OC RAM corsair vengeance 2x2 1600c9 TIGHTENING

[provino]

Hi guys all
I want to ask from your experience and knowledge

1. I Tightened my cute RAM from 9-9-9-24 to be 8-8-8-22,, from 1.5v to 1.58v. Stable memtest for hours. No addition heat on CPU. there's only DDR voltage addition, and DDR power consumption rise a bit. Is it still safe for 24/7 use? Any advice please?

2. Next 2 weeks I wanna buy some high performance RAM. I determined to choose 2 model they are vengeance pro 1600c9 1.5v OR VP 2400c11 1.65v. Focus on both series, no others. Which one should I pick? what concern? I like game but Im not a gamer. 60% for rendering video and editing graphics

3. Put I bought 2400c11. And may be disappointed with its performance, can I downclocking vengeance pro 2400c11 1.65 to be exactly the same with 1600c9 1.5v?? The same for its freq, timings, and voltages absolutely? as I know the most stable DDR3 is 1333/1600. We want some speed and performance without ignoring stability.

answers from experiences would be very appreciated

 

[photonboy]

1) Depends on your CPU how fast the memory needs to be

2) For gaming it's not going to matter.

3) Not sure why you asked about your current memory when you are REPLACING it soon. Is it safe? Yes, but there's no guarantee it will be reliable. Memtest is a good test, but it's not 100%

Personally, I would just set it back to default settings (enable "XMP" if Intel or if AMD use the equivalent in BIOS)

4) Here's a good test for you:
a) open Task Manager-> Performance-> CPU
b) run Prime95
c) can the CPU hit 100% usage?

If your CPU can hit 100% usage then there's likely no reason to get faster memory. If you need MORE that's a different story.

When I did my research for my i7-3770K it turned out that 2133MHz CAS9 (in dual channel) was as fast as I needed and even then it was overkill for pretty much everything I did. That's based on very demanding programs that fully use the CPU 100%.

So again, for most people with a similar CPU 1600MHz is fine.

5) http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-dual-channel-works-vs-single-channel?showall=1

He used an i5-3570K, but what he was comparing was DUAL vs SINGLE CHANNEL. He had a 2400MHz kit, so SINGLE CHANNEL would be the same as running a 1200MHz Dual Channel kit.

If you look through gaming didn't matter, and even demanding programs were only going up near 10%. So even with a faster CPU you start to see that fast memory rarely matters. Remember, this is at "1200MHz" so 1600MHz would have probably seen no bottleneck from memory in this setup.

(I've seen conflicting information with this, but mostly really contrived tests that don't reflect real-world usage)

 

[photonboy]

I didn't understand if you bought the new memory yet or not.

1) When MIXING sticks, you will need to match the frequency and timings carefully or it will give errors (run MEMTEST)

2) I recommend using IDENTICAL sticks if possible

3) If mixing there's no point in getting faster memory as you'd have to downclock anyway. Thus, it's better to get the same frequency and CAS. Again, ideally an identical model (even the same exact model may produce errors due to slight manufacturing differences that may require you to change some timings in the BIOS)

4) Make sure your motherboard supports it. My Z77 series board for example only supports 4GB per slot (for 16GB total)

5) MEMORY-> http://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/

 

[provino]

well, my bad i didnt tell my specs
here they are
i7 4790k mild 4,5GHz 1.25v I know its bad chip
Z97X-ud3h-BK
corsair vengeance 2x2GB 1600c9 which is now tightened to be 8-8-8-24 (1.58v)
CX500
photonboy:
1. I like to replace this RAM with the new one which Im still on consider to choose between Vengeance Pro 1600c9 1.5v OR Vengence pro 2400c11 1.65v. I will sale the old one

2.I knew RAM speed doesnt matter for game, I mean, I do several rendering video and photo editing. I believe RAM speed on 2400c11 would help pretty much. IF NOT? That's why I asked Can it downclock from 2400c11 1.65v to perfectly 1600c9 1.5v?? in my country corsair vengeance pro 1600c9 and 2400c11 is on the same price. That's why Im confused to choose. If later I feel bad of 2400c11 performance, I like to downclock it to 1600c9 without issue I hope

 

[photonboy]

1) CPU - The CPU isn't "bad" just because it can't reach frequencies as high as other CPU's can get to. There are several factors including the "silicon lottery" which you've probably heard of which basically means each CPU is slightly different due to how difficult CPU manufacturing is.

Unless the CPU is flat-out defective (BSOD on boot etc) or can only reach really low frequencies it's not a "bad chip". Certainly 4.5GHz is not bad.

The MAX TURBO BOOST frequency is 4.4GHz already. That means that under heavy load you probably are about 4.2GHz. Not sure if your "4.5GHz" overclock is maintaining 4.5GHz under heavy load or not, but if not you should go back to the DEFAULT CPU values because you aren't adding enough performance to justify the extra heat, and possibly fan noise. You may be surprised at just how much the temperature can go up when increasing the voltage. I tweaked my i7-3770K to 4.3GHz (all four cores loaded) without changing the voltage. If I attempted 4.5GHz I had to raise the voltage and the temperature went up 15degC from 65degC to 80degC under heavy load. Not worth it.

*You may want to play around with the MULTIPLIER values instead of the more generic overclock. For example, it may be with all FOUR cores the multiplier is 42. If so, try raising all cores to 43 and see if that's stable. For my CPU I have it set at 43,43,44,45 (4.5GHz thus is mainly with one core) and NO OTHER changes. I'm guessing you can overclock the same way, but not certain.

Run Prime95 on default settings, and also the Intel CPU Diagnostic. Two important points:
a) Prime95 can sometimes give false negatives (record an error that is NOT an error), and
b) Intel CPU Diagnostic will set to DEFAULT CPU settings. So you must REBOOT the computer to go back to any modified CPU settings (which also means that test will only test in a default configuration. It's still a test worth running)

2) You only have 4GB (2x2GB) of system memory. You support 32GB, so you should simply buy a new kit of 2x8GB or 4x8GB. It's hard for me to know if you need more than 16GB of system memory because it depends on the video bitrate, program used, and what features/overlaying etc you are doing.

However, you can start doing some video editing and then monitor the system memory usage and see if it's getting close to 16GB. In fact, Windows should pop-up and tell you if it's an issue.

Photo editing doesn't matter as it's not as demanding. You need to look at the WORST CASE which is video editing (keep in mind a web browser with many tabs open can use several GB's of memory so I would disable that when video editing or limit the number of open tabs to just a few).

3) Downclock etc.
Not worth discussing as I've said above you only have 4GB. The potential instability, and inability to properly optimize memory timings when mixing memory isn't worth the hassle when only adding a little more memory.

4) So what kit?
Look at price and user feedback to make sure it seems reliable (Corsair, G.Skill etc mostly fine). Basically:

a) 2133MHz C9/C10
b) 2400MHz C10/C11

There's no point going higher than this aside from unrealistic benchmark scenarios. 2x8GB 2133MHz CAS9 is about the max you can benefit from, AND the voltage is lower than higher frequency kits so it puts less stress on the CPU memory controller.

Examples:
32GB (2133MHz CAS9, 1.6V)-> http://pcpartpicker.com/product/7qvRsY/gskill-memory-f32133c9q32gzh

16GB (same as above)-> http://pcpartpicker.com/product/KQ4gXL/gskill-memory-f32133c9d16gxh

SUMMARY:
a) CPU overclocking (voltage etc)
b) 4GB extra not worth the hassle, so buy the optimal price-to-performance kit
c) 16GB or 32GB?
d) 2133MHz CAS9 might be optimal depending on prices where you are
e) higher voltage stresses the CPU memory controller. No need for higher frequency as said (is justified for 8C/16T CPU's though due to higher bandwidth requirement since almost 2x the processing capability)

 

[photonboy]

Other:
When you go into the BIOS and select "XMP" the BIOS looks at the SPD values on the memory and applies the OPTIMAL profile. Every memory stick has multiple FREQUENCY selections with the proper TIMINGS for each of these settings. By default it chooses the LOWER value (i.e. 1600MHz), but XMP chooses the optimal value (i.e. 2133MHz CAS9...).

If you MIX different types of memory you can't apply one of these configurations since you are now mixing different memory. It should try to find a lower configuration that makes sense, but if not you'll have to manually edit these settings. Sometimes it can be a big hassle.

So again, ideally you buy the memory as one KIT, install ONLY that kit and then go into the BIOS to select the "XMP" (optimal) profile. The BIOS again reads the SPD values and then applies the correct frequency, CAS and other timings.

(also note that your memory can show as stable, even pass MEMTEST yet still have stability issues in real usage which may not be obvious but ends up corrupting data which over time can show up as freezing, crashing or other issues with no OBVIOUS reason for it. Years of messing with memory has made me a lot BETTER at mixing memory but also very RELUCTANT to do so. I won't do it for myself and only will do it when BUDGET is really tight.)

 

[provino]

Well I undertand now. Thanks for explaining very long, dude
Im not lucky. DDR3 is late anyway. That's why I cant find high performance RAM anymore in my country. there are only 1600c9 1.5v as it's standard, and 2400c11 1.65v. I may pick the 2x8GB 1600c9 1.5v,, if I were in US, I will be available to buy any RAM I wanted. my country sucks. That's why I only compared that 2 sticks, because no other else in my country. newegg amazon isnt solution for me as their products make me difficult of RMA