TOO MANY SPEEDS! (Buying Ram for the first time in 8 years)

[Witt]

This... Is... Ridiculous...

Let me just copy and paste an example or two, directly from the New Egg Website.

DDR4 3200(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2133 MHz

DDR3 3200(OC)/3100(OC)/3000(OC)/2933(OC)/2800(OC)/2666(OC)/2600(OC)/2500(OC)/2400(OC)/2200(OC)/2133(OC)/2000(OC)/1866(OC)/1800(OC)/1600/1333

What the hell? Look, all I need to know is the speed my ram needs to be for my Motherboards Bus to open up all the way. Anything more is pointless, cuz you'll be bottlenecked anyway.

So what speed should I get? I'm pretty sure I'm going to be building on an LGA1150, so we're talking Intel I5 CPU and DDR 3 Ram.

What speed ram do I need to open the bus on an 1150 all the way? What speed is everybody using these days??

 

[i7Baby]

What does your mobo spec say it is OK with?

 

[MeteorsRaining]

DDR3 1600Mhz is the starting point, good for gaming/ multitasking. 1866Mhz and higher are enabled through XMP (if supported by MoBo) as LGA1150 FSB is 1600Mhz. And anything higher than 2133Mhz, you're looking for a couple more frames in games and faster video editing. 2400Mhz and higher will require some OCing on CPU to function properly w/o loosing timings.
Also, lower the CL the better. And Voltage, 1.5V for 1600/1866Mhz modules, 1.6V for higher speeds.

 

[jnewegger23]

Lowest cas with highest speed but anything past 2133 for most mobo/cpu combos doesn't do you much good. In general most of the higher end ram kits are cas 9 with 2133MHz at 1.5V. You can pay more for higher speeds but it won't be a significant performance gain. You will see some kits cheaper at 1.65V. That is beyond recommended spec but typically will work fine.

I actually own cas 7 at 1600Mhz at 1.5v. If you are trying to break records then higher is better but the further you go up in speed here the higher the price gets significantly if you keep the cas low. Let cas get too high and you defeat the point as well.

Front side bus is 1600Mhz on socket 1150 for in i7 4770k, 2400 on the mobo side but you can't get much faster than 1600 honestly. I say this is likely your best value but you'll lose "bragging rights". I'm sure sr71 will jump in with his 2 cents and I'd listen if he covers something I missed.

 

[Witt]

1866Mhz and higher are enabled through XMP (if supported by MoBo)

In 25 words or less, (I'll Google it for the long answer)... Describe "XMP". What is it?

And anything higher than 2133Mhz, you're looking for a couple more frames in games and faster video editing.

Yeah, benchmarking is one thing, but real world performance is another matter. That little bit extra speed is realistically going to benefit you for a couple fractions of a second per minute during your gaming...

On the other hand, you'd be getting a constant benefit if you were video editing, dealing with enormous databases, or looking for the answer to Pi. =P

 

[MeteorsRaining]

XMP is a setting by Intel for RAM which enables it to operate at speeds above CPU FSB. For gaming, getting 2800Mhz sticks for eg is not going to be any better than 2133Mhz, since all DDR3 sticks are at highest base clocked at 2133Mhz, anything higher is factory OCed.

 

[Witt]

...XMP is a setting by Intel for RAM which enables it to operate at speeds above CPU FSB.

...all DDR3 sticks are at highest base clocked at 2133Mhz, anything higher is factory OCed.

Helpful, thanks.

 

[MeteorsRaining]

No worries.

 

[4Ryan6]

So what speed should I get? I'm pretty sure I'm going to be building on an LGA1150, so we're talking Intel I5 CPU and DDR 3 Ram.

What speed is everybody using these days??

It can be confusing if you haven't been keeping abreast of the changes out there and it's really great right now that we have the choices available.

What it simply boils down to, is the exact motherboards capabilities you'll be putting the memory in, and your intentions regarding whether you'll be overclocking the CPU or not.

Most overclocking the CPU want the extreme overclocking performance memory as well, so they can run high multiplier overclocks accompanied with high speed stable memory.

Some have no intentions of overclocking their CPU but have no problem running the high speed memory even if the high speed memory is actually overclocking the CPUs memory controller.

The main stream don't overclock at all, it's flat plug and play for them, and if the motherboard doesn't do it for them it won't get done!

So where do you fall in these categories, and what motherboard will be receiving this wonderful memory gift.

Additionally how much of the system memory you need is dependent on what you'll be doing with the computer?