So, despite the fact that we're still using PC800 RDRAM, we've seen that moving to a 533 MHz FSB has increased the overall efficiency of the memory subsystem by increasing bandwidth and slightly lowering latency. The question then becomes how will the increase in FSB bandwidth, and slight increase in memory efficiency translate into real-world performance gains?

http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/articles/small/10430.gif" alt="Hardware Analysis - 533 MHz FSB" border=0>
Unfortunately, the answer is little to none at all. Our tests have shown in the past that MP3 encoding is mostly processor dependent, and relies little on FSB and memory bandwidth in the best of cases. It stands to reason that we wouldn't observe large gains here. Only increasing the clock speed produces observable gains.

http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/articles/small/10431.gif" alt="Hardware Analysis - 533 MHz FSB" border=0>
Our video encoding tests are slightly more bandwidth dependent, however, and thus show a slight increase. Nevertheless, don't expect wonders here either -- without the appropriate accompanying memory bandwidth, the added FSB bandwidth alone serves little purpose. Again, increasing the clock speed produces a more noticeable boost.