# 2GB DDR1 vs 1GB DDR2



## Ben Clarke (Mar 31, 2007)

Well, I have these. 2x1GB DDR1 RAM, and 2x512MB DDR2 RAM. Which is better for gaming?


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## niko084 (Mar 31, 2007)

2 gigs!

DDR2 does not have that much more bandwidth than DDR1, and a lot of games will use 2 gigs.


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## infrared (Apr 1, 2007)

DDR2 has loads more bandwidth than DDR1! And the latencies are about the same when ddr2's clocked up a bit.

Why don't you want 2gb's of ddr2?


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## niko084 (Apr 1, 2007)

infrared said:


> DDR2 has loads more bandwidth than DDR1! And the latencies are about the same when ddr2's clocked up a bit.
> 
> Why don't you want 2gb's of ddr2?



That would be the best way to go...

Well I figured on the bandwidth that it was one of those dual use boards, with ddr1 and ddr2 slots, and those boards don't run ddr2 800... 533 from most of what I have seen which isn't a ton and especially for gamings considering they don't really even use it, they want fast timings.


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## infrared (Apr 1, 2007)

Oh it's on one of those things... i hate those multi boards.


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## niko084 (Apr 1, 2007)

infrared said:


> Oh it's on one of those things... i hate those multi boards.



I don't know... But thats what I figured by the question.

And ya, I'm right there with ya, but I have a few boards laying around with SD and DDR old athlon xp boards.


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## Ben Clarke (Apr 1, 2007)

So 2GB DDR1 would be best out of what I have?
And the reason why I don't go for 2GB DDR2 is cuz I don't have the money . Thanks for your help.


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## Pinchy (Apr 1, 2007)

Depends on the speed of the DDR2.

If its DDR400 vs DDR2 533, id say get the 2GB.

If its DDR266 vs DDR2 800, id say the 1GB.

If you get what i mean


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## infrared (Apr 1, 2007)

imo ddr 400 is a match for ddr2 667mhz if you're comparing read/write speeds.


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## largon (Apr 1, 2007)

Speed will never compensate the capacity. 

If the game/application uses >1GB but only 1GB is available there's only one way: virtual memory. 
And as you probably know, you _r e a l l y_ don't want to use virtual memory.


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## Pinchy (Apr 2, 2007)

Yeah but what sort of "normal" everyday application will use more than 1GB nowadays?



infrared said:


> imo ddr 400 is a match for ddr2 667mhz if you're comparing read/write speeds.



Lol yeah, id only get the 1GB if there was a _huge_ speed difference


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## hat (Apr 2, 2007)

I'd go for the 2gb ddr1. My 1 gig ddr1 works great for me, 2 gigs should be good for a year or two..


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## euonline (Apr 2, 2007)

For Vista 2 gigs, otherwise 1 gig can be fine.


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## bigboi86 (Apr 2, 2007)

BF2 used 2 gigs on my computer, ever since I went from 512mb to 2gigs I fell in love. Went from choppiness to liquid smooth.


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## rhythmeister (Apr 2, 2007)

I'd say DDR for tighter timings FTW!


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## x800professor (Apr 3, 2007)

euonline said:


> For Vista 2 gigs, otherwise 1 gig can be fine.



2 gigs on vista felt like about 512MB in XP.  That is the absolute minimum I would recommend, sadly.

When a stick of my ram died, I lost about 600 3dmarks in 06 with an x1950XT.  Oblivion ran about the same except in outdoor situations near an oblivion gate.  That was on high.  Of course, I still had one gig of DDR2 running at 1067 5-5-5-14.


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## Kursah (Apr 3, 2007)

I love my 2 gigs of DDR2..get way more oc/bandwidth/latency out of it compared to my old DDR1 setup. My G.Skill DDR2 800 is comfy at DDR2 960, 4-4-4-5, 2.25v, best I could muster with my DDR 400 was DDR 482, 3-4-4-8, 2.8v. But I spent about $240 on that G.Skill memory a couple months ago (2 gig kit) and about $65 on some cheap Mosel DDR1 (1 gig kit)..so even at $$$ Per gig, I paid for the extra performance. Not to count the new Core2, MB, PCI-E card, coolers, etc...that stuff adds up very quickly, and with all my new equipment I'm at 2X (sometimes a little less than, sometimes a lot more than) faster/frame rates. 

I stayed away from those Asrock boards, especially their one that has AGP, PCI-E, DDR1 and DDR2...that's just too much for one board to take and perform well with...I haven't heard how they perform from anyone I know.


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## Polaris573 (Apr 3, 2007)

My DDR1 at 500Mhz sometimes outperforms my brothers DDR2 even at above 600Mhz.  We both have 3Ghz Prescotts.  I suppose the different motherboards could account for it, but he has a pretty good motherboard.

My vote is for 2Gb of DDR.


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## Kursah (Apr 3, 2007)

Yeah..my DDR1 system was a 3.0 Prescott. My DDR2 system is a 1.8 e6300. And my DDR2 MB is of better quality and meant for OC-ing compared to my DDR1's Abit AS8-v...

What's the system specs Ben?? I agree Motherboards make a BIG difference. And in memory, if you can OC that DDR1, 2 gigs even if not at the performance of stock DDR2 at half the ammount may fair better for gaming/performance. That all depends though...


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