Processing Bus vs. Memory Speed

Computer Forum CPU, Motherboards and Memory
1

Hello, I have searched for answers to this on several forums and have not found any concise answers.

Is it worth paying for a processor of bus speed 1066 MHz if the system memory to be used is only running at 800 MHz? In other words, will I be experiencing bottle necking/800MHz - level performance even with the 1066 MHz processing bus if the memory only runs at 800MHz?

I am trying to figure out if I might as well stick with a processor of bus 800 MHz instead of paying the extra $150 or so for a processor of a faster bus speed. Will I really feel the faster bus speed of the processor even when using DDR2 at 800 MHz instead of DDR3 at 1066MHz?

(The processor in question is an Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache vs. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.60MHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache - using 4GB of DDR2 Dual Channel RAM at 800Mhz on a 64-bit Vista)

If there is any information I left out, let me know and I’ll fill it in.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

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Yes it is worth buying processor bus speed of 1066mhz, Higher the bus speed the better because it will increase the system bus bandwidth. 800mhz memory isn’t bad, I have my system bus @ 1333mhz and ram @ 880mhz seems to run extremely well.

3

Ahh I see. Thanks for the reply.

4

not sure if you have mentioned this but some people get confused with ddr2 or ddr3 bus speeds vs cpu bus speeds.

if you have ddr2 and you want to match the bus speed and save money at the same time then get the 1:1 memory-to-bus ratio.

to do this with ddr2 and say a 1066mhz bus cpu half the bus speed of the cpu to achieve 1:1 ratio, for instance, a cpu bus of 1066 needs only 533mhz of ddr2, a cpu bus of 1333 needs only 667mhz memory.

to match the same levels of a 1333mhz cpu you divide by 3 for ddr3, so 1333 / 3 = 444mhz, so any ddr3 speeds will match your cpu ratio