[fishking]

Hi everyone,

What does hypertransport mean (relating to AMD) and what does it mean when i have more of it?
Same with the cache, speed

Same thing with INTEL really,
what does FSB, cache and RAM support and what does it mean when i have more of it (will it be able to multitask more etc)

Also stuff concerning RAM such as Module Size, Memory Type, Voltage etc and what does it mean when i have more of it ? Also whats the difference between DDR2 and DDR3?

Thanks in advance for answering

[link590o]

i don't have the expertise to answer ALL of that, but i can get some of that.

the cache is sort of like memory that comes on a processor, or any other part for that matter. the definition of a cache is pretty much the same on almost everything. so a bigger cache means it can store more data, and process things more quickly. the speed that this is measured in is in Hertz. 1 gigahertz is equal to 1000 megahertz. and the higher that number is the better. 2.66gigahertz is way faster than 1.0 gigahertz. ya see what i'm saying there?

FSB means Front Side Bus. it's the speed of data transfer from your processor to other parts of the machine. a higher front side bus speed allows for higher performance in terms of for example, gaming. it will help all your parts coordinate with each other to milk every bit of performance out of every part.

RAM support means that it supports various types of RAM. there are 3 varieties that you'll see for the motherboard, and another you'll see for video cards.

DDR- the oldest and currently, the slowest type of RAM

DDR2-second newest. it's a standard at the moment and its pretty fast.

DDR3-this is the newest type of RAM out there. it's the fastest, but it's too expensive to be practical yet.

VRAM-this simply stands for Video RAM. all video cards come with some RAM. they also come with their own processor which is dedicated to graphics. the RAM on the card simply assists the processor with information transfer and overall processing. very commonly, you'll see the type of memory on the graphics card referred to as one of the other 3 types above. for example, the geforce 8800 gt 512mb comes with 512megabytes of ddr3 ram.


now that you know the types, there are various speeds measured in megahertz that RAM cards operate at. the most common and most widely supported is DDR2, 800 megahertz. it's also known as PC2-6400. it's simply another way of saying the same thing. they're replaced DDR with PC. and added the 2. 6400 is simply the speed multiplied by 8.

there is also ddr2 1066mhz, and then there are ddr3 speeds going as high as 1333mhz, maybe even higher.

having good RAM support means having a slot for, and being able to install a number of these various types of RAM.

your motherboard will probably say it supports DDR2-800, 1066. and if it also adds that it supports ddr3 1333, that means that it has several different RAM slots that you can plug your ram cards into.

module size usually refers to the size in megabytes or gigabytes of the RAM card. so in addition to various speeds, you have various sizes of cards. they come in 512megabyte varieties, 1gigabyte, 2 gigabyte, and even 4 gigabyte varieties. the way it ends up measuring out is...there are 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte. there are 1024 megabytes in 1 gigabyte. and logically, 2048 megabytes in 2 gigabytes, and 4096 in 4 gigabytes. and the larger the module size, the better usually.

memory type refers to the previous RAM specifics i just mentioned. usually when someone asks what type of RAM you have, you'll need to mention that you have X amount of gigabytes, and the type and speed. for instance, in my computer, i'm running 2 gigabytes of DDR2-800mhz RAM. interchangeably, you could also say I have 2 gigs of pc2-6400 ram. that's up to you and whichever is easier to remember.

voltages....ok. the voltages are usually important with RAM from what i've seen. if you look at websites like newegg.com, they usually list a voltage that the cards run at. the most common i've seen are between 1.8volts and 2.1 volts. usually by increasing the voltage, you can increase the speed that the card or any other part can run at. that's known as overclocking, but by doing so, it's thereby running at a higher speed than it is intended. it's also not running at what the factory defines as safe. and it's not. you're physically damaging the card when you overclock. but that's another matter entirely. you can ask me or someone else for more information about that if you like.

i TRIED to sort of ramble that off in a coherent manner. i'm also trying not to confuse you by throwing a ton of information at you. let me and anyone else know if you're not clear on something.

[Carbon]

Um, this guy's banned and the topic's been here for two months.

[link590o]

when you're bored, sometimes you miss details like that. i didn't notice till after i posted. so whatever...evilfantasy, or any of the other mods, please close this thread or something? no point in bumping a thread like this.

[alex]

We all miss dates Link.

And it was a very good response. Anyone else doing a search may come across it, so it's helpful all the same.

Closed.