Any point in OCing Ram chips

[jonny512379]

Hi All...

Maybe i am getting a little obsessed with this OCing game, but im having fun with it so far.

As the title says, is there any point on OCing my ram (actually, on my Sons PC that he uses for gaming pretty much 24/7, so i dont want to damage anything).

The PC currently has XMS3 4GB installed that is running at default (i think 9,9,9,27). I have upped the speed to 1600 as it originally showed as 1333.
I have very little understanding on the Timing and have not found any good TUTS for beginners that explain why this is being done. Would it be better to up the MHz or alter the timing or both.... etc.

Sorry for what some will think is a dumb question, but its the next stage for me....

The PC is a i5 2500k @ 4.4 (volts 1.285),
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Asus Sabertooth MB,
XMS 3 4GB (1600 is current MHz @ 1.5 volts)
6950 (OCed to 950, 5800 @ 1.3volts)


Would really appreciate a "OCing Ram for Dummies" explanation.

Thanks
Jon

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

You could increase the frequency or reduce the timings to improve performance, but if your son is mainly gaming then these reviews show the level of performance increase you can expect:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/10

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377/3

In conclusion, I wouldn't bother - running the Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz RAM at stock settings offers loads of memory bandwidth, so you may as well keep it at the modules rated level and maximise their lifetime and minimize your hassle.

 

[Blue160]

You get very little gain from overclocking RAM, and it can make things unstable.

As you can't change the base clock with sandy bridge, the only way you could alter the frequency is in big lumps with the ratio. You could try the next one up and see if that's stable, but don't overvolt the RAM if it isn't.

Playing with timings is trial and error and can give small performance gains. I've never had the patience to make it work though. My opinion is that memory overclocking is more trouble than it's worth.

 

[jonny512379]

Hi there,

You could increase the frequency or reduce the timings to improve performance, but if your son is mainly gaming then these reviews show the level of performance increase you can expect:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/10

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377/3

In conclusion, I wouldn't bother - running the Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz RAM at stock settings offers loads of memory bandwidth, so you may as well keep it at the modules rated level and maximise their lifetime and minimize your hassle.

Thanks for this reply, i will take your advice and leave them on stock settings.

Just for my own knowledge though and after briefly looking at the above links, has left me wondering. In order to get the RAM running at 1866 basically all i need to do is change to this speed in the bios? and possibly up the voltage to stabilize this speed, if required? (although i assume this is not recommended as stock is 1600 @ 1.65v (although it is currently set to 1.5v..... )).
If i brought ram that ran at 2133mhz could i use this in my i5 and Motherboard setup to its full speed?

Thanks
Jon

 

[postmanfw]

Board only runs to 1833MHz officially but that doesnt mean it wont run if pushed

Very little gains to be made even in benchmarking.

Gone are the days of pushing 200Mhz ddr to over 250MHz with silly volts (socket A days)

How are the temps on the overclocked 6950?
1.3v is quite high....i bottled it at 1.25

Have you unlocked it?

Get that cpu up higher that will make a difference

 

[jonny512379]

Board only runs to 1833MHz officially but that doesnt mean it wont run if pushed

Very little gains to be made even in benchmarking.

Gone are the days of pushing 200Mhz ddr to over 250MHz with silly volts (socket A days)

How are the temps on the overclocked 6950?
1.3v is quite high....i bottled it at 1.25

Have you unlocked it?

Get that cpu up higher that will make a difference

Hello Postmanfw

Thanks for the reply. After reading a little and the replies here, i dont think i will bother OCing the RAM. I am just curiouse as to how it is done more than anything (i may have OCed it if the PC was mine and not my Sons).

I was intending on leaving the CPU at 4.4 as 4.5 causes crashes without upping the voltage. The current idle temps of the CPU are 38c but it will peek at around 70 - 73c (MAX) and i didnt think this was a good temp to go over, hence leaving it at 4.4

The 6950 is NOT unlocked, as i don't like the idea of the voltage change and not being able to adjust it (i may unlock the shaders at some point though once i find a good TUT, however for now it runs more than fast enough for my Sons games).
The idle temps are 48-52c and under load/test they seem to hover around 65c.
I had asked in another post if this was safe and i got the general idea that this was (please correct me if i am wrong !!).
I have set the voltage to the maximum, but feel it may run OK at a little under 1.3v (but as i say i thought this was safe anyway and lower voltage seems to make little to no difference to my temps either-way.....)

Thanks
Jon

 

[Predicament]

I would be suprised if you son is having an trouble playing ANY games on max settings, bar Metro2033 or Crysis I.

You can get more out of your i5 by the way. I would expect as least a 4.6 is possible on low volts.