# Processor Speed/Memory Ratio?



## earlboykins (Feb 18, 2005)

This may sound ignorant as I don't exactly know what I'm talking about.

Is there an ideal ratio of the speed of your processor and memory card, ie 133MHz/32MB, 500MHz/128MB?

For example, I have a 2800MHz Intel processor and 256MB of DDR (400MHz) and I've been told I've wasted my money on such a fast processor since it can't fully utilize itself with only 256MB anyway.

Is it true? Is there a general guideline for these things?

Thanks!


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## Sarkast (Sep 12, 2004)

Whoever told you that obviously doesnt know what he/she is talking about.

There is no "perfect ratio" for CPU speed and size of memory.

In all cases you want the fastest CPU and the fastest memory - and have them work in 1:1 ratio (for example a P4 with 800 Mhz FSB (200x4) and DDR 400 (200x2)).


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## 1stladytech (Feb 25, 2005)

*They may have been talking about the motherboard*

I could be that they were talking about the motherboard being Dual Channel enabled, but that will not come in to play with only one piece of ram. You have to have a matching set of 2 in order to get full performance. It will run just fine with one - just not at full capacity. What board do you have anyway? The operating systems seem to be more ram dependent than the hardware - Win XP likes alot of ram, so 512 would be better than 256 meg - but Win 98 doesn't typically like more than 384 meg. Just the way that they handle the memory.


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## earlboykins (Feb 18, 2005)

How do I know what motherboard I have?
[Big text between fan/memory cards says "MSI", chipset is VIA. Several drivers in Device Managers say VIA (ie VIA Network Adapter, VIA Bus Master, VIA RAID Controller etc.), and the motherboard CD I got with the PC is MSI.]

BTW, is it true VIA's motherboards are less credible?


Back to my original question. 
Generally - have I wasted any money buying a 2800MHz processor with only 256MB?

(I use it for everything..games, p2p, multimedia etc)

Thanks!


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## Sarkast (Sep 12, 2004)

No you didnt waste your money.

You could run "Everest" to figure out what motherboard you have.


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## Has2SpoildBrats (Jan 11, 2005)

*sorry I posted on the wrong page.*

sorry I made a mistake and posted on the wrong page.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

There is no direct connection between the processor speed, the FSB speed, and the memory speed. Faster is better in almost every case. Obviously, the bottleneck will be the slowest component. Remember that the FSB will be transferring data on the PCI bus as well as to/from memory, so a speed mismatch between FSB and memory isn't necessarily a bad thing.


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## Volt-Schwibe (Jan 12, 2003)

earlboykins said:


> Back to my original question.
> Generally - have I wasted any money buying a 2800MHz processor with only 256MB?



no, you could simply go back to the pc store at any time and ask for another matching stick of ram.

keep in mind that even if the numbers match up, different sticks aren't always the same, so try to buy the same model and brand as the other one you have.

in my opinion it's best to buy them at the same time, but nothing is written in stone saying you have to.

and, in fact, i have used many machines that are exactly what you are describing, fast, like 2800+, yet with only 256 megs of ram, and saw no serious issues.

it goes without saying that the biggest fastest memory sticks will be best, but the average stick does well enough for 90% of people.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

earlboykins said:


> BTW, is it true VIA's motherboards are less credible?


I wouldn't say that VIA boards are less credible. It's really a persons opinion. There are a lot of OEM Machines out there with VIA chipset MBs.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

I can say that VIA USB 2.0 controller chips suck! I've been bit three times by them in different adapters and computers! In all cases, they would not handle a USB connected CD/DVD writer properly. Pop in another brand, and off to the races!


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