Solved WEI - DDR2 vs DDR3

[lehnerus2000]

This might not be in the correct section.

After a series of disasters I have just upgraded(?) my system.
I haven't adjusted my system specs info yet (so you can still see my previous setup info).

My new system:

• AMD AM3 x6 Phenom II 1055T.
• 4 GB of DDR3 (1333).

My new setup seems smoother overall (although Firefox seems to take longer to shutdown).

I noticed something disappointing/strange after refreshing my WEI score:

• 8 GB of DDR2 ( 800) - 7.2
• 4 GB of DDR3 (1333) - 5.9

I was under the impression that:

• DDR3 was faster than DDR2.
• 1333 was faster than 800.

I'm sure that my old system was using the default settings (i.e. no overclocking).

Is the WEI memory score actually based on capacity, speed and type?
Do I need to adjust my BIOS settings?

Also when I run System Information Tool:

• XP SP3 CPU Power - 140W.
• W7 CPU Power - 70W.

According to AMD it is rated at 125W.
AMD Phenom
All other values (e.g. voltages and temperatures) seem to be basically the same.
The temperatures seem to be basically the same in Ubuntu as well.

 

[cmd187]

It is faster, but you've halved the memory amount. Double to 8GB and it will shoot up to 7.8 or so.

 

[Sardonicus]

Yes, I'd suspect that you'd get a higher WEI core for DDR2 based on........

• 8 GB of DDR2 ( 800)
• 4 GB of DDR3 (1333)

 

[lehnerus2000]

Thanks Guys

Thanks Guys.
So the WEI score is based on capacity, speed and type.

Unfortunately my new motherboard only has two slots and since I was short of cash, I had to choose a 4 GB kit.
Also my old setup refused to take advantage of the 8 GB, so I didn't think that I would lose out.

C'est la vie.

 

[pantsaregood]

DDR3 isn't inherently faster than DDR2. It is, however, capable of clocking higher.

DDR3 1066 and DDR2 1066 will perform near-identically at equal amounts. The DDR2 may very well have tighter timings, and therefore perform slightly better.

Phenom IIs are pretty poor at taking advantage of high memory bandwidth, anyway.

 

[essenbe]

If your board has onboard graphics, your bios will have a setting for sideport, UMA or Sideport+UMA. It will usually be default at Sideport+UMA. Change the setting to Sideport. Save and exit. Run WEI again.

 

[Britton30]

Check with the RAM maker's site for a forum on overclocking the memory, timing, Bus frequency etc. An AMD platform supposedly won't support DDR3 1600, but it will, I have one (see specs), but will take some tweaking.
WEI memory rating, while not a real benchmark, will give a user an idea about THAT PC's performance when a change is made. The memory rating takes both its speed and amount available to get the score. My setup my set up gets 7.6.

 

[pantsaregood]

Running a K10's memory at anything above 1333 give sminimal benefit. 1333 doesn't really perform much better than 1066 most of the time, really. Even Sandy Bridge has minimal gains with RAM above 1333 MHz.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Thanks Guys (Once Again)

Thanks for your input/suggestions.

DDR3 isn't inherently faster than DDR2. It is, however, capable of clocking higher.
...
Phenom IIs are pretty poor at taking advantage of high memory bandwidth, anyway.

I read something about that earlier today.
Someone posted an article about it on these forums.

If your board has onboard graphics, your bios will have a setting for sideport, UMA or Sideport+UMA. It will usually be default at Sideport+UMA. Change the setting to Sideport. Save and exit. Run WEI again.

My board must be too cheap.
It only has UMA or Disable.

Check with the RAM maker's site for a forum on overclocking the memory, timing, Bus frequency etc. An AMD platform supposedly won't support DDR3 1600, but it will, I have one (see specs), but will take some tweaking.

I'm too paranoid to overclock my system.
I've only had these new parts for a few days and I don't want to risk cooking them.

I reinstalled my NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT card and disabled the on-board graphics.
My WEI memory score increased to 7.4 (from 5.9)

 

[Britton30]

Glad to hear you have it sorted out!

 

[essenbe]

That was the point of my post #6. UMA on an AMD board assigns a certain amount of ram to graphics exclusively. It is therefore not available to the OS. WEI penalizes you for the reduced amount of ram. Glad you got it fixed right.

 

[Wishmaster]

Open a cmd promyt as admin and do:
winsat mem

Itll give a idea of what the actuall bandwidth is. If its close to what it should be, dont worry.
If its extremly low, theres something wrong.

The WEI scores themselves rteally don't give much to go by.

 

[DeaconFrost]

As another suggestion, try an actual benchmark and see how the system is running. WEI should be used once to ensure Aero is enabled, and that's it. It serves no other purpose, is horribly unreliable, and can be edited to show whatever score you'd like. Putting any thought or effort into it is just a waste.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Thanks Guys (Yet Again)

Thanks (yet again) to everyone for your input/suggestions.

Open a cmd promyt as admin and do:
winsat mem

Itll give a idea of what the actuall bandwidth is. If its close to what it should be, dont worry.
If its extremly low, theres something wrong.

The WEI scores themselves rteally don't give much to go by.

Here is a screenshot of the cmd prompt output:


Here is a link to the product info (F3-10600CL9-2GBNT):
G.SKILL-Products

How do I relate the 2 bits of info?
I read a review on the more expensive version of my MB (ASRock 880GMH - I have the LE version).
The reviewer's test result was ~12.5 GB/s, so I guess mine is performing pretty well.

The weird thing is that my NVIDIA graphics card performance dropped slightly (WEI 4.5 to 4.3).
This isn't a problem as I don't play any modern games.

Thanks to everyone (once again).

Additional
It looks like a $1 capacitor disabled my previous MB.
It should be easy enough to repair.

 

[Wishmaster]

AMDs sometimes tend to have slightly higher Memory bandwith at a given speed Vs a Intel setup.
His lower results could be due to Memory settings in the bios. Many possible reasons for it.


Those results look fine to me. I wouldn't worry to much about it TBH.

Although as DeaconFrost suggested, a actual Memory Benchmark will give you much more accurate, and more detailed results. if this is something you are interested in.

The windows one is more of a ballpark figure, but usually pretty close.

 

[pantsaregood]

AMDs certainly do not have higher bandwidth. A Nehalem or Sandy Bridge will destroy any AMD in bandwidth.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Benchmark Programs

Just out of interest, which benchmark programs do people recommend?

 

[ikyuaokii]

memory bandwidth

AMDs certainly do not have higher bandwidth. A Nehalem or Sandy Bridge will destroy any AMD in bandwidth.

That is ridiculous, First, the Amd cpu comes with memory controller integrated into CPU to lower the cost of manfunaturing, Second, Amd CPU has be to tweaked to go higher clock frequencies to take advantage of more memory bandwidth.

 

[bobkn]

AMDs certainly do not have higher bandwidth. A Nehalem or Sandy Bridge will destroy any AMD in bandwidth.

That is ridiculous, First, the Amd cpu comes with memory controller integrated into CPU to lower the cost of manfunaturing, Second, Amd CPU has be to tweaked to go higher clock frequencies to take advantage of more memory bandwidth.

You're a little out-of-date as regards Intel. The Nehalem and Sandy Bridge CPUs have integrated memory controllers, similar to what AMD has been doing for years. Synthetic benchmarks (such as Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K review) show that the high-end Intel CPUs have better memory performance than AMD's finest. I doubt that the real-world differences are that large.

The price/performance trade is more complex. Most of the budget gaming system guides I've seen in the past year or so use AMD CPUs.

 

[pantsaregood]

You can overclock the Northbridge and use high frequency RAM all you want on an AMD system. The truth is that it simply doesn't affect memory bandwidth to any notable degree. Even Thuban, the six-core K10 model, doesn't see any real benefit from RAM above DDR3 1333. Sandy Bridge similarly sees minimal gains from anything above 1333.