Re: Memory Speed

Paul can I dl your brain and upload it into mine? :-P

Dan

Paul wrote:
In article <-cGdnXTuwcK1Zl3ZnZ2dnUVZ_sSdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, PB
<p00lb0y@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Provided the memory works on a motherboard/mainboard, is there any
reason why buying faster than needed (say DDR800 instead of DDR 667) is
not good to have it for a possible future use in a motherboard/mainboard
that can take advantage of the faster speeds?

Thanks in advance,

PB

The memory itself is supposed to be backward compatible. But
the question is whether the BIOS in all cases, will do the
right thing. The contents of the SPD declares the timing,
and it is up to the BIOS to read the timing and set up the
memory controller appropriately. If using a memory which
is faster than the max that your current motherboard
takes, the question is whether the BIOS will behave correctly.
I have read of cases, where a memory which is faster
than the motherboard takes, will result in a black screen
at startup. You really need to Google or try the private
forums, to see if your combo of slow motherboard and fast
memory, has been tried. (This is BIOS dependent and it
seems a lot of initial BIOS shipments, contain crappy
code for setting up memory.)

I would make sure your RAM vendor has some kind of
returns policy, in case you need to select a lower
clocking RAM, to get your current motherboard to work.

There is a non-standardized extension to the SPD timing
information format, which is apparently being presented
to JEDEC. This does not mean that JEDEC will accept it,
or that for the time being, more than a few Nvidia chipset
based boards will use the information, but this proposal
is intended to allow timing sets which are outside the
JEDEC official DIMM speeds to be recorded. I don't see
any harm in this, as long as BIOS which do not know
about EPP (enhanced performance profile), do not trip
over the extra information in the SPD EEPROM. I think
the "SLI" part of this announcement is less important,
since memory has no notion about how the rest of the
computer works, and could care less (but that is the
nature of marketing - some lies, a little substance).

(Announcement of EPP)
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5622

While the Hexus article predicts that JEDEC will rubber
stamp this proposal, I wouldn't be so quick to proclaim
victory. There are many competing interests at JEDEC,
and no way to predict what will happen.

HTH,
Paul

.

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