some questions about RAM. I had in the system 64 Megs of PC66 SDRAM. Two sticks of 32.

This weekend I decided to add more ram so I went and bought One stick of 128Megs of PC133 SDRAM. I pulled all the old RAM and I put the new RAM in the first slot (there are three slots for ram). System boots and works great.

My questions is this:

Am I hurting the performance of my system if I mix the old PC66 RAM in with the New PC133 RAM? I tried it already and it works 128Meg PC133 + 32Meg PC66 = Boots fine and recognizes 160Meg. I pulled back out the old RAM, because I was thinking that since the old RAM is slower (11ns Vs. 7.5ns), it might slow my system "even" though I have MORE RAM!

Opinions please!! Help!

My computer is an AMD K6-2 300@333mhz with a Premio MB with Intel 430TX chipset (the last chipset Intel made for the Socket 7). FSB is 66mhz.

[AzKidd69]

Easy way to find out.. Run a benchmark and see the results with both set-ups. I personally saw it would be slower with the old sticks in it tho even tho u have more ram..
Try this tho..Add this line to win.ini immediately under [386ENH]
ConservativSwapfileUsage=1


~~Dan~~

Bad spellers of the world UNTIE!

[Psycho Logical]

You can't take advantage of the PC-133 / 7.5ns RAM with that chipset anyway.
Max memory speed supported is 66MHz, assuming you are not overclocking.
You might as well put all three sticks in, with the new one in the first DIMM slot.

You should also know that although the TX chipset can address a maximum of 256MB,
it can only cache the first 64MB. As a consequence, some memory-intensive applications
will actually run slower, caused by switching back and forth between cached and uncached RAM.
In general though, this is somewhat offset by less time spent accessing the swapfile.

Reference: Intel 430TX --> www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/chip/pop/g5i.htm (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/chip/pop/g5i.htm)

edit -- That tip given above is wrong. The statement goes in SYSTEM.INI. And "conservative" is the correct spelling. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif



[This message has been edited by Psycho Logical (edited 08-31-2001).]

[muchmark]

Hi,
The ram will operate at bus speed which is 66 Mhz. Read this http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=66

[Makaveli]

EasyFast: Just thought I would say welcome to Sysopt!

-MaK

[EasyFast]

Thanks everyone!

My understanding is; if your FSB is 66mhz, the PC133 will work at the 66 speed. If that were end of the story, I would just mix the PC66 and the PC133, because I know they will just operate on this system at FSB 66mhz.

Why I am concerned about hurting performance is; both run at the FSB 66 speed fine! But does FSB effect the reaction time (best way i can think of to put it) of the NEW RAM (PC133)which is 7.5ns. Seems to me that the system is only as fast as it's slowest link, which if I added 11ns PC66 RAM, this would be it.

Does this mean that when PC133 RAM is used in a 66mhz FSB that it reaction time or speed is now 11ns? That would be my real question.

Thanks everyone. I really enjoyed the article about the 430TX chipset also http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

The chipset only allows 64 meg of RAM to be Cache. hmmmmm, does it really matter on this system if I go to 256Meg of RAM?

[Godsaysso]

hey,
IF your mobo supported a bus speed of 100 MHz
or up, then you would be hurting performance.........

Because PC 66 memory is only capable of 66 mhz safely, and pc133 is up to 133 mhz, then your system would automatically clock everything down to 66 MHz, and for 64 MB, its not worth it

laters,
godsaysso