What happens if you mix ram speeds?

[Fred Weiss]

My home workstation has only 512 MB of DDR266 RAM that is in one double sided stick. The computer (Intel motherboard and P4 chipset) has three open slots. I have an extra stick of 512 MB labelled:

Dual Channel DDR Module
512MBx2
PC3200 400MHz

What happens if I install this extra stick in an open slot?

[Techman]

If the ram is compatible .. The machine will run but at the slower ram speed...
No problems .. If it is not compatible you will know.. Your machine simply will not boot.

[Fred Weiss]

Thank you. Another question ... would one expect better performance from 1500 GB but at 400 speed or 2 GB at 266? Mostly concerned with large files in Photoshop CS.

[player]

Ram is so cheap why not sell yours and get the one that is faster?

[Fred Weiss]

Ram is so cheap why not sell yours and get the one that is faster?

Good point ... just the frugal soul in me I guess.

[Fred Weiss]

Well it says I've got it all and it is exponentially faster at opening and modifying large files in Photoshop. I'm happy and even happier that I didn't discard my existing RAM stick.

Thanx for the input guys. :wine-smi:

[Techman]

it all depends on the bus speed. 400 memory will not deliver any faster than what the bus allows. So if its a 266 bux then it will transfer data at that speed.

It wil seek internally at a faster speed .. the data can only get to the CPU thru the bus..

[Baz]

I learned that photoshop filters are verry ram intensive. Would using high performance ram increase (or make any difference to) the speed photoshop renders filters or is that mostly dependent on processor, HD and MB speed.

[Techman]

BUS SPEED.. essenially.. The cpu can only do what the bus brings it..

[GAC05]

I think Scotty tried this once for Cpt Kurk and the Enterprise ended up getting sucked into a wormhole.