[SOLVED] 32gb 2666 vs 16gb 4400 Performance?

MarkS02

Prominent
Aug 25, 2020
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Hi,

Presently have 32gb of 2666mhz (2x16)- Corsair 2133/2666 XML 2.0, 16-18-18-18-35 (ASUS QVL). I thought I'd need 32gb because I do moderate video/sound editing but nothing high-end nor 4K.

I'd like to upgrade memory speed and am looking at 16gb of Thermaltake Toughram 4400 (2x8) XML 2.0, 19-25-25-25-45 #R009D408GX2-4400C19A, also on ASUS QVL. Current price is only $114 on Amazon Prime.

Questions:

  1. Will I miss the headroom?
  2. And/or are the latency differences going take away from the faster speed?
 
Solution
I would not bother.
You absolutely need sufficient ram for whatever your needs are.
Apparently, 16gb if fine for you.
Take half out and test if you want to.

But, intel does not depend on fast ram apart from integrated graphics.
Here is an older study of ddr4 ram speed scaling:

There seems to be very little actual app performance benefit or increase in fps going from 2133 to 3000 speed ram.

MarkS02

Prominent
Aug 25, 2020
36
3
535
Do you actually use more than 16GB RAM?
If so, then 32GB, at whatever speed, is needed.
Do you actually use more than 16GB RAM?
If so, then 32GB, at whatever speed, is needed.

I don't believe so. I frequently monitor performance through Task Manager and seldom use more than 25-27% (8gb+) of RAM. So at 16gb total I'd be using roughly 50-54% and plenty left over, no?
 
I would not bother.
You absolutely need sufficient ram for whatever your needs are.
Apparently, 16gb if fine for you.
Take half out and test if you want to.

But, intel does not depend on fast ram apart from integrated graphics.
Here is an older study of ddr4 ram speed scaling:

There seems to be very little actual app performance benefit or increase in fps going from 2133 to 3000 speed ram.
 
Solution

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
OK.
Assuming the new 4400MHz is on the QVL, and apparently it is,
and assuming you do not need more than 16GB RAM

...is the faster RAM 'better'?
Yes it is.

Any 'extra' RAM is just sitting there, unused. If you're only reaching 10-12GB, most of your current 32GB is just sitting there.

Will it make an actual user facing difference in your applications?
That is much harder to tell, until you'd try it.
 
Take 16gb out of play and run your apps for a while.
Look at task manager memory tab.
Look at the hard fault page rate. It should be zero or close to it if 16gb ram is sufficient.

As to performance, higher speed ram is accompanied by higher cas latency which negates some of the benefit of faster ram. On balance, faster ram is a plus, but you probably need a synthetic benchmark to tell the difference.

If you have the cash you are itching to spend, consider replacing your 1tb HDD with a 1tb by spending the $110 on a 1tb samsung 860 evo ssd. Repurpose the HDD as an external backup device.
 

MarkS02

Prominent
Aug 25, 2020
36
3
535
Take 16gb out of play and run your apps for a while.
Look at task manager memory tab.
Look at the hard fault page rate. It should be zero or close to it if 16gb ram is sufficient.

As to performance, higher speed ram is accompanied by higher cas latency which negates some of the benefit of faster ram. On balance, faster ram is a plus, but you probably need a synthetic benchmark to tell the difference.

If you have the cash you are itching to spend, consider replacing your 1tb HDD with a 1tb by spending the $110 on a 1tb samsung 860 evo ssd. Repurpose the HDD as an external backup device.


Hey Geofelt,

Thanks for the tips.

The latency vs ram speed negation is what I was wondering about. As for the SSD, that's exactly the setup I have. My primary drive is a 1tb WD Black SN750 NVMe. The WD Black HDD is for storage only.

Cheers.
 
I found an older study which was done with DDR3.
You can see that better latency does improve performance but not by much:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/7

Here is one using differing DDR4 speeds:
 

andyanderson

Commendable
Jul 1, 2020
60
4
1,545
For games and apps, More is better, also More is future proofing.

Also, overclock the 32GB to 2933/3000mhz, which it will probably hit at 1.35v or whatever.

I would personally go with 32GB.