RAM timings.

zombie · 06-03-2006, 12:17 AM

I had this query since a long time and I would be glad if someone could help me out with it. I understand that ever RAM has a set of timings. eg. 2-3-3-6. What does it mean and how does it affect the performance of RAM in particular and the rig in general. I may sound dumb, but please bear with me.

darklord · 06-03-2006, 12:37 AM

^^ Thats better.

Ok here is what each of it means -

when you say -

2 (CAS Latency) - 3 (RAS -CAS Delay) - 3 (RAS Precharge) - 6 (Cycle Time Tras)

Well the Pentium4 architecture or more precisely,the Netburst architecture was heavily dependant on Memory Bandwidth.The more there was available,the more better,the overall performance got.

Thus began the era of tight latency Ram working at higher frequency.

Overclockers used such ram like anything.
This is the reason why Winbond BH-5/CH-5 became so immensely popular,cos they could do insanely tight timings like 2-2-2-5 @ speeds of over 260MHz some lucky ones even reached 295+ which is mind boggling actually.

Then came A64.With A64 the memory controller popeed inside the CPU from the traditional northbridge,reducing latencies that occured while communication cycle between CPU - NB - Ram and vice versa.

SO timings became less crucial but still they did perform well than rams with generic timings.

SO basically this is the funda in short behind high quality RAMS,timings...blah blah

Just my 2 cents.