I have an older motherboard that uses DDR ram (not DDR2). I have two 512Mb modules in for dual channel mode. If I use any more (two slots free) the clock speed slows down to 333Mhz and I lose the dual channel mode.

My question is this: For Civ only am I better off with 1 Gb of dual channel 400Mhz memory or 1.75Gb or single channel 333Mhz RAM?

Thanks.

It is my opinion that almost doubling your RAM will be more of a boost than the slightly slower clock speed on the bus. RAM handles data in nanoseconds and sends the data on a bus, in your case, that is at worst 333Mhz. The alternative to this is running out of RAM (if you go will 1Gb) and then having more virtual memory being used. Your hard drive is gonna probably br 7200 or 10000 RPM and works in kiloseconds - in other words a million times slower than RAM, plus the speed of the IDE cable is much slower than 333 Mhz bus speed on the RAM.

My dos centavos

Thanks for the response. I understand then that Civ4 will use the extra RAM then? 1Gb is more than enough for the computer's other duties of web surfing and storing mp3s and digital pictures so I just used the faster stuff.