DDR3 Upgrade Help - What to look for?

[Twiglet]

Current System:

Asus P8Z77-V LX
i5 3570k (oc to 4.3ghz)
250gb SSD & 1tb HDD
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1060 6gb
8gb (2x4) 1600mhz DDR3 (Corsair XMS 3)
1080p Monitor

I think the RAM is now the slight weak point in my system (especially as far as gaming goes) so am looking at an upgrade as I don't really want to drop £400ish on a CPU / MBoard / PSU / Cooler / DDR4 upgrade right now (and don't think I need to).

Looking at upgrading to 2x8gb and can see from the mboard specs and qvl list that I can go up to 2400mhz (would probably look at 2133mhz to increase my choice).

I know I'll notice an improvement from the additional 8gb of RAM but do the speeds make much of a difference?

Can anyone recommend a specific kit that would be a good match for my current set-up? (Am in the UK)

Thanks in advance.

 

[CountMike]

In that generation, RAM speed doesn't mean much, maybe 1 - 2% overall. More RAM with lower Cl can do just as good. It's still nice to have RAM speed that matches IMC in the processor and/or XMP profile BIOS has, for greater compatibility.

 

[Twiglet]

In that generation, RAM speed doesn't mean much, maybe 1 - 2% overall. More RAM with lower Cl can do just as good. It's still nice to have RAM speed that matches IMC in the processor and/or XMP profile BIOS has, for greater compatibility.

Sorry Mike - sadly you've lost me with some of those abbreviations!

Lower CI?
IMC?
XMP Profile?

Could you point me towards any particular brands / models that should provide decent performance and not cause compatability issues? (I've checked the qvl but it doesn't really help me as it mainly seems to list lower capacity kits and only gives serial numbers)

 

[CountMike]

Cl = CAS Latency, lees = faster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency
IMC = Integrated Memory Controller (integrated in the CPU) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_controller
XMP Profile = eXtreme Memory Profile, OC profile in the RAM controller chip and in BIOS, have one or several presets: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/extreme-memory-profile-xmp.html
There's too many combinations to list but those parameters are usually listed at sellers or manufacturer's sites. You can find what your RAM is using CPUid CPU_Z program under SPD tab.

 

[Twiglet]

Cl = CAS Latency, lees = faster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency
IMC = Integrated Memory Controller (integrated in the CPU) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_controller
XMP Profile = eXtreme Memory Profile, OC profile in the RAM controller chip and in BIOS, have one or several presets: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/extreme-memory-profile-xmp.html
There's too many combinations to list but those parameters are usually listed at sellers or manufacturer's sites. You can find what your RAM is using CPUid CPU_Z program under SPD tab.

Ok, not sure if this will help?

CPUid shows the following under XMP:
CAS Latency 9
Voltage 1.5
Also shows each stick of RAM running at 800mhz (obviously the 2 combined = 1600mhz but I never realised that until now!)

Am I right in thinking that I should be ok with any mainstream RAM kit as long as the voltage requirement matches and I go for CL9. (Speed wise am thinking either 1866mhz or 2133mhz - whichever is cheaper as it sounds like it won't make a discernable difference?)

Thank you again for all this help - never realised RAM could be so complicated!

 

[CountMike]

OK. first it's DDR (Double Data Rate) so if it shows as 800MHz that means it's effective speed (read and write) is 1600MHz and not because you have two sticks.
You need to match those parameters only if you want to just add more RAM but you can get faster one if you are changing all of them although you are most probably not going to see any difference in overall performance. So if you can find another 8GB of so compatible RAM you'd be just as well with it.