Would upgrading my value RAM improve frame drops when CPU limited?

[MentalSharps]

I've been playing Apex Legends and Anthem, and looking to increase the minimum fps during drops - (I like to cap fps to whatever the minimum I drop to, so I always have consistency)

I've overclocked my CPU and it still hits 100% at some times, just wondering whether my cheap RAM is bottlenecking

Intel 2600k @ 4.4ghz
RTX 2060 @ 2070mhz
8gb Corsair Value Select 1333mhz CL9

Would swapping out my RAM for 16Gb of 1866mhz or 2133mhz help performance?

Anthem feels as if it might be bottlenecking due to the size, stats in Afterburner show that it uses the full 8Gb RAM when playing, and my swap file is also at 12Gb. Apex I play on lowest settings, it only uses about 4-5Gb, so I guess that would be more a question of speed?

 

[pastymuncher]

Ram speed made very little difference before Kabylake came along so don't waste your money. Your cpu is old now so maybe it's that it just can't deliver the power for modern games anymore.

 

[opethdisciple]

It sure wouldn't hurt. The extra ram will probably help more than the ram speed. But more Mhz would also help.

If you are short on cash, then do it, otherwise you are looking at a cpu/mobo/ram upgrade.

If it doesn't cost too might be worth it for the short term.

 

[MentalSharps]

Yeah I thought that DDR3 gaming performance wasn't really affected by speed which was why I bought the 1333mhz initially, but that was a while ago and some benchmarks from modern games seem to show a difference?

I managed to pick up 4x4GB of 2133mhz 2nd hand relatively cheap anyway, will test it out.

Am planning a proper system upgrade when the new Ryzen come out, this will tide me over until then.

 

[MaXxBoulton]

it was always said 1600mhz/1866mhz was the best place for ddr3, anything past this point made little to no difference.
However 1333Mhz > 1600/1866Mhz was supposed to make a very good difference in gaming performance

16gb is a go to number for ram size now days in games


for apex your system is way pasted the recommended system to play
for Anthem, your CPU will hold you back also you need 16gb of ram to hit recommended system to play

 

[Rroff]

it was always said 1600mhz/1866mhz was the best place for ddr3, anything past this point made little to no difference.
However 1333Mhz > 1600/1866Mhz was supposed to make a very good difference in gaming performance

16gb is a go to number for ram size now days in games


for apex your system is way pasted the recommended system to play

I did some tests awhile back - didn't try 1333 but tried 1600 loose timings, 2133 and 2400MHz tight timings the difference in min FPS in the games tested was 4.3% and max FPS 8.6% from slowest to fastest RAM configuration.

2133MHz with tight timings actually gives the best balance of performance unless you are running multiple GPUs in CF/SLI but not a huge amount in it - mostly 5% stuff.

 

[MaXxBoulton]

Given the info from @Rroff. And that Anthem like to load more files to ram if you have 16gb. I think an health bump is memory size and speed could help here.

 

[Aretak]

Ram speed made very little difference before Kabylake came along so don't waste your money.

You're looking at it from the wrong perspective. It's not that RAM speed didn't matter back then because the CPUs couldn't benefit from it, but rather because most game engines of the day had no need for the extra bandwidth, and even if they could utilise it, graphics cards of the day weren't pushing framerates high enough for it to matter. Memory speed very much does provide benefits on DDR3 platforms though when CPU limited. Digital Foundry took a look back at the 2500K in 2016 and found a significant performance uplift moving from 1600MHz to 2133MHz DDR3 in modern titles (well, modern in 2016) when paired with a fast GPU (an overclocked Titan X in the case of their testing).

The performance uplift in the games tested:

The Witcher 3
Stock 2500K: 15.3%
4.6GHz 2500K: 18.7%
Battlefield 4
Stock 2500K: 10.3%
4.6GHz 2500K: 5.1%
Crysis 3
Stock 2500K: 2.6%
4.6GHz 2500K: 2.3%
GTA V
Stock 2500K: 11.7%
4.6GHz 2500K: 16.6%
Far Cry 4
Stock 2500K: 14.6%
4.6GHz 2500K: 18.1%

For the most part, those are very healthy framerate boosts for the sake of a couple of steps up the DDR3 chain, and one would assume that engines which see a significant benefit are more common today than they were in 2016. Everything up to 2400MHz DDR3 is dirt cheap on the used market, so it seems a solid investment if you want to squeeze some more life out of an old platform, provided you have a modern graphics card in there that's going to push framerates high enough for it to matter.

 

[MaXxBoulton]

@Aretak this is nothing new?
if you look when he tested the i5 2500k > i3 6100 he used 1333mhz ram. its always been known going from 1333mhz to 1600/1866mhz gave a good performance increase (even back in the day).

 

[Quartz]

I've overclocked my CPU and it still hits 100% at some times, just wondering whether my cheap RAM is bottlenecking

If your CPU is at 100% you will benefit from a faster CPU.

Anthem feels as if it might be bottlenecking due to the size, stats in Afterburner show that it uses the full 8Gb RAM when playing,

Yes, here you will benefit from extra RAM.

Am planning a proper system upgrade when the new Ryzen come out, this will tide me over until then.

Good man!

 

[BS Dave]

Invest in a good cpu cooler and get that 2600k to 4.6!!

Good thing about spending money on cooling is you can always take it with you to your next build

 

[MartinPrince]

1333Mhz was on the slow side so an upgrade will be welcome but don't expect to see the at least ~20% increase you will need to see much of difference; that will come when you upgrade to the next Ryzen.