I don't understand why you are confused - the quote you posted only
reinforces what I said. Perhaps if you understood what "command rate" is,
my point would be a little more clear. Increasing the command rate makes
your memory run more slowly, not faster.
As I said, this was the first article that I stumbled across doing some
quick research for you. I have read similar articles on other hardware
sites, but I have better things to do than hunt them down so that you will
"believe me". I don't really care if you believe me or not. This is a
message board, not a debate society. Do your own research, and come to your
own conclusion.
"Matt Stachoni" wrote in message
news:as5chvsatfos941v31ktgdv5dpumgmjrvs@4ax.com...
> John,
>
>
> RAM timings are a function of the RAM module quality, not how many
> modules you have in the system. You can have 8 RAM sticks installed
> and STILL get 2-2-2 CAS timings - you just have to buy the right ones
> and tweak the BIOS as required (which isn't the same as overclocking).
>
> I've read that Tom's article, and if you believe it (hey, Tom's been
> wrong before), you first response STILL doesn't make sense to me.
>
> You said:
> > A system using dense RAM sticks will perform benchmark
> >tests a little more slowly than a system using smaller RAM modules
>
>
> But Tom's article states:
> > If you've filled all your memory banks, you'll generally have
> >to increase the rate from one to two clock cycles to keep your
> >system stable. Unfortunately, that will also impair performance by up to
three percent
>
> ..so, color me confused on your position.
>
> Matt
> mstachoni@comcast.net
> mstachoni@bhhtait.com
>
>
> On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 14:10:31 -0700, "Jon Rizzo"
> com> wrote:
>
> >> Would you have any data for evidence of this? I've never heard of such
> >> a thing.
> >
> >It is a well established fact - more chips/module and/or more modules =
> >slower timings/command rate. If you are not overclocking, the default
> >settings for these modules are necessarily slower to ensure stability in
a
> >wide range of systems. If you are overclocking and/or tweaking your own
> >system for max. performance, you will be able to squeeze more performance
> >out of a system that has a single low density memory module vs. one with
> >multiple high density modules.
> >
> >As I said, however, the difference shows up IN BENCHMARKS. I have no
idea
> >if casual users would notice any difference. Obviously, a system that is
> >paging to disk cannot compare to a system that is not, so if you USE more
> >than 1 GB of RAM, then by all means it is faster to have more memory.
> >
> >A quick search on tom's hw yielded this article. It refers to this fact,
> >but doesn't really explain all there is to it. There are more in depth
> >articles out there, but this is just one mention that I found with about
a
> >minute of searching.
> >http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20030701/memory_tuning-07.html
> >
> >Jon
> >
>