[Triskaidekaphobia]

Hi, I have an Intel E6600 (266MHz FSB) and 4x512MB of OCZ PC-6400 (800MHz) RAM stable at 4-5-4-15. This means that my "FSB speed:DRAM speed" ratio is 2:3 (266MHz:400MHz). CPU-Z calls it "DRAM" - is that the same as "memory bus"? Anyway, what does a 2:3 ratio actually mean for my system, am I losing some performance?
I can reduce the memory bus speed to 333 (which would equal a 4:5 ratio) or even 266 (which is 1:1), but that seems like a waste of money on the RAM front, because my 4 sticks would all effectively become PC-4200 rather than PC-6400...., but would a 1:1 ratio be "better" somehow than 2:3?

I am not trying to overclock anything at all, I just don't really get the whole "timings" thing....

Many thanks

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Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go!

DRAM is Dynamic Random Access Memory. The memory bus is the bus that runs from the CPU to the memory expansion slots. To answer your question, no they are not the same thing.

In computers, your system is only as fast as the slowest component. If your FSB is only running at 266 MHz, your memory can only operate at 266 MHz, no matter what you have it set at. So you pretty much don't really have any advantage with 2:3 or 4:5.

Hope this answers your questions,

Ax

[Ax238]

Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go!

DRAM is Dynamic Random Access Memory. The memory bus is the bus that runs from the CPU to the memory expansion slots. To answer your question, no they are not the same thing.

In computers, your system is only as fast as the slowest component. If your FSB is only running at 266 MHz, your memory can only operate at 266 MHz, no matter what you have it set at. So you pretty much don't really have any advantage with 2:3 or 4:5.

Hope this answers your questions,

Ax