AM4 worth upgrading RAM?

shroomz

shroomz

shroomz

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18 Feb 2010
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Glasgow, UK
Hello,

I've got a pretty old system based on:
Ryzen 1700
Crosshair 6 Hero
8gb Kingston 3000MHz (1 x 8gb)
1080ti (I have two that I ran SLi for a bit but I took one out to make space for an M.2 SSD and not put the other one back)

My computing needs are pretty modest, I play some older games like WoW or indie games at 4k. The one 1080ti seems to run those ok, I've not run across any issues gaming yet. I also use the PC for work where I've had an issue arise with Teams - it seems like the memory is starting to get maxed out if I'm doing a busy multimedia conference with a few things running in the background. The RAM seems to be running pretty highly utilised in task manager (80%) so seems like the natural place to start.

I'm kind of minded to already upgrade next year once Zen6 is available. Not necessarily for any particular feature reason but to take advantage of prices dropping on current gen or if Zen6 looks really good go for that. The former is what I did with the current system - I picked the CPU and mobo up for a pretty good price as AM5 had just come out.

Is there a good upgrade option for the memory that would work with my current motherboard (up to 16GB per stick, DDR4, up to 3200MHz) that would also be forward compatible with an upgrade next year to the current gen? I'd prefer normal height as well, current RAM's heatsink gets in the way of the CPU cooler fan so I have had to lift the fan a bit.

If there's no point replacing my current RAM alone and anything I get I'll just end up replacing again next year I'll maybe put it off until I do the bigger upgrade.
 
If you upgrade now the RAM won't work with any AM5 upgrade you do in the future as that uses DDR5.

If RAM is your only current issue then personally I'd just whack another 8GB stick of 3000 or 3200 DDR4 into the correct slot and call it a day, this will cost under £15 for a stick. Make sure you have 2 sticks instead of buying a single 16GB stick, as well as being cheaper it'll run better.

The CPU is getting on a bit and so is the GPU (although still the G.O.A.T) so consider how long it'll be before you want a full platform upgrade.
 
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isnt it worth popping in a ryzen 5600/5700..3D etc always come up here cheap in mm. and 2x8gb or even 2x 16gbDDR4.
 
MissChief said:
Even a 5600x and an additional 8GB of ram would be a decent upgrade. Follow the instructions for the B grade offers in the top section of the forum and offer £20 for this https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...r4-pc4-25600c16-3200mhz-dual-c-bg-162-cs.html and then find a cheap 5600/5700x somewhere.
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Great idea, thanks. For £20 I really can't complain, this will do me nicely for another few years. I'll keep in the lookout for a good deal on an AM4 CPU, trouble is you're always then stuck with the old one as nobody wants that!

A bit like my old i7 920, I still have one that clocked 4.2GHz at some ridiculously low voltage but I sold the mobo years ago, just nobody wanted the chip.

Thanks to Kurgen and Rob B as well, that was the advice I was after. The current setup still just works fine most of the time so might as well hang tight until the next time I have an issue and decide then. It's funny like a lot of the rest of us on here: the age you get to having the kind of disposable income to buy the newest stuff, your actual needs mostly can be met by 10 year old gear.
 
shroomz said:
Great idea, thanks. For £20 I really can't complain, this will do me nicely for another few years. I'll keep in the lookout for a good deal on an AM4 CPU, trouble is you're always then stuck with the old one as nobody wants that!

A bit like my old i7 920, I still have one that clocked 4.2GHz at some ridiculously low voltage but I sold the mobo years ago, just nobody wanted the chip.

Thanks to Kurgen and Rob B as well, that was the advice I was after. The current setup still just works fine most of the time so might as well hang tight until the next time I have an issue and decide then. It's funny like a lot of the rest of us on here: the age you get to having the kind of disposable income to buy the newest stuff, your actual needs mostly can be met by 10 year old gear.
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A little upgrade to 32gigs of DDR4-3200 or 3600 MT/s and an AMD 5000 series CPU (like a 5600 or 5700) will not be expensive and will significantly improve performance for your rig.

Do a BIOS update before you do anything though as the new CPUs won't work with early BIOS versions.

One thing that will affect performance is the CPU security patches issued by Microsoft, AMD and Intel - these security patches do reduce performance.
 
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