Am I getting this RIGHT- Need help in timings vs Overclockability vs Bandwidth

[hcforde]

I have an ASUS A8N-SLI board currently with aN A64 3200+ chip that I will probably upgrade is I can't overclock it well. Just purchased an ATI X1900XTX. This machine is dedicated just for gaming

I have been looking at getting 1 set of the following

A)Twinx2048-3200pt(3-4-4-8)

B)Twinx2048-3200c2(2-3-3-6)

C)Twinx2048-4000PT(3-4-4-8)

 

NOW, What I think I am sure of is that

1) The higher the DDR the faster the system can be clocked

2) The lower the latency the faster at stock speed

3) low latency works fast at taking small chunks out at any given time period while higher latency works slower but can take out bigger chunks at any given time period.

4) Higher ddr memory will "overclock" better in a system (Normally is DDR400=200FSB) therefore DDR 500 should be able to "overclock" to a FSB of 250 easily

5) if I keep it at stock speed the lower latency ram will give me better results

 

It appears that the nature of games that are here that I play are and will require bandwidth because of the chunks of video that has to be processed. I play mostly Real-time Strategy games and some shooters like, Halflife 2, F.E.A.R., Command and conquer series, Battlefield 2, Gun, Starwars Battlefront 1&2, Far Cry, Dawn of War, Call of Duty 2, and the Upcoming StarWars RTS Empire at War.

 

Here is where I am fuzzy!!!

timings of say 2-3-3-6 VS 3-4-4-8

1. are these timings at the base of DDR3200 without overclocking ? If I have a module that has timings of 2-3-3-6 and attempt to overclock I may have to loosen the timings right? But I may be limited on how fast it can go because I will be limited by the DDR rating (FSB). On the other hand if the timings are 3-4-4-8 at stock spped my frames per second will be slower BUT in general I can reach a higher FSB. WHY? As my FSB gets higher does my effective timing become tighter?

 

2. In effect is some ram actually(officially rated by the manufacturer) at say DDR400 but is actually DDR450 or DDR500 but the official rating is based on performance garantees

 

A)Twinx2048-3200pt(3-4-4-8)

B)Twinx2048-3200c2(2-3-3-6)

C)Twinx2048-4000PT(3-4-4-8)

 

Considering the above ram

A&C

I should see the same FPS at stock speeds but C would overclock better and garanteed to do a 250 FSB while A will do a 200 FSB. There may be some headroom for overclock beyond these garantees

 

A&B

B will have better frames persecond at stock but will not overclock well if I can go to FSB of 220 an B I should consider myself lucky

 

Beyond that some ram may overclock tremendously well like some processors do. HOWEVER if you are looking for a garantee get the higher DDR otherwise have a good relationship with the vendor you are getting them from.

 

OK Where am I on target and where am I off.

 

Thanks

[Wired]

you're going in 5 directions at once. BREATHE.

 

First of all, when overclocking you're also limited by your CPU and what it can overclock to.

 

Let's say you've got a CPU that can OC 1 million times. In otherwords it's not gonna be an issue.

 

3200C2 would be better than 3200. Why? tighter timings.

 

4000 would be better than 3200C2. Why? higher FSB. The 25% increase in FSB will make up for the timing difference.

 

Buy high speed memory if you don't want the memory to be a big factor when overclocking your CPU.