Has anyone upgraded their system from DDR2 to DDR3 memory and seen any performance benefit?Thanks

Has anyone upgraded their system from DDR2 to DDR3 memory and seen any performance benefit?Thanks

Can't be done: DDR3 and DDR2 "are not compatible"Unless in your upgrade you also include a DDR3-capable MB...Cheers,- jahman.

Several major DRAM manufacturer have made announcement, they are supplying the industry's first DDR3 devices and modules to leading PC industry developers for evaluation by early 2007.Intel’s Bearlake chipset will be the first to support DDR3 and it is expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2007.The DDR3 standard allows for chip capacities of 512 megabits to 8 gigabits, effectively enabling a maximum memory module size of 16 gigabytes. DDR3 DIMMs have 240 pins, the same number as DDR2, and are the same size, but are electrically incompatible and have a different key notch location.

For what I know DDR3 is really not that much faster than DDR2. Tipically you will see a big benefit from going from say C2Q to I5/I7 because of the overall improved arquitecture, not so much related to DDR2 vs DDR3. For example I5/I7 nehalems & westmeres have an integrated memory controller which is much more of a factor than DDR3 itself when it comes to memory throughputIf you were to run an AM3 CPU on an AM2+ board (DDR2) you would find it performs very close to the same AM3 CPU + AM3 board (DDR3)

For what I know DDR3 is really not that much faster than DDR2. Tipically you will see a big benefit from going from say C2Q to I5/I7 because of the overall improved arquitecture, not so much related to DDR2 vs DDR3. For example I5/I7 nehalems & westmeres have an integrated memory controller which is much more of a factor than DDR3 itself when it comes to memory throughputIf you were to run an AM3 CPU on an AM2+ board (DDR2) you would find it performs very close to the same AM3 CPU + AM3 board (DDR3)

Not entirely accurate. I run DDR3 on my 790i Ultra (LGA775) board, and compared to the 780i, there is a good performance increase. Now while this can not be solely attributed to the switch to DDR3 memory, where DDR3 shines is it's ability to run higher clock speeds and lower latencies at lower voltages. I'm running 2000MHz DDR3. That's blindingly fast. The highest clocked DDR2 I've seen readily available was 1333MHz.

Not entirely accurate. I run DDR3 on my 790i Ultra (LGA775) board, and compared to the 780i, there is a good performance increase. Now while this can not be solely attributed to the switch to DDR3 memory, where DDR3 shines is it's ability to run higher clock speeds and lower latencies at lower voltages. I'm running 2000MHz DDR3. That's blindingly fast. The highest clocked DDR2 I've seen readily available was 1333MHz.

Nick, DDR2 latencies are typically lower than DDR3's. Speed is lower but latencies too. Anyway if you have seen a significant performance increase then I could be wrong. What apps did benefit from it the most & how big was that leap please? of course I'm especially interested in FSX :)

Nick, DDR2 latencies are typically lower than DDR3's. Speed is lower but latencies too. Anyway if you have seen a significant performance increase then I could be wrong. What apps did benefit from it the most & how big was that leap please? of course I'm especially interested in FSX :)

The latencies are techincally lower, yes, but latencies are completely relative to the speed of the RAM itself. For example, ram with higher latencies can be faster with a sufficient clock speed. Search for "ram latency explained" to see what I mean. I noticed a big performance increase in most everything, but I went from 1066MHx DDR2 to 2000MHz DDR3, and a new mobo, so that's not solely based on the RAM.

For what I know DDR3 is really not that much faster than DDR2(snip)

"DDR3 is a DRAM interface specification; the actual DRAM arrays that store the data are similar to earlier types, with similar performance. The primary benefit of DDR3 SDRAM over its predecessor, DDR2 SDRAM, is the ability to transfer at twice the data rate (8× the speed of its internal memory arrays), enabling higher bandwith and peak rates. DDR3 modules can transfer data at a rate of 800–2133 MT/s using both rising and falling edges of a 400–1066 MHz I/O clock. ... In comparison, DDR2's current range of data transfer rates is 400–1066 MT/s using a 200–533 MHz I/O clock."Cheers,- jahman.

dazz: think of it this way... they're all severely underused.... compared to their physical limitations.