Why does ddr2 ram have such high latencies.

[Saint71]

Im planning on a future build for conroe and im stuck on the ram option. I dont understand why ddr2 ram has such high latencies. And is it worth it to spend more on ddr2 ram or are the performance gains over ddr still minimal.

 

[RepuLse]

it runs at higher speeds and this means less tight timings its fine though

 

[aliasaid]

i believe ddr2 is now cheaper... so you're not "spending more"..

and the high latencies pretty much balance out the high speed... (or i'm not sure how that works exactly.. i just know performance is pretty much the same.. ) and latencies are getting tighter for ddr2.. 3-3-3-8 is getting common.. within a year we'll probably have 2-2-2-5

 

[Saint71]

What spped ddr2 ram would I have to get in order for it to be faster than ddr. Im guessing 667mhz?

 

[Khann]

Don't think you can even use DDR with Conroe anyway.. think you have to go DDR-2.

 

[meefle]

within a year we'll probably have 2-2-2-5

we'll probably also have DDR3

There is one mobo by ASRock that supports DDR RAM and Conroe but dont look for awsome OCin and features.

and for Conroe, DDR2 533 is actually enough although you can get DDR2 800 for conroe. I would get 667 though. and CAS Latencys dont worry to much because higher latencys dont affect conroe as much as AM2