Overclocking RAM-Frequency vs Timing advice

[Tolis_GR]

Hi all,
I know this has been covered over and over but i am not sure that i have a definite conclusion. I have 2 identical RAMs of Kingston PC3-10600 CL9 at 1333 mhz. One stick is 8gb and the other is 2 gb. They run in dual channel mode. Default timings for 666 mhz of actual frequency is 9-9-9-24 (CL9).
I had a first attempt to slightly overclock at 1400 mhz, i set manually the timing again like 9-9-9-24 because if timings are set as auto in bios then i would get higher timing values (10-10-10-28 or so). Did memtest and i am stable with 1400 mhz and 9-9-9-24.
Pushed a little further and for 1600 mhz the only timings to actually work are 11-11-11-30. Did memtest also.
Anything below 11 for CAS latency will make the pc to not boot or to restart during memtest.
So comparing 1600 mhz (11-11-11-30) with 1400 mhz (9-9-9-24) what would be the best to choose? I read that Intel is favored by higher ram frequency although i don't know whether this is a rumour or not. I am interested in video editing. My CPU is i5 3340 Ivy Bridge.
Thanks

 

[saint19]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Your CPU can handle both frequencies so I would stay with 1600MHz but in that way and with the working that you are doing with the rig I am pretty sure that you won't see any real difference between 1400 and 1600.

 

[Tolis_GR]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Your CPU can handle both frequencies so I would stay with 1600MHz but in that way and with the working that you are doing with the rig I am pretty sure that you won't see any real difference between 1400 and 1600.

Thank you. I suppose you are right. One last question to sort this out. I have seen online a guy overclocking a quite similar RAM but he managed to have a CAS latency of 9 for 1600 mhz while in my case it won't go below 11 for the abovementioned frequency. http://www.overclock.net/t/1361380/overclock-kingston-valueram-1333-to-1600
Is this related to the RAM stick or potentially to the CPU-memory controller? I guess it's all about the quality of RAM chips and the available space for overclocking and not the CPU, is this correct?

 

[saint19]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Your CPU can handle both frequencies so I would stay with 1600MHz but in that way and with the working that you are doing with the rig I am pretty sure that you won't see any real difference between 1400 and 1600.

Thank you. I suppose you are right. One last question to sort this out. I have seen online a guy overclocking a quite similar RAM but he managed to have a CAS latency of 9 for 1600 mhz while in my case it won't go below 11 for the abovementioned frequency. http://www.overclock.net/t/1361380/overclock-kingston-valueram-1333-to-1600
Is this related to the RAM stick or potentially to the CPU-memory controller? I guess it's all about the quality of RAM chips and the available space for overclocking and not the CPU, is this correct?

This depends 90% of RAM (chip quality) even RAM of the same model. The other 10% depends of the other components.

 

[Tolis_GR]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Your CPU can handle both frequencies so I would stay with 1600MHz but in that way and with the working that you are doing with the rig I am pretty sure that you won't see any real difference between 1400 and 1600.

Thank you. I suppose you are right. One last question to sort this out. I have seen online a guy overclocking a quite similar RAM but he managed to have a CAS latency of 9 for 1600 mhz while in my case it won't go below 11 for the abovementioned frequency. http://www.overclock.net/t/1361380/overclock-kingston-valueram-1333-to-1600
Is this related to the RAM stick or potentially to the CPU-memory controller? I guess it's all about the quality of RAM chips and the available space for overclocking and not the CPU, is this correct?

This depends 90% of RAM (chip quality) even RAM of the same model. The other 10% depends of the other components.

Thanks again. Things are more clear now

 

[saint19]

Your welcome, have a nice day and enjoy the forum.

Regards,

Saint19

 

[Tolis_GR]

Sorry to dig up again but i figured out something that may help anyone reading similar posts.
Despite the fact i had a memtest run to my OCed 1600 mhz with 11-11-11-30 timings, i experienced pc restarts while gaming and under load.
After trial and error i found that it was ram voltage to blame and not the OC or timings. I went from 1.6 V to 1.55 V and now works like a charm. Even more, i managed to tighten CAS latency from 11 to 10, so the timings now are 10-11-11-30. Surely it is nothing special for today but amazes me how bugdet hardware can still unlock performance.