Will Increasing my RAM MHz translate into Faster Speed?

[captainsky]

Hello,

I have what I think is a pretty basic question. I recently built a computer and for RAM I purchased the Corsair Vengeance RAM cards @ 1600MHz. As a CPU I purchased an Intel 153570K (Unlocked) and have it currently overclocked at 4.5GHz. As for a motherboard, I have the Asus P8Z77-V Pro.

The computer is quick now, but I was wondering if I increased the RAM cards to 1866MHz or 2133MHz wouldn't my computer respond to command executions even faster than it does now? So, for instance, if I increased the RAM wouldn't my computer boot faster, wouldn't open Photoshop faster, and just be overall a lot faster.

I already tweaked the RAM and switched it to X.M.P mode, so it is running at its full 1600MHz now. I cannot get more out of these cards. Tomorrow is the last date on my receipt to still allow me to return the Vengeance Blue 1600Mhz cards, so I need to know what I should do, if anything.

Will I notice a considerable increased in speed if my RAM is running @ 2133Mhz instead of 1600Mhz?

I paid about $120.00 for the 1600Mhz and if I am calculating correctly a set of (4x4GB) @ 2133Mhz speed RAM would cost me an additional $30.00. So for the amount of money, it seems only logically to upgrade to the 2133Mhz RAM. But. I only want to do it if I know I will get a nice boost in performance.

So feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[djangoringo]

It will not be worth it, the performance difference will be negligible, stay with your current ram if it's cheaper and it's working fine.

 

[captainsky]

Okay. I can grasp the "negligible" difference meaning a practically boost of only a few micro seconds master in response time. But there has to be something more!

So what IS the difference between buying RAM @ 1600MHz or 2133Mhz? It obviously costs more the higher you go up so there has to be some benefit garnered from a faster processing RAM cards, so can someone tell what it is? Thanks.

 

[maestro0428]

Fast ram is only for benchmarking and AMDs APUs. There is no reason to buy faster than 1600mhz for Intel cpus. For the most part, you won't even see any gains in software.

Increasing the speed creates more bandwidth, but Intel chips just don't need it.

 

[djangoringo]

The memory controller of the cpu you have only supports 1600 mhz, anything beyond that is overclocking, with the support of the motherboard, like i said it's not worth the extra cost, read those :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/8
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/memory-performance-16gb-ddr31333-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/14

 

[captainsky]

Best answer selected by captainsky.

 

[captainsky]

The memory controller of the cpu you have only supports 1600 mhz, anything beyond that is overclocking, with the support of the motherboard, like i said it's not worth the extra cost, read those :
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/8
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/memory-performance-16gb-ddr31333-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/14

Thank you for taking the time to look up the my memory controller capability of my motherboard as I had not even thought of that as an option to investigate. I must confess this is my very first build, and it appears, after three weeks, that it came off without any major hitches. Now that everything is in place, I suppose I am just getting greedy for more of the wonderful speed--so much faster than my other computer.

As for overclocking the RAM, I am have already used the ASUS Suite of AI Tweaks. I brought up the RAM to 120%; however, I didn't see a change on the POST screen for the RAM MHz. It was only after I went into the BIOS and switched the RAM to X.M.P mode that it jumped from the 1300s to 1600MHz.

Okay. Now I feel better understanding such issues as memory controller and that on Intel boards the higher RAM is not utilized.

Thank you everyone for your prompt feedback. It was enlightening indeed. Take care.