Question Looking to upgrade from my current Trident Z Ram

[GreenCEO]

Hi All,

I'm looking to upgrade my current ram from 16gb to 32gb or 64gb (if not too pricey) - Budget around $200 for Ram.

Z170 Motherboard Specs:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty Z170 Professional Gaming i7/?cat=Specifications#BIOS

Primary uses for my PC are web design (WordPress), graphic design (Photoshop, InDesign, etc), video editing (Premiere Pro 2020) and gaming of course..

Below is my current RAM that I'm looking to upgrade from:
https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820231914

My motherboard manual states it can use up to 3866+ OC RAM but specifies that its only able to reach that frequency on a single stick so 3866 is out of the question.. I was wondering what RAM would be an ideal upgrade from my current Trident Z sticks. Current Timing is 16-16-16-36 @ 1.35v so if there's any way to tweak that and get more out of my RAM I'm open to that as well.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys.

Memory Specs per Motherboard Manual:
• Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
• 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
• Supports DDR4 3866+(OC)*/3600(OC)/3200(OC)/2933 (OC)/2800(OC)/2400(OC)/2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory * 3866+(OC) memory frequency can only be achieved when a single memory module is installed (Single channel memory) * Please refer to Memory Support List on ASRock's website for more information. (http://www.asrock.com/)
• Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
• 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots

 

[Barty1884]

Are you monitoring your utilization as things stand?

The performance gain >3200MHz is negligible - so you're really looking at whether you need more in quantity, opposed to speed.

You might be able to tighten timings a little bit, but at 3200MHz, you're not likely to achieve CL14 or CL15 unless the kit is B-Die and, if it was, it would've shipped with 14 or 15. A voltage bump might get you there though.

 

[GreenCEO]

Hi Barty,

I've heard many people tell me you never really need RAM over 3200mhz as there isn't much of a noticeable difference.

I'm thinking at this point in my PC usage, a bump up to 32gb would be more than sufficient. I just wasnt sure if the boost in mhz would assist in video editing or not (I primarily create product videos which list specifications and such).

 

[Barty1884]

Especially on an Intel platform, those people are correct.
There's very, very few workloads that'll benefit anywhere close to the additional cost. As a very basic example, a ~$150 investment for a nominal ~1% "improvement" likely doesn't make a lot of sense to most people.

The only situation it might make sense, would be if this were your career, and any time saved translated to a good/quick ROI.

As far as an 'upgrade' goes - confirm you'll benefit from >16GB by monitoring RAM utilization in your workloads. If you're not maxing out 16GB, increasing to 32GB won't help you any.

I would assume you're going to be more hindered by a 6700K in those workloads, than 16GB of RAM.

If you are maxing out 16GB, then I'd suggest selling your current 2x8GB and replacing with either 2x16GB, or 4x8GB of 3200MHz speed (or better), with CL16 better, depending on cost, of course.
You could potentially add to your existing 2x8GB, but mixing & matching RAM can be problematic, and a headache to troubleshoot. Just simpler all round to replace outright.

Today, a 32GB kit of 3200MHz, CL16 can be had for ~$110.
The jump to CL15 or CL14 is anywhere from a 60% to 100% premium and unlikely to be "worth" it to most.

Even bumping to 3600MHz, CL16 is a ~30%ish premium.... and also not likely to be worth it.

 

[GreenCEO]

I think the most I've ever seen my workload was around 14.2-ish GB but its rare it gets up that high.. On high work loads for me I usually get around 11-12gb used without trying to run a game on top of that.

I've been using my setup for a good bit of time now and don't really run into many issues but I am looking to give it a noticeable boost so if there's any recommendations on how I can tweak my system for more performance (outside of overclocking) I'm all ears. I say outside of overclocking because I currently use fans for cooling instead of water cooling and only have a Thermaltake 650watt power supply (not sure how much juice is needed for oc):
https://www.newegg.com/p/1Z4-00Z2-0...VGIeGCh3HNAwqEAQYAyABEgJXC_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Do you think my best bet would be upping my cpu again? I am about to convert to an NVME M2 1tb samsung 970 evo plus drive and push my 2 samsung 850 / 860 evo ssd's to storage.

 

[gskill support]

If capacity is sufficient then you just need to maximize frequencies for greatest bandwidth to process those videos. For video editing, comparison can be in terms of minutes, something may take 3 minutes for DDR4-3200, 2.5 minutes for DDR4-3600. The job still gets done either way, but which would you like? Some people care more than others, others may not run memory intensive tasks so that's how there's talk of marginal differences. Higher frequency allows for greater bandwidth, so whether the system or user can utilize it is subjective.

With that combination, you may be near limits for DRAM Frequency, but test for the highest frequency, then you can optimize timings and Voltage to see how that compares to current set up. A benchmark test can be used to compare results. It is also possible using the remaining capability on CPU OC may prove to be more beneficial. Let us know how it goes

 

[geofelt]

Intel, in general is not very sensitive to ram speeds in actual app performance.
Here is an older study.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1478-page1.html

Some apps can use ram for workfiles instead of drives.
I think photoshop is one of them.
Such an app will not try to use more than you have so using usage statistics may not be all that useful.

I can't imagine any situation where more ram hurts.

If you think you can use more ram, buy a 2 x 16gb kit with the same specs as what you have.
You will be guaranteed 32gb.
Then add in your old sticks and see how that works.
No guarantee, but you are likely to run in which case you have 48gb.
Split up the capacity evenly across both channels.

If no joy, sell the old ram or keep it for backup.