Memory X58 chipset

breathe3asy · 1 May 2014 at 10:48

Hey guys currently have 6 x 1GB of 1600MHz DDR3 Dominator installed. Which is a bit of a fail because I have no more available slots on my ASUS P6T for upgrade.

To run the latest & upcoming games should I be looking into more memory?

Also if someone could please explain why I am seeing 2 x 4GB DDR3 kits for sale, I thought DDR3 is optimised to run in triple channel?

Lastly, my board is able to run max of 2000MHz, should I be looking to get this speed RAM over lower speeds or are the benefits marginal?

Idleman · 1 May 2014 at 11:02

Not sure faster ram makes much or any difference when gaming. If it does, I have not noticed it.
Do you need more ram, are you running any applications that requires or would benefit from more ram?
Are you having any ram issues whilst gaming?

wazza300 · 1 May 2014 at 11:05

your board can support tri channel (3 sticks) and dual channel (two sticks) of ram

I wouldn't go above 2000mhz tbh,i could only manage 1800mhz with 6gb,12gb would need more cpu/vtt voltage

but yes you could run 8gb dual channel if you wanted to

shadow_boxer · 1 May 2014 at 11:26

6GB if RAM shouldn't really be an issue for gaming. You'd be better served trying to clock your CPU a bit more and aim for 4GHz and think about a GPU upgrade.

breathe3asy · 1 May 2014 at 11:42

Idleman said:
Do you need more ram, are you running any applications that requires or would benefit from more ram?
Are you having any ram issues whilst gaming?

No I don't do anything RAM intensive apart from gaming here & there, no issues whilst gaming either just thought I could maybe be bottlenecked by 6GB.

wazza300 said:
your board can support tri channel (3 sticks) and dual channel (two sticks) of ram

Where do you see this info? I'm looking at my board specs & can see nothing?

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6T/specifications/

shadow_boxer said:
6GB if RAM shouldn't really be an issue for gaming. You'd be better served trying to clock your CPU a bit more and aim for 4GHz and think about a GPU upgrade.

I am thinking of pulling the trigger on a Noctua NH-D14 + GTX 780/R9 290X but was looking for other weaknesses in my system aka RAM

wazza300 · 1 May 2014 at 11:47

x58 can support tri and dual channel,test with pulling one of the ram sticks out,look in the mb manual for dual channel configuration

it will tell you the slots to use for two sticks

if you want to use the noctua cooler then you'll need low profile memory or else the cooler will hit the ram

HazardO · 1 May 2014 at 11:48

ceaton88 said:
Where do you see this info? I'm looking at my board specs & can see nothing?

If you only use 2 sticks of DDR3 it can't run in triple channel, only duel, similarly of you only use one stick it will only run in single channel. Your board supports all three options, but you should run it in triple channel mode for best performance.

ubersonic · 1 May 2014 at 12:00

HazardO said:
you should run it in triple channel mode for best performance.

X58 only gives extra performance in tri-channel if your doing synthetic work with a hex core, for gaming the is no difference between dual/tri except tri costs more per GB to implement.

breathe3asy · 1 May 2014 at 12:05

wazza300 said:
if you want to use the noctua cooler then you'll need low profile memory or else the cooler will hit the ram

This has cropped up a few times but I'm seeing conflict of stories whether it will fit or not.

This video seems to show it clears, & the memory looks to use the same heat spreader as my Dominator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU6W_YkqILY

HazardO said:
If you only use 2 sticks of DDR3 it can't run in triple channel, only duel, similarly of you only use one stick it will only run in single channel. Your board supports all three options, but you should run it in triple channel mode for best performance.

Thank you.

Idleman · 1 May 2014 at 14:01

If you look in your mobo manual, you will see the board excepts dual ram in slots A1 and B1.

lee32uk · 1 May 2014 at 14:44

ceaton88 said:
Where do you see this info? I'm looking at my board specs & can see nothing?

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6T/specifications/

If you look at that link it says 'Triple Channel Memory Architecture' under the Memory heading

Jamin280672 · 1 May 2014 at 14:49

Like someone else said, don't bother getting any memory faster than 2000mhz, it will be a waste of money, I was running an x58 up until the begining of this year, had 3 sticks of g.skill Ripjaws 2133mhz in it, they wouldn't clock higher than 1600mhz, it's all down to the cpu memory controller. If you want to carry on running tri channel then just buy 2 dual channel kits and put 1 stick away for a rainy day.

However if you go the other route and buy a new graphics card like the ones you suggested, you will find the bottleneck is actually your cpu and board, it will be the gfx card sitting waiting for instructions back from your cpu.

breathe3asy · 1 May 2014 at 14:53

Jamin280672 said:
However if you go the other route and buy a new graphics card like the ones you suggested, you will find the bottleneck is actually your cpu and board, it will be the gfx card sitting waiting for instructions back from your cpu.

Interesting, even at (hopefully) 3.8GHz? If so which card would you recommend to be more suitable?

Do games utilise more than 4 cores these days?

breathe3asy · 1 May 2014 at 14:55

Ignore - iPhone fail

Jamin280672 · 1 May 2014 at 14:58

I tested the theory myself, I had an i7 920 doing 4.3ghz on an x58 board with 2 x 270s in crossfire, not powerful cards I know, very mid range, I got approx 10 fps more running them on a z87 board with an i7 4770k doing the same speed.

Edit. Sorry, tested with benchmarks rather than games.