AMD CPUs & Very Fast RAM - Mutually Exclusive?

Aderes Devorah · 22 Aug 2013 at 04:42

This is an attempt to glean whether or not any other AMD CPU users are having better luck with their RAM than I am.

I still consider my 8350 a bargain at £150 and I've had no issues with it yet. But it has never liked running my RAM at 1866MHz (stock), so I've stopped bothering (back down to 1600MHz). This wasn't really an issue 12 months ago, but now DDR3 speeds are rocketing into the stratosphere when partnered with Intel CPUs.

I realised that AMD based systems kind of have to get their horsepower from elsewhere (GPU), but if anybody can give me any insight as to why this is the case (or if it's just me), or whether or not they consider system RAM to be crucial when gaming in the first place, I would be very grateful.

Best

DJ_Bucho · 23 Aug 2013 at 08:39

I just noticed your specs and I'm thinking of going for the same CPU and Motherboard combo as you've chosen. I was thinking of going for the G.Skill Trident X 2400mhz 2 x 8GB memory kit as it seems to be very well priced and offer great performance.

I see you've got your processor overclocked to 4.6ghz, what cooler are you using and could you give me any advice on overclocking the FX-8350.

Oh and I've no idea about your RAM dilema I'm afraid

teppic · 23 Aug 2013 at 08:43

A combination of CPU and board I expect. It only guarantees 1600MHz. That's plenty of bandwidth for games -- you rarely get any real benefit from faster RAM. Try getting your latencies down. My RAM is rated at 10 10 10 27 but runs absolutely fine at 9 9 9 27.

Aderes Devorah · 23 Aug 2013 at 22:44

Cheers. I may be expecting too much from RAM.

Aderes Devorah · 23 Aug 2013 at 23:15

DJ_Bucho said:
I just noticed your specs and I'm thinking of going for the same CPU and Motherboard combo as you've chosen. I was thinking of going for the G.Skill Trident X 2400mhz 2 x 8GB memory kit as it seems to be very well priced and offer great performance.

I see you've got your processor overclocked to 4.6ghz, what cooler are you using and could you give me any advice on overclocking the FX-8350.

Oh and I've no idea about your RAM dilema I'm afraid

I use a Corsair H100 -- Manufacturer refurbished -- £45 instead of about double

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-021-CS

I went for the ASUS board because I wanted to OC through their UEFI BIOS system which is much easier than the old versions, but I expect all mobos have a similar system now. There are various set OC levels to choose from for people new to overclocking -- it has never crashed on me when using these levels, but that isn't surprising.

Overclocking proper is done by setting everything to manual and trying to get a stable system with better stats. If you can get about 15% more out of a CPU that is pretty good in my opinion. You may turn out to be a much better overclocker than I am... with this setup, I would not get RAM any faster than 1600MHz or 1866MHz absolute top. The AMD 8350 does not like fast RAM. I can clock my CPU a lot faster but I don't expect the RAM to come along for the ride anymore. If you want very fast RAM, get an Intel CPU. Maybe other people put a bigger PD (volts) across their memory and get it faster, but 1.25V is enough for me.

Prime95 (64-bit) is very good for testing a system's stability.

Best

X3T · 24 Aug 2013 at 00:41

I have my RAM running at 2060MHz no problem, at 9-11-9-29-47 and 1.575v. Could probably tighten those timings some more though.

Aderes Devorah · 24 Aug 2013 at 15:43

X3T said:
I have my RAM running at 2060MHz no problem, at 9-11-9-29-47 and 1.575v. Could probably tighten those timings some more though.

I didn't know I could change my latency. I am at stock 10-10-10-32.

Also, I hadn't put that much voltage across them.

Cheers -- I'll give it a try.

pipson · 25 Aug 2013 at 02:02

You wont really notice any difference at all from 1600 to 1866.

Aderes Devorah · 26 Aug 2013 at 02:29

pipson said:
You wont really notice any difference at all from 1600 to 1866.

Cheers

Marine-RX179 · 26 Aug 2013 at 08:00

pipson said:
You wont really notice any difference at all from 1600 to 1866.

^This.

Only Haswell CPUs actually give some noticeable benefit when paired with higher speed ram (and even then, we are talking about only extra 1-3fps higher in games when under 60fps...but for people with 120Hz monitor, they might think up to extra 6fps at above 80fps quite tasty), for all other CPU there are no noticeable increase in performance. The AMD's APU lines is difference, because their graphic core's memory bandwidth is dependent on the speed of the system ram.