[SOLVED] 16GB 1600mhz vs 2133mhz (DDR3)

[HarryGRGamer]

Hey

I'll try to keep this question short, I'm looking to upgrade my RAM from 8 to 16GB

However I'm conflicted because I thought about buying 2 dimms with a faster speed by overclocking it with XMP

My question is does it matter much in gaming, video editing and desktop usage. I know it does with DDR4 speeds but I don't know much about DDR3, should I buy the faster one the difference in price is around 5 dollars more

My i7-3770 supports speeds up to (1333 and 1600)

However my motherboard supports speeds up to 2200, will it work with a XMP overclock?
https://prnt.sc/upw6g9 (Screenshot from asus' website)

CPU: I7-3770 non k
GPU: GTX 970
Motherboard: ASUS P8H61-M LX3 PLUS R2.0
2x HDD's
1 SSD Boot Drive (Samsung Evo)

The dimms that I'm looking to buy are
Mushkin Blackline 8GB DDR3-2133MHz
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1600MHz

 

[Third-Eye]

From my experience going from 2x8GB 1600 CL9 to 2x8GB 2133 CL10 with my i7-2600k OC'ed to 4.5Ghz on an Asus P8Z77 V-Pro, I gained about 5-7fps. Later when I swapped to an i7-4770S I gained another 5ish fps, but that was likely the CPU upgrade (more of a sidegrade). If it's more than $50 for the ram used (I paid $55 with shipping), don't bother. Save the money for a new platform upgrade.

If I find my benchmark data from Assassins Creed Origins, I'll post the screenshots.


Also, it's actually interesting that your H61 motherboard is able to run higher than DDR3 1600. I've never seen that before, although I've never really gone looking. I should look into that what other motherboards with non-overclocking chipsets have memory overclocking.

 

[lordmogul]

With that price difference, you can easily go for the faster ones.

If you can't get them to run at 2133, you can always lower the latencies at less clock. Although the i7-7700 should be able to run 2133 pretty easily.
(As a sidenode I got my DDR3-1600 CL9 running at 2133 CL12, absolute latencies are the same, but bandwith is higher. At worst I get the same performance, at best the bandwith improves things)

And even with DDR3 there can be improvements. It's not a DDR4 only "feature"
I saw an article that tested a Ryzen 1800X and an i5-3570K with different speeds and both showed massive improvements in CPU heavy scenarios.
(Going from 2133 to 3200 on the Ryzen gave about 10-17% better performance, and going from 1333 to 1866 on the i5 gave about 10-22% better performance)
The article was in german, so no idea how much use there is here, but I could link it, if interested.

And from personal experience I can even say the same about DDR2, even there faster speeds/more bandwith could improve performance. (From DDR2-400 to DDR2-800 gave my old machine about 15% better results depending on the scenario)

 

[Third-Eye]

With that price difference, you can easily go for the faster ones.

I'm pretty sure the OP is buying new DDR3. It's just not worth the money for such a tiny performance increase. It makes more sense to buy a used kit on ebay for half the cost.

 

[HarryGRGamer]

From my experience going from 2x8GB 1600 CL9 to 2x8GB 2133 CL10 with my i7-2600k OC'ed to 4.5Ghz on an Asus P8Z77 V-Pro, I gained about 5-7fps. Later when I swapped to an i7-4770S I gained another 5ish fps, but that was likely the CPU upgrade (more of a sidegrade). If it's more than $50 for the ram used (I paid $55 with shipping), don't bother. Save the money for a new platform upgrade.

If I find my benchmark data from Assassins Creed Origins, I'll post the screenshots.


Also, it's actually interesting that your H61 motherboard is able to run higher than DDR3 1600. I've never seen that before, although I've never really gone looking. I should look into that what other motherboards with non-overclocking chipsets have memory overclocking.

Yeah something I didn't mention was, that I'm also planning to upgrade my GPU from a 970 to a 1660s or ti
right now I saved up some money and I can get both

From my experience going from 2x8GB 1600 CL9 to 2x8GB 2133 CL10 with my i7-2600k OC'ed to 4.5Ghz on an Asus P8Z77 V-Pro, I gained about 5-7fps. Later when I swapped to an i7-4770S I gained another 5ish fps, but that was likely the CPU upgrade (more of a sidegrade). If it's more than $50 for the ram used (I paid $55 with shipping), don't bother. Save the money for a new platform upgrade.

If I find my benchmark data from Assassins Creed Origins, I'll post the screenshots.


Also, it's actually interesting that your H61 motherboard is able to run higher than DDR3 1600. I've never seen that before, although I've never really gone looking. I should look into that what other motherboards with non-overclocking chipsets have memory overclocking.

I'm pretty sure the OP is buying new DDR3. It's just not worth the money for such a tiny performance increase. It makes more sense to buy a used kit on ebay for half the cost.

It's true that I'm buying new dimms I've thought about that as well, because I might even upgrade my motherboard and the CPU in like 2 years from now and if I buy the DDR3 sticks now it might not be worth it in the long run

Also they cost 50$

 

[HarryGRGamer]

With that price difference, you can easily go for the faster ones.

If you can't get them to run at 2133, you can always lower the latencies at less clock. Although the i7-7700 should be able to run 2133 pretty easily.
(As a sidenode I got my DDR3-1600 CL9 running at 2133 CL12, absolute latencies are the same, but bandwith is higher. At worst I get the same performance, at best the bandwith improves things)

And even with DDR3 there can be improvements. It's not a DDR4 only "feature"
I saw an article that tested a Ryzen 1800X and an i5-3570K with different speeds and both showed massive improvements in CPU heavy scenarios.
(Going from 2133 to 3200 on the Ryzen gave about 10-17% better performance, and going from 1333 to 1866 on the i5 gave about 10-22% better performance)
The article was in german, so no idea how much use there is here, but I could link it, if interested.

And from personal experience I can even say the same about DDR2, even there faster speeds/more bandwith could improve performance. (From DDR2-400 to DDR2-800 gave my old machine about 15% better results depending on the scenario)

I see that's interesting you could link the article if you still have it
I think the CAS latency matters too though I don't know how much

 

[geofelt]

In actual performance or fps, the performance difference is in the low single digit percentage.
Only using integrated graphics is speed important.

16gb is where I think you will see the benefit.

Most important, buy a 2 stick matched kit; not two dimms.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.

Since the price difference is minimal, buy the faster.
Fast ram can always run at a lower speed if the OC does not work out. I am surprised that it is available on your motherboard.
The cas timing also matters a bit.
At equal speed, pick the lower cas.