Question Is it better to buy faster RAM or to use what I already have?

[Isaac W.]

I recently purchased a 32GB kit of 2400mhz RAM for a 3-year-old laptop. I will be purchasing a new, faster and higher quality laptop in a few months with a primary focus on gaming, and a secondary interest on video-rendering and editing. However, the maximum supported memory speed is 2666mhz. Is it more worth it to pick up another kit of 2666 RAM or even buy the laptop already upgraded to 32GB from the stock 8GB, or is 2400mhz fast enough for gaming and productivity?

 

[DeauteratedDog]

There isn't going to be much performance difference between 2400 and 2666 MHz RAM.

That is only about a 10% increase in memory bandwidth.

I generally figure that a 100% increase (doubling) of memory bandwidth, either by doubling the number of memory channels or doubling the memory frequency, yields about 20% more work from the CPU. Note that this certainly is not correct and the correct answer depends on the program running, the processor, and the starting memory bandwidth, but I think it is close enough to give a general sense of the effect of improving memory bandwidth.