Will RAM speed affect CPU overclocking?

[jayhayjay]

I'm thinking of purchasing an i5 4690k and overclocking it to 4+ GHz. I have 16 gb 1333 mhz ram. Will the lower frequency of the ram affect the pc's overall performance or bottleneck the CPU? Should I buy faster RAM?

 

[Forever Oleg]

When you increase the CPU clock, RAM speed increases as well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/281550-28-faster-overclock

 

[blazorthon]

RAM speed with modern platforms is largely isolated from CPU overclocking, but it does have a minor impact on performance for the most part with a few things being more strongly effected by it, such as compression, rendering, and gaming with integrated graphics. It would help a bit to upgrade to say DDR3-1866 or DDR3-2133, they are usually pretty close in price to DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600. If you do upgrade your memory, make sure the new memory uses a voltage of 1.5v. Higher voltages are more difficult to get working safely and can greatly reduce your CPU's lifetime if not done properly.

What is the rest of your system? None of this matters if your motherboard isnt Z97 or at least Z87 with a BIOS update.

 

[blazorthon]

When you increase the CPU clock, RAM speed increases as well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/281550-28-faster-overclock

That doesn't apply to multiplier based overclocking, only to BLCK or FSB overclocking.

 

[barto]

When you increase the CPU clock, RAM speed increases as well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/281550-28-faster-overclock

Actually, this isn't all the information. What you failed to say is that the CPU multiplier and the Memory multiplier are independent. Increase the CPU multiplier, basic overclocking, only increases the CPU frequency. If one were to change the Base Clock, Bclk, than yes, the memory would also increase speed as would PCI and another interfaces. This is also pretty old information. 2010 was 1st Gen iCore CPUs. A lot has changed since then.

You can overclock the CPU separate from the Memory. You can use pretty much any RAM speed you want.

 

[Forever Oleg]

That is true. Only BLCK or FSB overclocking works that way, but the multipliers are independent.

 

[jayhayjay]

Thank you all for your answers. I'm actually building a new rig. I've decided on purchasing a Z97 ASUS mobo. I also have two 2 gb corsair ram sticks of 1333 mhz frequency and I wanted to buy two 16 gb ram sticks of the indentical brand, frequency and type so that I would come up with 20 gbs of RAM. That's why it bothers me. I'm worried whether 1333 mhz is not fast enough to correspond with a 4 ghz CPU.

 

[blazorthon]

The RAM frequency is not directly tied to the CPU frequency and is less important than you think. Faster RAM would help a bit, but only a bit for most things. You could double the RAM frequency and get single digit % improvements in performance.

Mixing RAM kits is not recommended except for trying it with memory you already have. It is never guaranteed to work, so buying it with the expectation of it working can be rather disappointing. Even RAM of the same exact model and production line can fail to work together. Even ignoring that, there are more variables than just the brand, frequency, and type. A lot more 🙁

You've got capacity per module, capacity per chip, voltage, dozens of timings (latency settings), and more. Even worse, with timing settings, its not always about them being matching because with more sticks, some settings need to be loosened and you never know by how much without spending up to several hours trying different values and that's assuming the only thing stopping compatibility was the timings.

Sometimes, kits with different everything will even work together, and sometimes they will work together on one motherboard, but not on another. Its just about impossible to predict.

 

[jayhayjay]

The RAM frequency is not directly tied to the CPU frequency and is less important than you think. Faster RAM would help a bit, but only a bit for most things. You could double the RAM frequency and get single digit % improvements in performance.

Mixing RAM kits is not recommended except for trying it with memory you already have. It is never guaranteed to work, so buying it with the expectation of it working can be rather disappointing. Even RAM of the same exact model and production line can fail to work together. Even ignoring that, there are more variables than just the brand, frequency, and type. A lot more 🙁

You've got capacity per module, capacity per chip, voltage, dozens of timings (latency settings), and more. Even worse, with timing settings, its not always about them being matching because with more sticks, some settings need to be loosened and you never know by how much without spending up to several hours trying different values and that's assuming the only thing stopping compatibility was the timings.

Sometimes, kits with different everything will even work together, and sometimes they will work together on one motherboard, but not on another. Its just about impossible to predict.

I currently have two Corsair 2GB 1333 MHZ Value RAM modules and I'm thinking of buying two 8 GB ones of the identical type. Everything is the same. Frequency, voltage, brand, type and they're both CL9 type. The only difference is their size (obviously). In that way, I'll have 20 GBs of RAM.

I'll give you a link to both of them. The website is in greek but just pay attention to their specs..

Here are the ones I already have: http://www.visionstudio.gr/prodinfo.asp?id=29882&cat=4&sub=244&pmanuf=15&sort=3&step=undefined (Two of them).

Here are the ones I want to buy: http://www.visionstudio.gr/prodinfo.asp?id=29686&cat=4&sub=244&pmanuf=15&sort=3&step=2

Thanks for any further help.

 

[barto]

I currently have two Corsair 2GB 1333 MHZ Value RAM modules and I'm thinking of buying two 8 GB ones of the identical type. Everything is the same. Frequency, voltage, brand, type and they're both CL9 type. The only difference is their size (obviously). In that way, I'll have 20 GBs of RAM.

I'll give you a link to both of them. The website is in greek but just pay attention to their specs..

Here are the ones I already have: http://www.visionstudio.gr/prodinfo.asp?id=29882&cat=4&sub=244&pmanuf=15&sort=3&step=undefined (Two of them).

Here are the ones I want to buy: http://www.visionstudio.gr/prodinfo.asp?id=29686&cat=4&sub=244&pmanuf=15&sort=3&step=2

Thanks for any further help.

Unfortunately, those details don't always equal working modules. Truly, the only way RAM modules will work 100% of the time is when they are purchased as a kit as the modules are tested to work with each other. You can mess with the timings and voltage (which may have to happen to have all four sticks happy).

Personally, I would just dump the 1333Mhz RAM and get 16 GB of 1866 Mhz. While small, there is some benefit of having RAM faster faster than 1333 Mhz. The amount of RAM is irrelevant at this point. You're never going to use 20 GB let alone 16GB or even 8 GB if the PC is solely used for gaming.

My recommendation would be this, first install the 16GB alone. Proceed with Windows install and applications. Once you've got the system running well, then install the 4GB. The last thing you need to worry about is RAM stability when starting your PC for the first time.

 

[jayhayjay]

I currently have two Corsair 2GB 1333 MHZ Value RAM modules and I'm thinking of buying two 8 GB ones of the identical type. Everything is the same. Frequency, voltage, brand, type and they're both CL9 type. The only difference is their size (obviously). In that way, I'll have 20 GBs of RAM.

I'll give you a link to both of them. The website is in greek but just pay attention to their specs..

Here are the ones I already have: http://www.visionstudio.gr/prodinfo.asp?id=29882&cat=4&sub=244&pmanuf=15&sort=3&step=undefined (Two of them).

Here are the ones I want to buy: http://www.visionstudio.gr/prodinfo.asp?id=29686&cat=4&sub=244&pmanuf=15&sort=3&step=2

Thanks for any further help.

Unfortunately, those details don't always equal working modules. Truly, the only way RAM modules will work 100% of the time is when they are purchased as a kit as the modules are tested to work with each other. You can mess with the timings and voltage (which may have to happen to have all four sticks happy).

Personally, I would just dump the 1333Mhz RAM and get 16 GB of 1866 Mhz. While small, there is some benefit of having RAM faster faster than 1333 Mhz. The amount of RAM is irrelevant at this point. You're never going to use 20 GB let alone 16GB or even 8 GB if the PC is solely used for gaming.

My recommendation would be this, first install the 16GB alone. Proceed with Windows install and applications. Once you've got the system running well, then install the 4GB. The last thing you need to worry about is RAM stability when starting your PC for the first time.

Well, that's my problem. There's no point in buying 16gbs of ram at 1333 mhz if there is a possibility of instability among the four modules. I'd rather throw away the 4 GBs of Corsair and just buy a different brand of faster 16gbs.

Thanks for the info.