RAM speed upgrade benefit?

[zarathustra]

ThinkPad T61 -

Stock RAM is DDR2 PC-5300 and it will accept PC-6400 too. I've read that you can get a boost in performance by upgrading RAM speed. My recollection of the article was there was about a 10% performance increase, but I think their tests were primarily 3D apps / gaming. I'm not 3D intensive, but I do run different statistical apps and network simulation models.

Any thoughts or empirical evidence supporting the notion that going from PC-5300 to PC-6400 will provide any kind of noticable benefit?

Thanks -

[aaa]

6400 is the 800mhz ram, right? It's not supported, in spite of the 800mhz FSB. Probably because dualchannel 2x667 already exceeds the single 800mhz fsb.

[zarathustra]

Thanks for the reply; you've raised some issues that have different answers depending where you look -

6400 is the 800mhz ram, right? It's not supported, in spite of the 800mhz FSB. Probably because dualchannel 2x667 already exceeds the single 800mhz fsb.

Yes, 6400 is at 800Mhz and the T7500 cpu is at 800Mhz. Crucial memory site indicates that both 5300/667 and 6400/800 RAM are supported by the T61. They also indicate that dual channel memory is not supported by the T61. The Lenovo specs I've found only indicate that the memory is dual channel capable; the specs do not say that the motherboard supports dual channel.

Any further thoughts or ideas for clarification?

[aaa]

They *work*, but they'll just clock down to 667.

And I would go by the Lenovo specs to determine if it can utilize dual-channel (I'm pretty sure it does). In fact, you can download CPU-Z and see if you're running dual-channel right now.

[STC]

dual channel is supported