Performance subscore drop after adding RAM

[PaulYuratich]

Hi. I've got an Intel Quad Core Processor, Vista 64 Ultimate, and 4 GB of
DDRII 800 RAM. At that point my base performance score was 5.3, and RAM was
5.3. Tonite I just added 4GB more of DDRII 800 RAM and recalculated my
score. RAM score is now 4.8. The computer is recognizing the full 8 GB. I
surely was expecting my score to go UP. What's going on?

 

[Brock]

There are many posibilities as to why your score has dropped most of would
depend on the type of ram. Are both sets Dual Channel? are both sets from the
same manufacturer? are both sets timing ratings the same or are they mixed?
any of these could effect the score. either way if you have 1 bank of ram (2
sticks) your board only has to pass anything to memory to 2 sticks of ram,
where as adding more ram your computer now has to pass data to all 4
increasing overhead and voltage required to power the 2 additional sticks in
turn decreasing your score. if you switched to a lower amount of RAM if you
have 4 GB running at 5-5-5-18 and replaced it with 2 GB of RAM running at
4-4-4-10 your score probably wouldn't change even though you decreased the
amount of total memory. If you would have replaced the 4 GB you had with a
8GB of Quad Channel matched RAM you would have probably also seen an
improvement. this is all just a guess though I really have no idea why the
score would drop as much as it did.

 

[JW]

Certainly having the 8GB will help if running applications such as video
editing or large databases but may not make any difference with many
standard PC applications. I do not know how the memory score is computed
but I doubt that it takes into consideration different application usage
profiles.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Perhaps the memory controller is reaching its load limit and slowing memory
accordingly.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hi. I've got an Intel Quad Core Processor, Vista 64 Ultimate, and 4 GB of
DDRII 800 RAM. At that point my base performance score was 5.3, and RAM
was
5.3. Tonite I just added 4GB more of DDRII 800 RAM and recalculated my
score. RAM score is now 4.8. The computer is recognizing the full 8 GB.
I
surely was expecting my score to go UP. What's going on?

It's a problem with some Intel chipsets. A BIOS update may fix it. Check
with the motherboard manufacturer.