Is my RAM a bottleneck?

Associate
Joined
15 Dec 2020
Posts
25
Hello, hope to find everyone in the health.

I have a question as in title - or maybe I should ask - where is my bottleneck?

I'm planning to upgrade my PC - £400+/- budget
Purely Gaming
at the moment I have 1200p 59Hz screen but maybe in future, I will go for 1440p 144Hz.

Just thinking what should be my next step?
RAM is a good way to go or maybe GPU or Cooling and learn how to OC?
( complete beginner in OC - I wanted to read more about that ).


Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz 30 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
12.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 1066MHz (14-14-14-39)
Motherboard
MSI Z87 MPOWER (MS-7818) (SOCKET 0)
Graphics
DELL U2410 (1920x1200@59Hz)
6GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (MSI)
Storage
931GB Sabrent Rocket Q (Unknown (SSD))
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EARS-00Y5B1 (SATA )
232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB (SATA (SSD))


Regards.
 
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Man of Honour
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22 Jun 2006
Posts
11,395
It depends on the games you play, but 12GB should be sufficient. For newer games you'll need a new graphics card for 1440p/144, but older it'll handle. I assume the graphics card memory is being misreported since they usually have 6GB.
 
Associate
OP
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15 Dec 2020
Posts
25
Correct - GPU is 6 GB
I'm wanted to play newest games - example Cyberpunk running on high with no RT in average 50 FPS - Wish to get 60
And I started thinking is only 1066Hz on the ram, not an issue?
 
Soldato
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22 Nov 2018
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2,710
Check your CPU, GPU, memory usage during a game. How are you monitoring your FPS? Are you using the overlay option in Nvidia control panel? I'm not sure if that tells you anymore useful information, if not, MSI Afterburner can display your usage. If a piece of hardware is near 100% then that's your bottleneck.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
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Posts
11,395
Correct - GPU is 6 GB
I'm wanted to play newest games - example Cyberpunk running on high with no RT in average 50 FPS - Wish to get 60
And I started thinking is only 1066Hz on the ram, not an issue?
You'll gain some FPS with new memory, but 20% is a lot. I'm not sure where the bottlenecks are with this game.
 
Associate
OP
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15 Dec 2020
Posts
25
This is great advice - thank you very much for that.

I just don't see the Afterburner option to show how Mhz RAM is used.

I may be wrong, but if the RAM is used less than I have the resource, is the speed not so important?

To sum up - I can see exactly that the GPU is not working - while the CPU is at 50%, the GPU is up to 99%

Any recommendation fo GPU for around £400 that will make a difference?

You'll gain some FPS with new memory, but 20% is a lot
sorry not sure what you mean
 
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Associate
OP
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15 Dec 2020
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So last question...
in these weird times you guys thinking its good time to get some new GPU or better wait a bit till next year?

12gb ddr3 is a bit odd, is it 8 + 4 or 3 × 4 ? Your loosing performance if its not matched in dual channel mode.
not sure how I can checked it..
in fact, I bought 2 memory sticks separately (two different not matching ones) - Is it right to say that memory should be bought together so one is not slowing down another?
 
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Associate
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Location
Land of Eternal Rain
So last question...
in these weird times you guys thinking its good time to get some new GPU or better wait a bit till next year?


not sure how I can checked it..
in fact, I bought 2 memory sticks separately (two different not matching ones) - Is it right to say that memory should be bought together so one is not slowing down another?

Newer GPUs at the moment are high in demand and low in availability - therefore their prices are very high, often being scalped. If you can wait, then wait.
Ideally it is better to not only match your RAM, but even better to buy them at the same time. The reason for this is that some manufacturers (eg, Corsair) will change the components in the sticks which can then cause the sticks to be mismatched, even if they are sold as the same product. Mixing brands isn't always an issue assuming the sticks are the same internally and it is generally recommended to have each stick the same capacity (eg, 2x 8gb rather than 2x4gb + 1x8gb)
 
Associate
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19 Sep 2010
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Location
The North
So last question...
in these weird times you guys thinking its good time to get some new GPU or better wait a bit till next year?


not sure how I can checked it..
in fact, I bought 2 memory sticks separately (two different not matching ones) - Is it right to say that memory should be bought together so one is not slowing down another?
The other downside of mismatched memory is that every module will run at the speed of the slowest one.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2008
Posts
7,367
buy the game see how it runs, if the CPU sticks at 100% overclock it a bit,

a system that old is hardly worth spending any money on unless its something you would port to a new machine (like gfx card),

I cannot imagine on that system memory mismatch making any difference you might notice

stuff is expensive at the moment best to wait if you can
 
Associate
Joined
24 Apr 2019
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Agreed definitely seems like a GPU bottleneck. Waiting til jan at least is recommended if you're not in a rush as pricing and availability are both bad right now
 
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