[SOLVED] Amount VS. Speed?

Jan 8, 2020
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So, I have a 2x8 kit in my PC, clocked at 1600 Mhz. Today, I got out my old PC and took out the 2 sticks of RAM, totaling 3 GB. But the old RAM is only clocked at 1333 Mhz.

What is better, having 19 GB of RAM running at 1333 Mhz, or having 16 GB or RAM running at 1600 Mhz?

Edit: I have an Intel i5 4670, which I know might effect the answer.
 
Solution
What is better, having 19 GB of RAM running at 1333 Mhz, or having 16 GB or RAM running at 1600 Mhz?
For things like gaming and most other tasks, it would be pointless to add an extra 3GB of slower RAM if you already have 16GB. Games don't even utilize a full 16GB currently. If anything, it would reduce your performance.

First, your existing RAM would be reduced to the speed of the slower RAM. And seeing as it is two sticks totaling 3GB, that means they are not even the same size, likely 1GB and 2GB, so they wouldn't be running in dual-channel mode, reducing memory performance further. You may also potentially run into intermittent stability issues when mixing multiple unmatched sticks of RAM like that.

It's not worth it...
Eventhough they appear to work well, you may experience stbility issues or errors in certain situations. It could also be perfectly fine, but issues with mismatched RAM are not uncommon

Personally I would keep the 2x16 GB at 1600 and ditch the slower modules
 
What is better, having 19 GB of RAM running at 1333 Mhz, or having 16 GB or RAM running at 1600 Mhz?
For things like gaming and most other tasks, it would be pointless to add an extra 3GB of slower RAM if you already have 16GB. Games don't even utilize a full 16GB currently. If anything, it would reduce your performance.

First, your existing RAM would be reduced to the speed of the slower RAM. And seeing as it is two sticks totaling 3GB, that means they are not even the same size, likely 1GB and 2GB, so they wouldn't be running in dual-channel mode, reducing memory performance further. You may also potentially run into intermittent stability issues when mixing multiple unmatched sticks of RAM like that.

It's not worth it for just increasing your RAM capacity by a small amount. Unless you have some specific usage scenario in mind that you know to max out all 16GB of your available RAM, it is only likely to lower your performance.
 
Solution

Zoel.fahmi

Upstanding
Dec 27, 2019
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I have already put the sticks into my machine and they are SEEMINGLY working together, but at a lower clock speed. So, what im asking is, is the amount or speed more important. Should I take the sticks out or keep them in my system?
The difference in real life usage its unnoticeable
In gaming? Barely a few fps
Also don't waste your hardware by removing it and save it, better use it.
 
Mar 23, 2020
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yes, so when you're buying 8GB of RAM the price sweet-point is 1600MHz for the current gen of Intel CPU because buying faster you're really going niche, application wise, to find things that get better performance as you keep spending marginally more on faster RAM).
 
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yes, so when you're buying 8GB of RAM the price sweet-point is 1600MHz for the current gen of Intel CPU because buying faster you're really going niche, application wise, to find things that get better performance as you keep spending marginally more on faster RAM).

What? Current gen CPU’s use DDR4 which has a minimum speed of 2133mhz. The sweet spot for DDR4 is 3000-3600mhz, it’s usually only a little more expensive and can give decent performance improvements. Higher than this and the gains drop off very quickly and the price goes up.
 
So, I have a 2x8 kit in my PC, clocked at 1600 Mhz. Today, I got out my old PC and took out the 2 sticks of RAM, totaling 3 GB. But the old RAM is only clocked at 1333 Mhz.

What is better, having 19 GB of RAM running at 1333 Mhz, or having 16 GB or RAM running at 1600 Mhz?

Edit: I have an Intel i5 4670, which I know might effect the answer.
I’d say you are best at 1600MHz although the difference between 1333 and 1600 was not significant on DDR3. The extra 3GB is not going to be noticeable and 1 GB of it must be working in single channel and not dual channel seeing as you can’t get 1.5GB dims.