What's more important?

CPU speed or RAM speed? Let's say we're talking 100-150mhz for the CPU and
as much as 50mhz for the RAM.

Just curious for optimal overclocking settings. I lose one or the other...

TIA

"SOSO" wrote in message
able.rogers.com...
CPU speed or RAM speed? Let's say we're talking 100-150mhz for the CPU
and
as much as 50mhz for the RAM.

Just curious for optimal overclocking settings. I lose one or the
other...

It all depends on what you're doing. If you're running few but CPU
intensive programs with relatively little data transfer, the CPU speed is
much more important, but if you run many or large simultaneous programs with
lots of data manipulation, RAM speed (and RAM amount!) becomes much more
important.

If at all possible, try to keep the FSB and RAM bus speeds identical.
Synchronous transfers are quite a bit faster -- you often run a system
faster with 133:133 or 200:200 (Front side:RAM bus) than 133:155 or 200:233,
due to the overhead of non-synchronous bus speeds, combined with usually
having to increase the latency of the RAM. Increase the RAM bus speed more
than this, and it catches up again.

Some indications on CPU/RAM bottlenecks can be seen from looking at the task
manager. Since memory transfers tend to be classified as kernel usage,
enable "Show Kernel Times" from the View menu, and look at how high that
usage is compared to the overall CPU usage. If the red graph (kernel CPU)
is relatively high compared to the green graph (total), it's an indication
(but not certainty) that your CPU might be waiting for RAM transfers.
If the green line is often at or near 100%, a CPU overclock might of course
help.

While you're in the task manager, also look at the Commit Charge "Peak"
value and compare it to the Physical Memory "Total" value, especially after
having run the system for a while without a reboot, and having run your
favourite apps. If the Peak charge value is higher than the Total physical
memory value, your system is swapping and will probably benefit from more
RAM more than from overclocking. If that's not an option, an upgrade from
XP to Windows 2000 (or from Me to 98) might help :-)

If you're a gamer, increasing the amount of memory on the video card will
usually have a greater effect than overclocking the RAM. The exception
being level loads and "zoning", which is what benefits the most from
overclocked RAM. For game speed itself, CPU speed (and graphics card speed)
is usually more important.

Regards,
--
*Art

Now that's an answer man! Thanks for all the info. Right now with my P4PE
I just set the ram to what comes up in the menu option... for example, if I
am at 2.5ghz (from 2.0), my menu option for my ram speed will either be
250mhz or 320mhz. I, of course, chose the 320mhz.

"Arthur Hagen" wrote in message
...

"SOSO" wrote in message
able.rogers.com...
CPU speed or RAM speed? Let's say we're talking 100-150mhz for the CPU
and
as much as 50mhz for the RAM.

Just curious for optimal overclocking settings. I lose one or the
other...

It all depends on what you're doing. If you're running few but CPU
intensive programs with relatively little data transfer, the CPU speed is
much more important, but if you run many or large simultaneous programs
with
lots of data manipulation, RAM speed (and RAM amount!) becomes much more
important.

If at all possible, try to keep the FSB and RAM bus speeds identical.
Synchronous transfers are quite a bit faster -- you often run a system
faster with 133:133 or 200:200 (Front side:RAM bus) than 133:155 or
200:233,
due to the overhead of non-synchronous bus speeds, combined with usually
having to increase the latency of the RAM. Increase the RAM bus speed
more
than this, and it catches up again.

Some indications on CPU/RAM bottlenecks can be seen from looking at the
task
manager. Since memory transfers tend to be classified as kernel usage,
enable "Show Kernel Times" from the View menu, and look at how high that
usage is compared to the overall CPU usage. If the red graph (kernel CPU)
is relatively high compared to the green graph (total), it's an indication
(but not certainty) that your CPU might be waiting for RAM transfers.
If the green line is often at or near 100%, a CPU overclock might of
course
help.

While you're in the task manager, also look at the Commit Charge "Peak"
value and compare it to the Physical Memory "Total" value, especially
after
having run the system for a while without a reboot, and having run your
favourite apps. If the Peak charge value is higher than the Total
physical
memory value, your system is swapping and will probably benefit from more
RAM more than from overclocking. If that's not an option, an upgrade from
XP to Windows 2000 (or from Me to 98) might help :-)

If you're a gamer, increasing the amount of memory on the video card will
usually have a greater effect than overclocking the RAM. The exception
being level loads and "zoning", which is what benefits the most from
overclocked RAM. For game speed itself, CPU speed (and graphics card
speed)
is usually more important.

Regards,
--
*Art

Oh, forgot to mention.... running 512mb of DDR333 and a Ti4200 w/128mb.

"Arthur Hagen" wrote in message
...

"SOSO" wrote in message
able.rogers.com...
CPU speed or RAM speed? Let's say we're talking 100-150mhz for the CPU
and
as much as 50mhz for the RAM.

Just curious for optimal overclocking settings. I lose one or the
other...

It all depends on what you're doing. If you're running few but CPU
intensive programs with relatively little data transfer, the CPU speed is
much more important, but if you run many or large simultaneous programs
with
lots of data manipulation, RAM speed (and RAM amount!) becomes much more
important.

If at all possible, try to keep the FSB and RAM bus speeds identical.
Synchronous transfers are quite a bit faster -- you often run a system
faster with 133:133 or 200:200 (Front side:RAM bus) than 133:155 or
200:233,
due to the overhead of non-synchronous bus speeds, combined with usually
having to increase the latency of the RAM. Increase the RAM bus speed
more
than this, and it catches up again.

Some indications on CPU/RAM bottlenecks can be seen from looking at the
task
manager. Since memory transfers tend to be classified as kernel usage,
enable "Show Kernel Times" from the View menu, and look at how high that
usage is compared to the overall CPU usage. If the red graph (kernel CPU)
is relatively high compared to the green graph (total), it's an indication
(but not certainty) that your CPU might be waiting for RAM transfers.
If the green line is often at or near 100%, a CPU overclock might of
course
help.

While you're in the task manager, also look at the Commit Charge "Peak"
value and compare it to the Physical Memory "Total" value, especially
after
having run the system for a while without a reboot, and having run your
favourite apps. If the Peak charge value is higher than the Total
physical
memory value, your system is swapping and will probably benefit from more
RAM more than from overclocking. If that's not an option, an upgrade from
XP to Windows 2000 (or from Me to 98) might help :-)

If you're a gamer, increasing the amount of memory on the video card will
usually have a greater effect than overclocking the RAM. The exception
being level loads and "zoning", which is what benefits the most from
overclocked RAM. For game speed itself, CPU speed (and graphics card
speed)
is usually more important.

Regards,
--
*Art