I just installed Vista on my two home computers. I took a look at Vista's built in benchmark. For some reason, Vista rates the 400MHz memory in "computer 1" much higher than the 533MHz memory in "computer 2".

Computer 1 memory score = 5.4 out of 5.9
Computer 2 memory score = 4.4

How do I boost the memory score of computer 2?

Isit the same amount? And type for instance one is not DDR and the other DDR2. Also could be that dual channel is not enabled on computer 2.
This can all be checked using CPU-Z and Memory and SPD tabs.

Core2DuoE6600ES @3.6ghz
2gb Elipedia 1066mhz5,5,5,15
EVGA 680i
BFG 8800 GTS-OC 320mb
680w Thermaltake Purepower
2 x 250gb Sata
Vista Home Premium

and 512mb sticks tend to have a lower/better CAS rating than 1gb sticks.

Bryan

i dont have vista so have not seen this but another point perhaps,does one have the ram speed matched to the cpu fsb and one does not? (running out of sync?)

If PC #1 is the Opteron system & PC #2 is the P-D, there's your difference. The Opteron has the memory controller in the CPU...the P-D uses the memory controller on the motherboard. So it's not the memory that's affecting the score as much as the efficiency of the memory controller.

I'm assuming that the Opteron is using DDR400 and the P-D is using DDR2-533.

-The Opteron uses its own on-chip memory controller, which greatly reduces latency (wait state). The Pentium D uses Intel MCH logic, which takes more time to access memory.

-You say that the P-D is an Acer. Acers typically use integrated graphics, which can greatly reduce memory bandwidth. On some older chipsets, integrated graphics can actually cut bandwidth in half! Do you have integrated graphics?

-Acer generally tends to be conservative with memory timings in order to ensure stability of their systems. Your homebuilt Opteron probably uses tighter memory timings by default. Tighter memory timing=less clock cycles required to read/write to memory.

-Does the P-D have one or two DIMMs? If two, make sure they're running in dual channel mode.

-I believe that DDR is typically "faster per clock cycle" than DDR2. But don't quote me on that.

The New Furnace, replacing Lennox G12
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Wait do these two computers have the same amount of ram? If you have 2gb or 3gb of DDR in vista opteron pc and have 1gb of ram or less in the pentuim D vista pc, then the one that has more memory will get the higher rating. Vista's benchmarking system is a basic benchmark mark system. If you wnat a true memory benchmark test go download a memory benchmark test software, don't rely on vista's because like i said it only rates what's there not how well it performs. Case in point S939 Athlon 64 3700+ vs a LGA775 pentuim 4 630 3ghz. Vista rates both of these processors at 4.2 but in reality the Athlon 64 3700+ outperforms the Pentuim 4 630 and in some cases by a lot. So it's not a reasonable conclution to rate them both the same when one processor is nearly 2x better then the other one.

jam, is the motherboard memory controller really so inefficient that it makes DDR2 at 533 lag severely behind DDR1 at 400?

cliffpage, the CPU FSB is at 800MHz and the RAM is at 533MHz. If I used DDR-800 how much faster would it run?

Jackbomb, both systems have two sticks and CPU-Z detects dual channel operation. The Pentium D system's video card is an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 64MB.

Cobra_R, both systems have 2GB of memory. I don't know how accurate these are, but the Opteron 2.6 got a CPU score of 5.2 while the Pentium D 2.8 got 4.8, so it seems to be doing at least some measuring of performance.

Yeah a basic measurement benchmark which does ver little in terms of wanting to know the true performance of a hardware.

It rates an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ @ 4.8 the, but the X2 4400+ will clean the Pentiums D's 820's clock in overall performance. So take Vista's rating lightly.

Have you tried retesting the benchmark for the pentuim D, because it shoould be rating that ram around the same rating as the opteron since it looks at the amount of ram in your system and not so much the performance.

"is the motherboard memory controller really so inefficient that it makes DDR2 at 533 lag severely behind DDR1 at 400?"

You have to understand that technically, AMD systems have no FSB. Your Opteron communicates with the memory controller at 2600MHz (full processor speed). As jackbomb stated, AMD's method "greatly reduces latency (wait state)."

On your Intel system, the CPU communicates with the memory controller on the motherboard thru the FSB at 800MHz (200MHz quad-pumped).

"the CPU FSB is at 800MHz and the RAM is at 533MHz. If I used DDR-800 how much faster would it run?"

Once again, there's confusion about quad-pump FSB vs double-pumped memory vs actual frequency. The frequency is what you should always look at, not the trumped up double & quad-pumped numbers. Your CPU runs at 200MHz frequency, your DDR2-533 runs at 266MHz frequency. In other words, your RAM already runs faster than the CPU. Replacing your DDR2-533 with DDR2-800 will do nothing to improve performance, it *could* actually make your system even more inefficient. By running the CPU & RAM out of sync, you have a less than optimal configuration. Ideally, the CPU frequency & RAM frequency should run at the same speed (1:1 ratio).

"The Pentium D system's video card is an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 64MB."

That's not a "card" at all...it's integrated graphics. And unless your motherboard has 64MB of dedicated video RAM built into the board, that 64MB is being taken away from the system RAM.