Ram worth upgrading?

[Camy252]

Hello,

I currently have 16gb DDR3 Crucial ram at 800mhz CL9.

Wondering if its worth upgrading to a higher frequency and better quality? I like the look of Corsair Vengeance pro series 2400 but ive noticed the CL is higher at CL11. Cant seem to find 2400 at a lower CL on either Kingston or Gskill. Did find some Corsair Veng at 1600 and at CL9.

There are lots of posts about the difference between CL9 1600 and CL11 2400 which have been very useful/educational but havent swayed my decision at yet.

I can probably get the Corsair/Gskill/Hyper X 16gb for about £50 on ebay but is it worth it?

Mostly gaming but i do some photo and video editing. I do play alot of Arma 3 which ive heard is very ram and cpu intensive so hoping this will give me a wee boost too!

Thanks

 

[androbourne]

For gaming, yes. 800mhz is very slow in todays world. I would upgrade to max or close to max frequency of what your mobo can support.

 

[Camy252]

so its worth going for the 2400 instead of 1600? Even at cost of higher CL?

 

[androbourne]

I would say it depends on the price gab. If you are doing gaming I would suggest you go with highest you feel good with spending and your mobo supports.

 

[Rdslw]

in general
9 / 1600 * 2000 = 11.25 nanoseconds
11/ 2400 * 2000 = 9,166666667 nanoseconds <-- faster
and you will see a difference when going from DDR3 to 4.
Still changing inside same speed to lower CL will yeld minimal gains(as we can mostly scrape 2-3 CL in same speed)
http://i.imgur.com/6ZSDax7.png
table itself looks good, but gains we can get are minimal. usually you end up from 2400/11 to 2666/13 and true latency stays around the same(but raw bandwith goes up).

you're way better getting second 16GB for your build or 3200 ram instead of worrying about CL.

 

[Camy252]

Good answers guys and thanks for the quick replies. Yeah I'm very tempted to go to 32gb but will need to do it in two steps because of budget. Cant go ddr4 because of motherboard.

I am liking the Corsair Vengeance 2400 so far. Seems to be common enough to get on ebay for decent price. I think my maximum budget is about £60

 

[Calvin7]

Without listing the system it would be just a guess what would work with it.

The CPU is often the part that determines compatible memory, second the motherboard model and whether or not you intend to overclock the system.

 

[Camy252]

i5 4690k (overclocked to 4.3)
Asus z87-k MB.
MSI 1060 6gb GPU
16gb crucial 800mhz ram (CL9)

My hardware is getting a bit dated now so trying to squeeze more juice out of it without replacing the MB or CPU. Figured Ram is the oldest/slowest bit. CPU and GPU have been overclocked but fairly new to the idea of OC the RAM.

 

[androbourne]

800MHz C9 RAM has a True Latency of 22.5ns
1600MHz C11 is 13.75ns
1600MHz C9 is 11.25ns
2400MHz C11 is 9.17ns

Even so with the fastest RAM, you're only looking at a few fps difference for gaming.

If you are doing editing and the RAM is not enough, you need more RAM not faster RAM. You would do a lot better with 32GB of 800MHz C9 RAM than 16GB of 2400MHz C11 RAM.

If are you only looking at gaming sure. However faster ram also helps with other functions such as multitasking. So I would not limit it to only what it "can do for you for gaming" as the only advantage.

Even with 32GB of faster ram the fps increase from 16GB faster ram... you most likely wont even physically see it. I have multiple gaming rigs both in 16GB and 32GB. In gaming, there is no difference as games do not utilize that much memory. Even while muti-tasking I'd be surprised if you use even half of that.

For the OP. I'd save your money, Get 16GB of fast ram. If you need to upgrade later you can (so just buy two sticks of 8GB) but 32GB is most likely going to be overkill for your needs.

 

[Camy252]

Am I right in thinking then the ram upgrade is my best option to boost my system? Since the next best cpu i can get is the i7 4790k which I've heard isnt that much better than an overclocked i5 4690k?

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

800MHz C9 RAM has a True Latency of 22.5ns
1600MHz C11 is 13.75ns
1600MHz C9 is 11.25ns
2400MHz C11 is 9.17ns

Even so with the fastest RAM, you're only looking at a few fps difference for gaming.

If you are doing editing and the RAM is not enough, you need more RAM not faster RAM. You would do a lot better with 32GB of 800MHz C9 RAM than 16GB of 2400MHz C11 RAM.

If are you only looking at gaming sure. However faster ram also helps with other functions such as multitasking. So I would not limit it to only what it "can do for you for gaming" as the only advantage.

Even with 32GB of faster ram the fps increase from 16GB faster ram... you most likely wont even physically see it. I have multiple gaming rigs both in 16GB and 32GB. In gaming, there is no difference as games do not utilize that much memory. Even while muti-tasking I'd be surprised if you use even half of that.

For the OP. I'd save your money, Get 16GB of fast ram. If you need to upgrade later you can (so just buy two sticks of 8GB) but 32GB is most likely going to be overkill for your needs.

Congrats you spent six minutes replying to a comment I deleted, and also didn't read my last sentence apparently. I said for EDITING more RAM is better than faster RAM.

There would be a 0 fps increase for gaming because if you have more RAM than can be utilized it is wasted anyways.
Even with faster RAM the fps difference between 800MHz and 2400MHz would be 3-5fps tops, and that is likely in only the most extreme cases.

I was pointing out that if he is doing editing, like he mentioned in the original post, and the RAM was not sufficient, he would benefit more from more RAM as opposed to just 16GB of faster RAM.

 

[androbourne]

800MHz C9 RAM has a True Latency of 22.5ns
1600MHz C11 is 13.75ns
1600MHz C9 is 11.25ns
2400MHz C11 is 9.17ns

Even so with the fastest RAM, you're only looking at a few fps difference for gaming.

If you are doing editing and the RAM is not enough, you need more RAM not faster RAM. You would do a lot better with 32GB of 800MHz C9 RAM than 16GB of 2400MHz C11 RAM.

If are you only looking at gaming sure. However faster ram also helps with other functions such as multitasking. So I would not limit it to only what it "can do for you for gaming" as the only advantage.

Even with 32GB of faster ram the fps increase from 16GB faster ram... you most likely wont even physically see it. I have multiple gaming rigs both in 16GB and 32GB. In gaming, there is no difference as games do not utilize that much memory. Even while muti-tasking I'd be surprised if you use even half of that.

For the OP. I'd save your money, Get 16GB of fast ram. If you need to upgrade later you can (so just buy two sticks of 8GB) but 32GB is most likely going to be overkill for your needs.

Congrats you spent six minutes replying to a comment I deleted, and also didn't read my last sentence apparently. I said for EDITING more RAM is better than faster RAM.

There would be a 0 fps increase for gaming because if you have more RAM than can be utilized it is wasted anyways.

Not sure in what world you get "six minutes" from, took literally less then 1 minute to write that up. Get off that high horse.

The fact remains. 32GB is going to be overkill and he can always upgrade later. I'm sticking to my original recommendation.

 

[Calvin7]

It seems you don't know what memory you currently have. What you think is 800MHz is probably 1600MHz, due to DDR (Double Data Rate).

The motherboard manual lists memory speeds up to 2800MHz(OC) down to 1866 (OC)/ 1600/ 1300.

The highest (OC) memory speeds may be unrealistic for many users. It depends on how good an overclocker you are.

I suggest you list part numbers of memory to identify memory. You may find other users familiar with overclocking a system similar or the same as yours. That may help tell you what works and the BIOS settings they used.

 

[Camy252]

Chill guys, its all good.

Indeed my main concern was the difference between the 800 and 1600+ modules and its affect on gaming and if its worth the £50 injection. Even its 3-5 fps i'll take that but i am hopeful for more on games that are cpu and ram intensive like city skylines, elite dangerous and arma 3. I will be sticking with 16gb for now as thats my budget limit.

 

[Camy252]

Pretty sure its 800mhz. Cpu-z has that figure written all over it. Unless I am missing an info field?
DRAM freq: 799.9
NB Freq: 3799.1
Timings table: All 800mhz
Max bandwidth PC3-12800H (800mhz)

I know the basics of ram but im no expert so take it easy buddy

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

CPU-Z halves the frequency sometimes. For example mine reads 1600MHz for 3200MHz RAM. You might double check the stick itself.

Something about the way it reads.

 

[Camy252]

I'l give a check when i get home then. In the instance I do have 1600 at CL9, is it really worth going to 2400 CL11 for an extra £50 then?
Is it worth me trying to upgrade my cpu then: £80ish to upgrade from an I5 4690k to a i7 4790k?

 

[madmatt30]

Pc3-12800 is 1600mhz ram.

As calvin7 has already said it's simply reading wrong in cpu-z.

You don't need a ram upgrade to 32gb , absutely pointless unless you're editing 100mbit+ raw images professionally.

1600 to 2400mhz? Honestly minimal performance Increase outside of benchmarking apps.
I5 to an i7 for £80 outlay?

Yes absolutely worth doing.

 

[Camy252]

Yeah so after a quick google search it appears cpu-z does half the speed so there is a good chance I already have 1600. So im starting to see its probably not worth it to go for the 2400 ram. That cpu price is based on me selling the i5 and buying a second hand i7. Does mean ill need to overclock the cpu again which is always a bit risky!

 

[clarkjd]

I'l give a check when i get home then. In the instance I do have 1600 at CL9, is it really worth going to 2400 CL11 for an extra £50 then?
Is it worth me trying to upgrade my cpu then: £80ish to upgrade from an I5 4690k to a i7 4790k?

At this point, I wouldn't spend any more money on a DDR3 system. Your performance gains would only show up in benchmarks, and not in any noticeable way during your everyday uses. Keyword here is noticeable. IMHO, I would save up for a new system.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Yeah with that small an upgrade it would be 1-2fps difference tops (if even that). Not worth upgrading.

 

[Camy252]

Appreciate all the help guys, think I might just get started on my beast build one component at a time sooner rather than later then!
Cheers everyone