Which would be faster?

[Sabbath]

If you had two identical computers except that one is running at 866mhz and 128M ram and the other is running at 500mhz and 500M ram, which one would be faster?

I am guessing it would depend on the type of opperation you are performing, so lets just say either gaming (usually taxing on the system) or database number crunching.

In both of the above instances, which machine should perform better (go faster)?

My thought is that it they would be similar but the 866 would out perform the 500 simply because it could run codes faster. Our IS guy here at work say the 500 would run faster because of the added memory.

What do you think?

God Bless

[edwelly]

Hey Sabbeth, I really don't have an answer. I was always told, after you get past a 366 -400mhz, you really can't tell a difference. I think it's a great question, looking forward to the answers.
- http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif-edwelly

[Praetorian]

I'm not sure so I'm only commenting. But I think the 866mhz would run faster than the 500mhz. The 500mhz would be able to have more applications running and possibly be able to process things faster than it normally would but I still think the 866mhz could out perform it. And once you go past 256mb RAM in Win98SE or below its pretty much a waste of RAM. Those OS's cant manage memory that well.

(But Linux can http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif)

[Sabbath]

Assuming both computers are running windows 2000 as well. That way it can use the extra ram.

[LostBok]

ALL sort sto consider.... if you set that 500 up properly, get it to use the full 512k level cache and tell it to use the extra RAM to cache all teh system files (in registry settings) and then get the database to fit into RAM, it would almost certainly run quicker.... only you start paging or accessing the disks much, the faster disk accessing alone would speed up that database crunching, so the 866Mhz would pull ahead....

Gaming, I reckon that 866Mhz would be outright faster for games... depending on grpahics cards of course! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

laters!

[cadetstimpy]

Benchmark them! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[wing7788]

Why bother? Just add the 500M(?) of RAM in the 866MHz and that shoud be the fastest! I mean, memory sticks are so VERY CHEAP nowadays, you dont have to bother thinking which should be faster, or trouble of benchmarking the two http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif .

Of course, thats a hypothetical question, right? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[NDD]

Additional RAM can't compensate for slower CPU. 866MHz machine will be faster in most of cases, unless on some RAM hungry apps slower comp will perform even or slightly faster.

Best Regards ...