RAM for gaming..need a bit of help/advice.

adamknox

adamknox

adamknox

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Hello :)

Im a bit stuck/confused. I have just bought this motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-399-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1692
with an i7950 and overclocked it too 4Ghz.

at the moment i am using (i think)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-183-OC
I couldnt afford trpiple channle at the time so stuck with my old dual ones :)

Ive now got a bit more money £150 and was thinking i may upgrade to triple channle (maybe a bit faster than 1333Ghz. The only problem is while researching which ones to get a found a forum that said any ram faster than 1333 (1600 /2000) is pointless in i7 unless your going to overclock it. Also the timings are also pointless unless you also plan on changing the....this is the point i zoned out on lol So my question is this.

Will i see any / much increase in gaming performance going from dual 1333 to triple 1600 / 2000 with faster latency/same latency timings or should i use the £150 to get a diff upgrade.
 
with 1333MHz memory, your CPU can only be overclocked as much as your memory can be overclocked, if avoiding any kind of bottleneck.

If you were to buy a faster memory, it's bandwidth would be reduced to your CPU's FSB speed and would almost be pointless unless you can overclock your CPU FSB to near enough the same frequency as the RAM.

When you overclock, timings on RAM are reduced and sometimes you get better performance with lower timings than overclocked memory.
The only reason that 1600 memory would be better for overclocking your CPU is because you can only OC your CPU as much as you OC your RAM.

Therefore if you're RAM frequency is at 1333MHz but can go upto 1600MHz (stock) you will be able to significantly OC your CPU.
Your best bet here is to stick with 1333 memory and the current CPU and overclock as much as the memory will go and leave it.

An alternative is to reduce your memory to 1066MHz and overclock to stocl memory speed if you want increased CPU core clock performance.

Hope all that made sense.
 
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I think it did..thank you for the help and the long explaination! So is this what your saying.. If my overclock is stable then there is no need for faster ram? At the moment my ram is running at around 1222mhz (because of the overclock) So say if i did get 1600Mhz i could maybe get it upto 1333 but no further? (i probs have that wrong lol) Im at 4Ghz now and im not really aiming for anything higher. Tbh im trying to squeeze as much performance out of my pc as i can. Would getting the faster ram in triple channle have any noticeable increase on fps or performance If i did intergrate it into the overclock correctly?

Once again ty for your help :)

EDIT: just re-read what u said about 5-6 times and its sinking in lol Thank you. Ignore the nooby comment i made above ><
 
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Emphacy said:
with 1333MHz memory, your CPU can only be overclocked as much as your memory can be overclocked, if avoiding any kind of bottleneck.

If you were to buy a faster memory, it's bandwidth would be reduced to your CPU's FSB speed and would almost be pointless unless you can overclock your CPU FSB to near enough the same frequency as the RAM.

When you overclock, timings on RAM are reduced and sometimes you get better performance with lower timings than overclocked memory.
The only reason that 1600 memory would be better for overclocking your CPU is because you can only OC your CPU as much as you OC your RAM.

Therefore if you're RAM frequency is at 1333MHz but can go upto 1600MHz (stock) you will be able to significantly OC your CPU.
Your best bet here is to stick with 1333 memory and the current CPU and overclock as much as the memory will go and leave it.

An alternative is to reduce your memory to 1066MHz and overclock to stocl memory speed if you want increased CPU core clock performance.

Hope all that made sense.
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I was of the impression that bandwidth differences via FSB are only truely noticeable in benchtests. Especially considering that games are not effected by ram timings or latency's really at all (i know bandwidth is not ram timings or latency but i'm just pointing out that ram really is by no means the limiting factor when it comes to games).

Bringing this back to the point at hand, buy what ever ram you need to get the clock speed you want from your cpu. If you buy faster ram then required you can always still hit the stock speed via ram dividers without overclocking the cpu any more. Though in practice you usualy find you'll either hit just under the stock speed or just over. Either is fine.

As stated before, I really don't think you need fast ram for gaming, the quantity is more important than the quality as the GPU is by far the limiting factor. Having said this, you still don't need over 4gb for a gaming pc either. So really quantity and quality arn't that important at all.

That is at least what I thought.
 
8igdave said:
I was of the impression that bandwidth differences via FSB are only truely noticeable in benchtests. Especially considering that games are not effected by ram timings or latency's really at all (i know bandwidth is not ram timings or latency but i'm just pointing out that ram really is by no means the limiting factor when it comes to games).

Bringing this back to the point at hand, buy what ever ram you need to get the clock speed you want from your cpu. If you buy faster ram then required you can always still hit the stock speed via ram dividers without overclocking the cpu any more. Though in practice you usualy find you'll either hit just under the stock speed or just over. Either is fine.

As stated before, I really don't think you need fast ram for gaming, the quantity is more important than the quality as the GPU is by far the limiting factor. Having said this, you still don't need over 4gb for a gaming pc either. So really quantity and quality arn't that important at all.

That is at least what I thought.
Click to expand...

:( Thank you! i remmber u anwsering my ram post about a week ago:) Just been playing metro and said u need fast ram to play it -_- so started me thinking (again) lol So really as long as i have a stable overclock and 4gb of ram..no need to go mad and get 1600Mhz and 6Gb? lol (Unless u wana play metro which suggests having 12gb >< lol
 
Amazed at the recomened spec for metro. Seems to me that it's just very badly made. Advancing technology at the speed we are does tend to make devs lazy. I don't think there is much need for you to upgrade ram unless doing something that requires more than 4gb like photoshop can benefit from 6gb of high speed ram. But thats because the files they deal with are huge. Gaming wize its not worth it unless you love metro that much or want to overclock and your ram isn't letting you.
 
Metro 2033
System Requirements: Optimum / Recommended:

Processor: Core i7 CPU 3.4Ghz+
Memory: 8GB RAM or higher
Graphics: NVIDIA DirectX 11 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 480 and 470)
DirectX®: DirectX 11

my bad said 8 >< lol Tbh I dont think i could be botherd with metro. Seems a bit too much like a crysis type game. The makers seem to just make it to say "Look what we can do!" Even though most systems cant run it at a constant 45Fps+ and the game ends up being used as a benchmark to show off how good your system is. Im more intrested in RPG's and MMO's Ill stick with the dual core untill the prices drop even more and i have £60 to waste :P ill start saving for a 2nd 5870 (or sell my 5870 and go for a card with the strngth of 2 5870's)
 
yeah does look a bit rediculas. But I guess they are aiming for the crysis effect which drummed up a lot of attenchen, but I guess they probably won't pull it off like crysis did as it doesn't look as good as crysis.

Personally I'd always take a single gpu over two.
 
Jamiman said:
Although this isn't the members market, how much were you looking to get from the 5870?
Click to expand...

Lol no idea, cant sell it any time soon though. Cant really afford a better graphics card than the 5870 right at the moment and i dont really wana be left without one.
 
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