Ddr3l Skylake Gaming

[Holmes84]

Hello everyone.

I have an i5 6600k with a z170p-d3 motherboard with 16gb 1866mhz cl10 ddrl ram and an r9 390. I only use this pc for gaming and wondered if my system is bottlenecked by the ddr3 for gaming. I cannot return the motherboard so if I were to get ddr4 I would have to buy a whole new motherboard as well so I would not upgrade unless there would be a problem. Would my ram have any effect on cpu overclocking. I'm wondering if the ddr3l would give me any problems in a few years for gaming. I'm wanting my system to last atleast 4 years from now for gaming. What would the gaming performance benefit be with ddr4 on skylake. Is it worth it to buy a whole new motherboard and ram.I know it was the wrong decision to go with ddr3l but one that can't be undone. Thanks.

 

[Tradesman1]

Performance isn't going to be what it could be with DDR4, the Skylakes can indeed run DDR3 (though you are generally looking at lower data rates, 1600/1866 if keeping to the DDR3L, and when you consider the actual entry level DRAM (as designed) is DDR4 at 2133, and most are going 2666 and up, then yes, compared to others you'll overall be under performing other 1151 builds. The OCing is another issue, as far as impacting an OC of the CPU, I would guess no (to be hoinest haven't given any thought to getting a DDR3 based mobo and doing any testing on it. We saw similar with when DDR3 came out and had the staid DDR2 775 mobos and the DDR3 mobos, most of us jumped straight to the DDR3 mobos and bypassed the DDR2 mobos from then on out, and there was an improvement of the DDR3 over the DDR2.

If thinking a few years, I believe you'll end up deciding on your own to jump to a DDR4 based mobo, you have a great CPU

 

[Tradesman1]

Yes, and mentions 'a few years', as is, developers more and more are utilizing DRAM to increase performance both in speed and amounts, that's not something that will change. On 1150 systems, most gamers are looking more to 2133 and even 2400 for K builds, and we see people in the forums back on 1155 rigs as well AMD rigs upgrading to 2133 and if they can higher.

As 'hinted' at above, one thing I've been seeing for years, is people building a rig, even for gaming and using minimal DRAM (say the 8GB of 1600 so many still recommend) then they get together with friends and see what they are doing with more and faster DRAM, and they get the itch to upgrade their DRAM

 

[Holmes84]

Performance isn't going to be what it could be with DDR4, the Skylakes can indeed run DDR3 (though you are generally looking at lower data rates, 1600/1866 if keeping to the DDR3L, and when you consider the actual entry level DRAM (as designed) is DDR4 at 2133, and most are going 2666 and up, then yes, compared to others you'll overall be under performing other 1151 builds. The OCing is another issue, as far as impacting an OC of the CPU, I would guess no (to be hoinest haven't given any thought to getting a DDR3 based mobo and doing any testing on it. We saw similar with when DDR3 came out and had the staid DDR2 775 mobos and the DDR3 mobos, most of us jumped straight to the DDR3 mobos and bypassed the DDR2 mobos from then on out, and there was an improvement of the DDR3 over the DDR2.

If thinking a few years, I believe you'll end up deciding on your own to jump to a DDR4 based mobo, you have a great CPU

Will the ddr3l have an effect on gaming. Does ddr3l work as well on skylake as ddr3 works on haswell.

 

[Holmes84]

Fair enough. As you may know I always bitch at people to get 1866 ram on the usual older haswel builds, just cos, well, I took some notice of what you have said.
(And Gskill 1866 is the same price anyway). I do have doubts this poster will get round to it before needing a new machine tho,for gaming I doubt it will be needed in that life span.

Thanks for the reply. So there is no reason to spend extra money on a ddr4 motherboard and ddr4 for gaming and my pc would perform similar to if I had an i5 4690k?

 

[Tradesman1]

Your DDR3 will work as well with your rig as it would on a compatible (if we can say 'compatible' 😉 they are different animals) Haswell rig. You'll be the one that will decide if your happy with it. All we can do is throw out thoughts 😉 neither way you go, will be right or wrong, unless you decide it is

 

[Holmes84]

Thank you all for your replies. Turns out my decision wasn't as bad as I thought as I will only be using this machine for gaming. I was also able to save from my motherboard and ram as ddr4 motherboards and ram where quite expensive in my country when my pc was assembled. Next time I upgrade I will wait a while after a platform is released to see if prices go down.

 

[Holmes84]

As it stands currently; your machine has a just faster than 4690k proccesor (at stock clocks).
You have 16 gig
DDR3L @ 1866 / cas 10.
Games performance would be 'almost' identical across the board if you had a ddr4 ram setup, unless you used 2800 ram or faster, in which case there would be small chunks of some games that would run a bit better. Currently.(apparently; yoo tube is full of it)
I wouldnt worry about it, I suspect it will be time to build a new one before it matters.

(In fact I might be in the bone yard before DX 12 makes an entry. . .)

Will the 1866 ddr3l be fine for overclocking my i5 6600k.