# Quick PC question (regarding RAM speed)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 2, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737 "2008-04-02T22:51:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zetetic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zetetic)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/1 "2008-04-02T22:51:19Z")
I currently have 256MB of PC2700 333 MHz RAM in my computer. I also have a stick of 1GB PC3200 400 MHz RAM which I would like to add.
Would there be a noticeable speed difference between having both memory sticks in place and running at 333MHz, or having just the 1GB stick running at 400MHz?
To the best of my knowledge, the motherboard (Intel 856G chipset) supports 400MHz.
Thanks in advance.
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### Author:  [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/2 "2008-04-02T23:04:00Z")
Probably not noticeable. Having the extra memory will give you most of your performance improvement.
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### Author:  [@Zetetic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zetetic)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/3 "2008-04-02T23:06:58Z")
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/4 "2008-04-02T23:10:51Z")
More memory will help just for being more memory, but the speed of the RAM means little - RAM “speed” is more to do with how fast the bus can run and have the RAM still work properly. “Faster” RAM won’t speed things up unless your PC’s been built with under-spec stuff that was causing the bus to slow down, and even then, you’d need to replace all of the RAM.
FWIW, 1 GB is really the bare minnimum these days, and 2 GB is fast becoming a “normal” amount. If your PC will run with the two together (a total of 1.25 GB, go for it.
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### Author:  [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/5 "2008-04-02T23:11:47Z")
It depends significantly on what you are doing. Since you are asking the question, however, I doubt you are doing anything that requires the additional memory bandwidth - and so you’ll be better off with both sticks.
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### Author:  [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/6 "2008-04-03T00:54:18Z")
Yeah, another gig of ram never hurt anyone. You should see an increase in performance from the _amount_ of ram, not the speed. Either way, you’ll like it. RAM is cheap nowadays.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2008, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-pc-question-regarding-ram-speed/443737/7 "2008-04-03T02:42:44Z")
Unless motherboards have changed in the 3 years or so since I last built a computer, when you mix 2 speeds of RAM like that, they will both run at the **slower** speed. So your 400 MHz RAM will work fine, but it will just be running at 333 MHz to match the other RAM.
Even so, adding 1 Gb of RAM should make a noticeable speed improvement in your computer. It’s just that a 1Gb stick of 333MHz RAM would just as much, and that would probably be cheaper if you were buying it.