Is DDR4 worth upgrading to?

[Daniel Youssef]

I've got 2 questions, so I've currently got 16gb DDR3 ram and It's not that bad but I'm having just seeing it bit slow when my PC is opening up and I'm not sure whether because my PC is bit loaded or my rams are not that fast. My lenovo laptop got DDR4 rams and it's significantly fast when I'm doing or opening anything on it but again the laptop is completely empty it's brand new so I don't know if that's the case, so should I switch to 16gb of DDR4 ram? would I notice significant improvement in performance?




PS: my current motherboard is B85-HD3(I know it doesn't support DDR4 but if DDR4 were to make a significant improvement in performance I could upgrade the motherboard too)
my processor is i7-4770 3.4ghz and my ram is 16gb (4x4) 1333 mhz

 

[USAFRet]

Changing from DDR3 to DDR4 is not a magical difference.
As you've noted, you'll have to change everything else as well, and that is where any benefit would appear.

 

[rhysiam]

The performance difference has almost nothing to do with your RAM. A new CPU, mobo & set of RAM might technically be faster, but unless you're doing some intensive workstation tasks (like graphic design, video editing, etc), or ultra high end gaming, that 4770 with 16GB RAM you have is still a very capable platform.

I'm willing to bet the Laptop is running on an SSD? And your desktop is running off a mechanical hard drive?

If I'm right, migrating your desktop over to an SSD would make an absolute world of difference to the boot times and general responsiveness of the PC. In fact, your current PC with an SSD will "feel" massively faster than a brand new, top-of-the-line PC booting off a hard drive.

You can get a very capable 500GB Samsung 860 EVO for under $90 right now: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6yKcCJ/samsung-860-evo-500gb-25-solid-state-drive-mz-76e500bam
There are cheaper 240GB options available too if the smaller capacity is enough for you.

Best practice is to reinstall windows on a new SSD. You'd then have to reinstall all your programs too, so there is a bit of effort involved. But honestly, if you are currently running off a HDD, the difference in the responsiveness of a PC with an SSD is massive.

 

[Daniel Youssef]

Well why is it that tasks and programs operate and open much much faster on my Lenovo laptop than on my pc even tho I highly doubt that the laptop would out-perform my PC? would you say because the laptop is almost empty and the specs are decent? or is there something like a better hardware that makes it much better at performance?

Laptop specs are:
Processor : i5-8250U 1.6ghz (up to 3.8 ghz I think)
Motherboard: Lenovo 81BT
Ram: 8 gb DDR4 (2400mhz) (1200 each)
GPU: AMD Radeon(TM) 530
Harddrive: ST2000LM007-1R8174

 

[USAFRet]

Well why is it that tasks and programs operate and open much much faster on my Lenovo laptop than on my pc even tho I highly doubt that the laptop would out-perform my PC? would you say because the laptop is almost empty and the specs are decent? or is there something like a better hardware that makes it much better at performance?

Laptop specs are:
Processor : i5-8250U 1.6ghz (up to 3.8 ghz I think)
Motherboard: Lenovo 81BT
Ram: 8 gb DDR4 (2400mhz) (1200 each)
GPU: AMD Radeon(TM) 530

1. What drives are in the 2 systems?

2. How old is the current OS install in the desktop? Even among 2 identical systems...a fresh OS install on one will feel much faster.

 

[rhysiam]

Well why is it that tasks and programs operate and open much much faster on my Lenovo laptop than on my pc even tho I highly doubt that the laptop would out-perform my PC? would you say because the laptop is almost empty and the specs are decent? or is there something like a better hardware that makes it much better at performance?

Laptop specs are:
Processor : i5-8250U 1.6ghz (up to 3.8 ghz I think)
Motherboard: Lenovo 81BT
Ram: 8 gb DDR4 (2400mhz) (1200 each)
GPU: AMD Radeon(TM) 530
Harddrive: ST2000LM007-1R8174

So the USAFRet is probably right, it'll be the fresh install that makes the laptop "feel" faster.

Having said that, the answer to your problem is an SSD. Pop an SSD in your desktop, take the time to reinstall Windows and your programs on the SSD, then reconnect your hard drive and keep that for your files and downloads (not programs or operating system). The difference is night and day. SSDs will boot and load programs way, way faster than a HDD. And when an SSD is "busy" doing something, the system remains responsive. When a hard drive is busy doing something, the entire computer crawls to a slow and becomes borderline unusable. That's why many people (including me) will tell you that adding an SSD breathes new life into an old system.

 

[USAFRet]

Yep.
An SSD can breathe new life into an older system.

Everything you do on the system is faster. Opening an application, loading a new map in a game, opening a reasonably complex Excel file, AV scan.

I wouldn't build a system without one. Except for my NAS box, all my desktop systems are SSD only. 9 drives across 3 systems.

 

[Daniel Youssef]

Yep.
An SSD can breathe new life into an older system.

Everything you do on the system is faster. Opening an application, loading a new map in a game, opening a reasonably complex Excel file, AV scan.

I wouldn't build a system without one. Except for my NAS box, all my desktop systems are SSD only. 9 drives across 3 systems.

Sorry for the late reply, so will do just that but I just had one more question in mind. My processor is 4th gen but its Ghz is pretty neat, so I was wondering should I sell it and buy a new 7th gen-8th gen processor or not necessary as I won't benefit much? would there be a significant change performance wise?

 

[USAFRet]

Yep.
An SSD can breathe new life into an older system.

Everything you do on the system is faster. Opening an application, loading a new map in a game, opening a reasonably complex Excel file, AV scan.

I wouldn't build a system without one. Except for my NAS box, all my desktop systems are SSD only. 9 drives across 3 systems.

Sorry for the late reply, so will do just that but I just had one more question in mind. My processor is 4th gen but its Ghz is pretty neat, so I was wondering should I sell it and buy a new 7th gen-8th gen processor or not necessary as I won't benefit much? would there be a significant change performance wise?

Well, yes. There would probably be a large increase.
But you'd basically be building a whole new PC.

New motherboard/CPU/RAM.
GPU? Depends on what you have now/
PSU, maybe to run all this new stuff.
A full OS wipe and reinstall.

As said...building a whole new PC.

 

[Daniel Youssef]

mm why can't I stick to my current rams and motherboard? if it supports the CPU?

 

[USAFRet]

mm why can't I stick to my current rams and motherboard? if it supports the CPU?

An 8th gen Intel CPU will require a different motherboard, and DDR4 RAM.

 

[rhysiam]

What do you do with the computer? If you are running CPU intensive tasks like rendering or encoding, then a full platform upgrade will make a difference to the completion times of those tasks. If you're just using office programs, browsing the web, consuming media, etc, then there is almost no benefit in upgrading from your very capable i7 4770. Your early post highlights your frustration with boot times and program responsiveness, that would be addressed entirely by an SSD.

By all means upgrade if you want, but depending on your workloads, it could make almost no difference.

Unless you're rending/encoding, doing serious video or photo editing, etc, my strong suggestion would be to pick up the SSD first, rebuild the OS on the SSD and see how you go. You can always decide to upgrade the system later, and the SSD won't be a wasted investment.

Honestly for MS office, desktop, web browsing and media consumption, Internet speed and SSD will account for 90% of your performance and responsiveness. CPU gives you maybe an additional 10%.

 

[Daniel Youssef]

What do you do with the computer? If you are running CPU intensive tasks like rendering or encoding, then a full platform upgrade will make a difference to the completion times of those tasks. If you're just using office programs, browsing the web, consuming media, etc, then there is almost no benefit in upgrading from your very capable i7 4770. Your early post highlights your frustration with boot times and program responsiveness, that would be addressed entirely by an SSD.

By all means upgrade if you want, but depending on your workloads, it could make almost no difference.

Unless you're rending/encoding, doing serious video or photo editing, etc, my strong suggestion would be to pick up the SSD first, rebuild the OS on the SSD and see how you go. You can always decide to upgrade the system later, and the SSD won't be a wasted investment.

Honestly for MS office, desktop, web browsing and media consumption, Internet speed and SSD will account for 90% of your performance and responsiveness. CPU gives you maybe an additional 10%.

I wouldn't say I could focus on rendering but I still use photoshop and render photos on it but the main focus is on very heavy games, I basically tend to play the newest games for quite some time but I'm not sure if my processor is such a big help? I just recently bought the GTX 1050 Ti 4gb and the performance is outstanding for others but not that great for me could it be the CPU bottleneck?

 

[rhysiam]

I wouldn't say I could focus on rendering but I still use photoshop and render photos on it but the main focus is on very heavy games, I basically tend to play the newest games for quite some time but I'm not sure if my processor is such a big help? I just recently bought the GTX 1050 Ti 4gb and the performance is outstanding for others but not that great for me could it be the CPU bottleneck?

The 1050ti is an entry level gaming card. I really can't see the CPU being any sort of problem in the overwhelming majority of games. You're going to be GPU bound most of the time (generally that's the way gaming should be).

Run something like GPU-Z to monitor your GPU usage in game. If you regularly see your GPU usage dropping below 95%, particularly if that lines up with stutters or other poor performance in the game, then it suggests something else in the system is impacting your gaming performance. While that GPU utilisation is sitting in the high 90s, you could put that same GPU in the fastest gaming desktop on the planet on you'd get the same result.

 

[Daniel Youssef]

I wouldn't say I could focus on rendering but I still use photoshop and render photos on it but the main focus is on very heavy games, I basically tend to play the newest games for quite some time but I'm not sure if my processor is such a big help? I just recently bought the GTX 1050 Ti 4gb and the performance is outstanding for others but not that great for me could it be the CPU bottleneck?

The 1050ti is an entry level gaming card. I really can't see the CPU being any sort of problem in the overwhelming majority of games. You're going to be GPU bound most of the time (generally that's the way gaming should be).

Run something like GPU-Z to monitor your GPU usage in game. If you regularly see your GPU usage dropping below 95%, particularly if that lines up with stutters or other poor performance in the game, then it suggests something else in the system is impacting your gaming performance. While that GPU utilisation is sitting in the high 90s, you could put that same GPU in the fastest gaming desktop on the planet on you'd get the same result.

I see.... alright thank you so much for your help you've been a huge help for me !