Mushkin PC150 Enhanced HSDRAM

I’m going to be throwing a lot of comparisons at you using different timings so here’s a quick description for the uninitiated. You’ll normally see memory listed by it’s intended bus speed and its’ CAS timing such as PC150 2,3,2 in the case of memory we’re looking at here. You don’t need to know anything more than 2,2,2 is the fastest you can currently hope for, and 3,3,3 is the slowest. Another pair of numbers that don’t get discussed much is the SDRAM Cycle time. Once again 5/7 is the fastest, and 7/9 (your only other choice is slower. Skip ahead if you don’t want the technical explanation or stick around and we’ll gloss over them quickly:

- The CAS (column address strobe) numbers refer to CAS latency, RAS to CAS delay, and RAS precharge time. Here’s a very basic summary of what they are.

- CAS Latency: The number of clock cycles it will take for the SDRAM to process a request, and return an answer. Obviously, the less clock cycles, the faster it happens.

- RAS to CAS delay: The RAS stands for Row Address Strobe. Memory is accessed by row and column, and the row address is processed first. This number is describing how many clock cycles it takes to do this. When overclocking, this is usually a good one to try increasing to 3 if a faster timing won’t work (note the timing on our PC150).

- RAS precharge time: The memory’s capacitors have to be precharged in order for it to be read or written to. This number describes the clock cycles required to do it. Once again, smaller numbers are better because there’s less delay between read/write cycles.

In spite of the significance of the CAS timing and all the coverage it gets, we still have another set of numbers that can make a difference in your memory bandwith. The SDRAM Cycle time.

The first number stands for Row Active time, and the second for Row Cycle time. I’m not a technician, so I’ve exhausted my knowledge at this point. What I can tell you is that if your memory can support going to the faster timing of 5/7 you may get some extra speed out of your memory. This seems to depend on the CAS timing however, as I’ve found that doing this with 3,3,3 CAS timing resulted in slower scores, not faster.