RAM-PC100 vs PC133

I have a motherboard that supports PC100 and PC133. I have gone to the various
memory mfg sites, but maybe I missed something. Is PC133 faster than PC100 by
33% (133/100)? If I install additional PC133 will my computer gain more than
if I add PC100?
Currrently I have 384 MB of PC100. If the answer to the above questions is
that PC 133 is faster than PC100, then will it be advantageous to change out
the PC 100 to PC133? If I remove the 128 MB of PC100 and replace it with 256
MB PC133 will it give a great speed increase or just a little.
Crucial has a memory link that said that 384 MB has higher performance than 512
MB. It was not clear what the numbers meant, but I thought that more memory
had higher performance.
Does anyone know of some useful links for advice on the above.
Thanks, Rick

On 8 Dec 2003 23:15:35 -0800, (stromer) wrote:

I have a motherboard that supports PC100 and PC133.

Mention of the motherboard make/model/chipset might be relevant.


I have gone to the various
memory mfg sites, but maybe I missed something. Is PC133 faster than PC100 by
33% (133/100)?

Yes, and no. PC133 is rated to be stable operating at 133MHz, PC100
rated up to 100MHz. Of course 133MHz IS faster than 100MHz, but your
motherboard chipset, bios settings, and CPU determine the actual
operating frequency, and possibly choices on whether to run the memory
at synchronous (same) speed as the FSB, or at +-33MHz, asynchronous
mode, which is often (but not always) same or lower performance even
at a higher memory bus frequency.


If I install additional PC133 will my computer gain more than
if I add PC100?

If your system is currently using PC100 memory, presumably at 100MHz
(or even at 66MHz), it will make no difference at all in performance
whether you added PC100 or PC133. The larger issue is what the
motherboard and chipset support.

Currrently I have 384 MB of PC100.

Then also consider that your motherboard may or may not be (as) stable
with all memory slots populated. Many boards must use reduced memory
timings with 3 or 4 memory slots filled, else become instable. It may
not apply to your board but is something to keep in mind as it's
pretty common.

If the answer to the above questions is
that PC 133 is faster than PC100, then will it be advantageous to change out
the PC 100 to PC133?

No, unless the motherboard has integrated video which uses that memory
as "shared" video memory and the bios allows settings a "+33"
asynchronous memory bus speed. Otherwise there is no advantage to
PC133, except that if your motherboard can accept higher-density
memory it's cheaper, and it's harder to find 256MB PC100 modules
especially at reasonable prices but as of yet we dont' even know what
motherboard you have, if it can even use higher-density memory.



If I remove the 128 MB of PC100 and replace it with 256
MB PC133 will it give a great speed increase or just a little.

If your use of the system causes the hard drive to be used as virtual
memory, to whatever extend it does that (how much real memory your
system is lacking to perform the required tasks), is the extent to
which the performance will benefit from an additional 128MB of memory.

Crucial has a memory link that said that 384 MB has higher performance than 512
MB. It was not clear what the numbers meant, but I thought that more memory
had higher performance.
Does anyone know of some useful links for advice on the above.
Thanks, Rick

What would be helpful to us:

- Motherboard make/model/chipset info

- Operating system

- Most demanding uses of the system, and any further info on how much
virtual memory (swap file or page file) is being used. A description
of types of applications/games/etc, and number of apps running
simultaneously would at least give a rough idea if exact figures
aren't easily obtainable

- How many modules comprise the current 384MB of installed memory


For the generic answer, generally it would be good to have 2, 256MB
modules installed. It's helpful for a variety of more demanding tasks
and allows a larger file cache to reduce HDD (re)access in addition to
reducing HDD virtual memory useage. On the other hand, having two
256MB modules AND a 128MB module may more likely have diminishing
return on performance or perhaps even a performance penalty (or
reduced stability). Also keep in mind that some chipsets require
registered memory for amounts over 512MB, like Intel BX chipset...
such boards will "try" to run with non-registered memory but errors
may result.

Whatever you end up doing it would be prudent to run
http://www.memtest86.com for several hours, the longer the better.


Dave

I have a motherboard that supports PC100 and PC133. I have gone to the
various
memory mfg sites, but maybe I missed something. Is PC133 faster than
PC100 by
33% (133/100)? If I install additional PC133 will my computer gain more
than
if I add PC100?
Currrently I have 384 MB of PC100. If the answer to the above questions
is
that PC 133 is faster than PC100, then will it be advantageous to change
out
the PC 100 to PC133? If I remove the 128 MB of PC100 and replace it with
256
MB PC133 will it give a great speed increase or just a little.
Crucial has a memory link that said that 384 MB has higher performance
than 512
MB. It was not clear what the numbers meant, but I thought that more
memory
had higher performance.
Does anyone know of some useful links for advice on the above.
Thanks, Rick

It depends on your system whether you can use pc66, pc100 or pc133.
When your board is made for pc66 you could also put pc100 in it. The speed
on your system will be at pc66.
When your board is made for pc100 you could also put pc133 in it. The speed
on your system will be at pc100.
When your board is made for pc133 you could only put pc133 in it. The speed
on your system will be at pc133.

You could put as many sdram as your motherboard supports in it.
Usually you could put about 512Mb in it and for most systems thats more than
enough.
If you use more memory in combination with windows98 you could get trouble.
When you use windows xp and do video-editing you might put more in it.
More memory gives you a smoother (and faster) system.

My motherboard is a Micro Star International MS-6378 Micro-ATX. The
mainboard is based on a VIA Apollo KLE 133 chipset.


kony wrote in message . ..
On 8 Dec 2003 23:15:35 -0800, (stromer) wrote:

I have a motherboard that supports PC100 and PC133.

Mention of the motherboard make/model/chipset might be relevant.


I have gone to the various
memory mfg sites, but maybe I missed something. Is PC133 faster than PC100 by
33% (133/100)?

Yes, and no. PC133 is rated to be stable operating at 133MHz, PC100
rated up to 100MHz. Of course 133MHz IS faster than 100MHz, but your
motherboard chipset, bios settings, and CPU determine the actual
operating frequency, and possibly choices on whether to run the memory
at synchronous (same) speed as the FSB, or at +-33MHz, asynchronous
mode, which is often (but not always) same or lower performance even
at a higher memory bus frequency.


If I install additional PC133 will my computer gain more than
if I add PC100?

If your system is currently using PC100 memory, presumably at 100MHz
(or even at 66MHz), it will make no difference at all in performance
whether you added PC100 or PC133. The larger issue is what the
motherboard and chipset support.

Currrently I have 384 MB of PC100.

Then also consider that your motherboard may or may not be (as) stable
with all memory slots populated. Many boards must use reduced memory
timings with 3 or 4 memory slots filled, else become instable. It may
not apply to your board but is something to keep in mind as it's
pretty common.

If the answer to the above questions is
that PC 133 is faster than PC100, then will it be advantageous to change out
the PC 100 to PC133?

No, unless the motherboard has integrated video which uses that memory
as "shared" video memory and the bios allows settings a "+33"
asynchronous memory bus speed. Otherwise there is no advantage to
PC133, except that if your motherboard can accept higher-density
memory it's cheaper, and it's harder to find 256MB PC100 modules
especially at reasonable prices but as of yet we dont' even know what
motherboard you have, if it can even use higher-density memory.



If I remove the 128 MB of PC100 and replace it with 256
MB PC133 will it give a great speed increase or just a little.

If your use of the system causes the hard drive to be used as virtual
memory, to whatever extend it does that (how much real memory your
system is lacking to perform the required tasks), is the extent to
which the performance will benefit from an additional 128MB of memory.

Crucial has a memory link that said that 384 MB has higher performance than 512
MB. It was not clear what the numbers meant, but I thought that more memory
had higher performance.
Does anyone know of some useful links for advice on the above.
Thanks, Rick

What would be helpful to us:

- Motherboard make/model/chipset info

- Operating system

- Most demanding uses of the system, and any further info on how much
virtual memory (swap file or page file) is being used. A description
of types of applications/games/etc, and number of apps running
simultaneously would at least give a rough idea if exact figures
aren't easily obtainable

- How many modules comprise the current 384MB of installed memory


For the generic answer, generally it would be good to have 2, 256MB
modules installed. It's helpful for a variety of more demanding tasks
and allows a larger file cache to reduce HDD (re)access in addition to
reducing HDD virtual memory useage. On the other hand, having two
256MB modules AND a 128MB module may more likely have diminishing
return on performance or perhaps even a performance penalty (or
reduced stability). Also keep in mind that some chipsets require
registered memory for amounts over 512MB, like Intel BX chipset...
such boards will "try" to run with non-registered memory but errors
may result.

Whatever you end up doing it would be prudent to run
http://www.memtest86.com for several hours, the longer the better.


Dave

On 9 Dec 2003 11:32:13 -0800, (stromer) wrote:

My motherboard is a Micro Star International MS-6378 Micro-ATX. The
mainboard is based on a VIA Apollo KLE 133 chipset.



I guess the real question is how long you want to keep using it?

The video is pretty slow no matter what, but PC133 memory WOULD help,
maybe a 20% increase though that's just a ballpark figure.

The board will take PC133 memory and "most likely" there is a setting
in your bios you can use to increase the memory to (I don't know how
your particular board words it), change the memory bus to 133MHz or
"+33" mode, leaving the FSB at 100MHz. Of course you'd want to remove
all the PC100 memory to do that, using only PC133. If as I asked
above, you want to use the system long-term, I'd get a single 512MB
PC133 module and leave the second memory slot empty.

On the other hand, if video performance is that important, you could
instead just buy 256MB of (PC100 OR PC133), leave the bios settings
alone, and put the ~$30 or so saved off the price of a 512MB module,
towards just about any semi-modern video card. A PCI Geforce or
Radeon video card of any make/model would be quite a bit faster than
the integrated video, support higher resolutions crisper too in most
cases.

If you used a video card there wouldn't be much performance increase
from running the memory at 133MHz, +33, asnychronous speed... it might
be barely faster at some things but barely slower at others. The main
thing is that you'll be doing better to have at least 512MB of memory
if running Win2K or newer Windows OS.

So in summary, the board can use PC100 or PC133, you'd be able to
squeeze around 20% more performance out of your very slow integrated
video by using only PC133 and adjusting the bios, but that integrated
video would still be pretty slow, and IIRC, is limited to only 8MB
frame buffer, so sooner or later you may find it limiting even if not
during gaming, like if zooming a digital picture while editing it.

If it were my system, I'd get this video card:
http://www.shentech.com/vixt91ra91pr.html ,
and add a 256MB PC133 module, leaving the other 256MB PC100 module in
it and leaving the BIOS alone.

Dave

If you mix two different speeds of RAM the system will run at the speed of
the slower RAM (PC100). PC133 RAM runs 33% faster than PC100. Get rid of
the PC100 RAM and buy some PC133 if you want to increase your system's
speed.

--
DaveW



"stromer" wrote in message
om...
I have a motherboard that supports PC100 and PC133. I have gone to the
various
memory mfg sites, but maybe I missed something. Is PC133 faster than
PC100 by
33% (133/100)? If I install additional PC133 will my computer gain more
than
if I add PC100?
Currrently I have 384 MB of PC100. If the answer to the above questions
is
that PC 133 is faster than PC100, then will it be advantageous to change
out
the PC 100 to PC133? If I remove the 128 MB of PC100 and replace it with
256
MB PC133 will it give a great speed increase or just a little.
Crucial has a memory link that said that 384 MB has higher performance
than 512
MB. It was not clear what the numbers meant, but I thought that more
memory
had higher performance.
Does anyone know of some useful links for advice on the above.
Thanks, Rick