worth upgrading to ddr3 in 2018?

[smilemore]

Is it worth upgrading my 8gb ddr3 to 16gb in 2018? I'm thinking of going with 8x2 corsair vengeance, does it fit with a 212 evo cpu cooler? I was playing gta 5 with about 80% ram usage with 8gb, would I gain fps performance in most games if I upgraded to 16gb? Would this be an overall okay investment, considering my rig is about 3 years old already?

From my understanding I should get 1600 9-9-24, 9 CAS, with 1.5V?

Specs:
i5 4690k
Asus z97-A
GTX 970
8gb ram

Would this be a good choice, of is there more better quality options?
RAM: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820233299

Thank you.

 

[Eximo]

If you aren't actually hitting 8GB of memory usage, then it won't make a huge difference to get 16GB.

DDR3 1600 is more or less the current factory default for DDR3 and DDR3L systems built today. That includes your Devil's Canyon i5 even for OEM systems released around the same time. DDR3-2400 or at least 2133 would be desirable from a speed standpoint for a K-class processor, though memory is rather expensive at the moment.

On the other hand. Your system still has decent re-sale value. Depending on how much you have to spend, you could upgrade the CPU/Motherboard/Ram and sell your current core.

 

[King_V]

Around December/January I got my Haswell system up to 16GB total. It had 8GB (2x4) of DDR3-1600, but with slower timings. I got 4x4GB of 8GB DDR3 with the same timings as the Corsair you linked to, but only because a sale on the RAM plus a discount code made it worthwhile. My system is a Dell OEM, so it wouldn't run any sort of XMP.

I then sold off the original RAM.

I don't know if I *needed* 16GB per se, but like I said, a good deal, and this is a system I'll probably keep using for a while.

 

[King_V]

But, if you have 8GB currently (am I correct in assuming 2x4 GB?), what are the timings? It *might* be worth it to try to get the same timings/type of RAM in 2x4 GB to get a total of 16 on your system.

 

[smilemore]

I have 9-9-24 CL 9 1600 2x4. I was told that 2 ram sticks is better than a 4x4. So I think I needa get the 2x8 and sell what I have.

For the cpu I have i was told these timings and speed is perfect. But not sure if upgrading ddr3 in 2018 is worth because ddr4 is out, and quite expensive.

Did you notice any gaming performance increase after you upgraded your ram? Did your pc run hotter as well, or not by much? I heard 4x4 is going to run warmer than 2x8.

 

[King_V]

I don't think there's really much gain from going with 2x8 specifically, at least, not enough to justify the added expense (or even if it's a noticeable gain at all)

As for me, I didn't notice any performance increase, but at the time, my video card was what was holding me back. It was more of an "eh, I have this coupon which is going to expire, AND that memory is on sale, AND by the time I ever need more than 16GB total, I'll likely be getting a whole new system" going through my head.

I don't really monitor temps on it, but it's a Dell XPS 8700, running an i5, and there's no overclocking, so I don't think heat is an issue with this thing at all.

DIMMs only draw a small amount of power, so they can't produce a whole lot of heat relative to the rest of the system. Plus, the new memory I got happened to have heatsinks on them (probably not necessary) whereas the old ones didn't. For the relatively low speed DDR3 you and I are using, I don't think heat's an issue.

 

[smilemore]

Cool, thanks for sharing your personal experience.

You made me change my mind and save half the money and just order another set of what I currently have and just run a 4x4 16gb setup. From doing some research, the performance difference of 4x4 vs 2x8 isn't even noticeable.

 

[King_V]

There is always a chance that the new set won't exactly cooperate with the first set, even if the same brand and timings.

On the other hand, I've had two pairs of two different brands (but with the same timings) work together.

I've also had two pairs of the exact same model# work together successfully.

But that's just my personal experience, so . . take it with a grain of salt.