1600MHz or 2400MHz?

jamieoliver22

jamieoliver22

jamieoliver22

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Joined
24 Jun 2007
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70
Hey everyone,

I am looking to upgrade my computer (so much so that I may even head down to Overclockers tomorrow to purchase it), however I am not sure on which 16GB DDR3 RAM to purchase?

I am thinking of getting the following specs:

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-540-IN
MSI Z97 Gaming 7 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-260-MS

In regards to the RAM, is it better to go for the higher bandwidth but slightly higher CAS, or lower bandwidth but slightly lower CAS?

What RAM would you suggest would be best suited with these? I am looking to spend up-to around £130-150 on RAM.

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

Jamie
 
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Cheers. What are the main differences between the Gigabyte and the MSI?

I will be mostly using my PC for gaming, video editing and dabbling around with Unreal Engine 4. I have a Nvidia 570GTX at the minute, but look to upgrade next year.

I forgot to mention that yes I was looking for 16gb RAM, so thank you for that.
 
The Gigabyte offers UK RMA service and is quite good, I tend to only use Gigabyte boards and also the board is in stock.
 
calliusmaximus said:
Does 1600 or 2400 make any real world difference on games ?
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My understanding from articles is 2400 makes no different over 1600, and if anything the CL rating is more important? ie: CL9 > CL11.

But on a side question, if you're planning on overclocking your CPU (Haswell) does the memory speed matter then? ie: If you overclock your i5 from 3.5ghz to 4.2ghz, is the memory speed of any importance? Is it a factor or not?
 
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NeilFawcett said:
My understanding from articles is 2400 makes no different over 1600, and if anything the CL rating is more important? ie: CL9 > CL11.

But on a side question, if you're planning on overclocking your CPU (Haswell) does the memory speed matter then? ie: If you overclock your i5 from 3.5ghz to 4.2ghz, is the memory speed of any importance? Is it a factor or not?
Click to expand...

From most of the articles I've seen and my own testing the sweet spot with current intel platforms for overall balanced performance (i.e. you get the most times where your getting the best, matching or very close to the best and/or not getting the worst penalties) at 2133 CAS9.

If your on a budget 1866 stuff with good timings is pretty much an unnoticeable step down unless your running multiple high end GPUs, 1600 will give a little bit of a hit to gaming performance but can usually match faster RAM for overall desktop use.

2400 CAS9/10 can give good gaming performance but potentially slightly slower (not really that noticeable outside of synthetic benchmarks) for overall desktop use.
 
Rroff said:
From most of the articles I've seen and my own testing the sweet spot with current intel platforms for overall balanced performance (i.e. you get the most times where your getting the best, matching or very close to the best and/or not getting the worst penalties) at 2133 CAS9.

If your on a budget 1866 stuff with good timings is pretty much an unnoticeable step down unless your running multiple high end GPUs, 1600 will give a little bit of a hit to gaming performance but can usually match faster RAM for overall desktop use.

2400 CAS9/10 can give good gaming performance but potentially slightly slower (not really that noticeable outside of synthetic benchmarks) for overall desktop use.
Click to expand...

So what's the best compromise then, considering I need basically low profile memory to fit under my Raijintek Tisis - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-008-RT

Unless the stuff can just fit in slots not under it?
 
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Find a kit that you know does CAS9 with decent timings that is somewhere between 1600 and 2400 that suits your budget any difference will mostly be minor - though 1600 can fall down a little with higher end GPU setups in gaming.

To quote a previous post I made:

"i.e. BF4 on a single high end GPU 1600MHz CL9 to 2400MHz CL9 running through the first bit of the single player there was maybe 1fps difference in the average barely and the only real differences were mins went from 69 to 72 and max 128 to 138. Matt's testing in another game with multi GPU saw a little more gains 128->141 average and 96->109 mins."

(These were averaged over multiple runs not just 1 run at each).

EDIT: If you look at a lot of the DDR3 reviews they will come to the conclusion there isn't much in it for gaming but they are often testing with like a 6850 or similar GPU :S or their "gaming" tests are done on the APU and heavily frequency reliant. Trying to find an accurate picture is a lot harder.
 
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C11 @ 2133 is slightly lower latency than c9 @ 1600. c12 @ 2133 is almost exactly the same latency as c9 @ 1600.

Latency is normally more important than raw speed, but a higher number may still represent lower latency if the frequency difference is high enough. (of course, there are more timings than just that one so the 1600MHz RAM may still prove more efficient but with the info to hand the 2133 is the better choice)
 
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