[SOLVED] Would I benefit from any additional RAM?

[wogfor]

Currently running Ryzen 5 2600X on ASUS Prime X470-pro board and an EVGA GTX 1660 Ultra XC GPU. My current memory is 2 sticks of G.Skill 8GB TridentZ DDR4 (F4-3200C16D-16GTZR).

I really don't overclock much and the system runs fine. My concern is availability. The last time I decided I needed some more memory on my last build, DDR3 was winding down and I could not find matches to my existing hardware. Prices for these sticks are decent right now and seem to be in stock many places. Prices range from around $80 US to $109. Would I gain anything at all? I mainly game on it.

 

[Mrgr74]

Currently running Ryzen 5 2600X on ASUS Prime X470-pro board and an EVGA GTX 1660 Ultra XC GPU. My current memory is 2 sticks of G.Skill 8GB TridentZ DDR4 (F4-3200C16D-16GTZR).

I really don't overclock much and the system runs fine. My concern is availability. The last time I decided I needed some more memory on my last build, DDR3 was winding down and I could not find matches to my existing hardware. Prices for these sticks are decent right now and seem to be in stock many places. Prices range from around $80 US to $109. Would I gain anything at all? I mainly game on it.

Hi @wogfor

For general gaming, there is a very slim difference moving up from 16 to 32GB & beyond. Do you "need" to? Not really. Do you "Want" to? Well that's a question only you can answer.

Keep in mind though, it's never a good idea to mix & match RAM. Even if you were to buy another exact set of the 2x8GB G.skill you have now, there is a chance, though granted it's a slim chance, but you could have issues such as the RAM not wanting to play well together with the RAM you already have installed and so would want to buy a 32GB KIT to maximize compatibility and performance.

Gaming Tests 1 -2

If you are a content creator or you have a ton of brower tabs open for whatever reason, then I would say yes to bumping up to 32GB+ but for the hardware you have now and the current games on the market, you'd not get your money-to-FPS worth. Your DDR4-3200 is the sweet spot as far as RAM speed & your 2600x which is still a very nice CPU. Coupled with your 1660U, you have a very solid system. You're on an SSD I take it right?

Make sure your temps are kept in check and you're gold. If you wanted a few more FPS, you could always get a 3k series later on when on sale once the 4k series are released. The X470 can easily handle a 3K. By the time the 1660U can't push out enough FPS to satisfy you, it would be time to do a full upgrade anyways...

 

[wogfor]

I guess need and want are different and though I did not "need" them, I went ahead and ordered them - they arrived today. Guess I wanted them. A couple of deciding factors were the future availability, and the fact that I was able pick these up for about $10 less than what I paid for them when I put the system together back in February. That was when Microcenter was dumping their stock of 2600X processors for $79. Also, as I hat to admit, I thought "Why not just a bit more RGB lighting going on in my case. It just wasn't gaudy enough!" LOL!

My only other question is the fact that the sticks are marked that they are are optimized for Intel XMP. These were recommended to me by a couple of sources as being a "sweet spot" for the 2600X. Is there any concern there? In any case these have worked well, and this afternoon I will plug in the other 2

 

[Mrgr74]

I guess need and want are different and though I did not "need" them, I went ahead and ordered them - they arrived today. Guess I wanted them. A couple of deciding factors were the future availability, and the fact that I was able pick these up for about $10 less than what I paid for them when I put the system together back in February. That was when Microcenter was dumping their stock of 2600X processors for $79. Also, as I hat to admit, I thought "Why not just a bit more RGB lighting going on in my case. It just wasn't gaudy enough!" LOL!

My only other question is the fact that the sticks are marked that they are are optimized for Intel XMP. These were recommended to me by a couple of sources as being a "sweet spot" for the 2600X. Is there any concern there? In any case these have worked well, and this afternoon I will plug in the other 2

"Optimized for Intel" just means it's been tested to work with Intel CPU's. There isn't RAM exclusively for just AMD or Intel CPU's. $79 for a 2600X? Damn, that was a steal! On Amazon it's currently going for just under $185.

Did you buy the exact same amount & make/model of RAM you have installed now? If not, I would highly advise you to do so before you open the package. RAM running at different timings can cause issues and as before mentioned, even if you did buy the same amount as you have installed, RAM can be fussy and not want to play well with other RAM. As for availability, DDR4 isn't going away anytime soon.

Keep in mind that if you had say DDR4-3200 installed and then installed DDR4-2400, all of your RAM will run at 2400, even the DDR4-3200 as it'll under clockitself to the slowest RAM installed. Also keep in mind that Ryzen CPU's run better with the fast RAM your system supports.

Let us know how the system runs! (I hope well)

 

[wogfor]

It seriously was a steal! I was on an AMD FX-6350 system, and already had the GTX 1660 and a decent Corsair PSU and case, so for just under $300, I upgraded to practically a brand new system! I did spend a bit more for an AIO cooler as I wasn't sure how noisy the AMD cooler was, but then I found out AIO's can be noisy with the pump running 24/7.

One reason I considered more RAM as I was doing some photo editing at one point and had the system go black screen. I don't know if a lack of RAM was the issue, but thought an upgrade could not hurt. I also tend to have multiple browser tabs open and multi task. I know Chrome is a huge memory hog!

I did carefully examine the packaging before opening it and compared it to the original set I bought as I still had the package for them. All specs. were exactly the same including the timings. I have not done any benchmarking on it as I don't expect to see any big changes anyway‼

System booted up with no problems, and I have been playing several games. Seems fine so far, but time will tell. I will run some bench marks later to see how it looks. I will let you know!

Oh, and yes, I am running an SSD for my boot drive. I started with a 250GB and recently upped it to a 1TB drive. Moved many of my games over to it and and haved loved how fast they load up compared to a seperate HDD!!

 

[Mario Italia]

You gain no performance benefits from adding RAM unless you don't have enough to begin with.

Current games aren't using more than 8GB, you will not benefit from having 32GB.

Games also don't use much from system RAM as they prefer to use the faster VRAM instead. 8GB is enough for gaming.

16GB is all you will need until DDR5 unless you have specific applications that need more RAM and you'd know you needed it.

 

[Nemesia]

There are games that use more than 8GB of RAM.

 

[Mario Italia]

There are games that use more than 8GB of RAM.

Only on paper, but in practice I have yet to see a game that utilized more than 8GB.

 

[Nemesia]

Only on paper, but in practice I have yet to see a game that utilized more than 8GB.

8GB of RAM is not recommendable. Not anymore. The moment that 8GB is full and that's not taking into account the OS RAM usage and all the programs running you will start using that drive pagefile and bye bye performance. Not saying you can't play on 8GB. Just don't leave too many Chrome tabs and programs running and you should be fine or you buy a 2x8GB and never think about that again.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPDR2tHH5g

 

[wogfor]

I enabled DOCP. Are there any other changes I should make? I am now showing RAM speed @1596.2 or x2 is 3192.4

 

[Deleted member 2720853]

16 GB is all you need unless you are a content creator or like having a thousand browser tabs open at one time, only then go for 32 GB. I went for 32 GB 3200 purely because I'm stupid. My RAM doesn't even exceed 16 GB.

 

[Deleted member 2720853]

Only on paper, but in practice I have yet to see a game that utilized more than 8GB.

At launch, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition beat Chrome in RAM usage... 24 GB. Of course, it's been optimized and patched and now it's barely going past 2 GB, but still.

 

[wogfor]

At this point, all this is irrelevant to me as the new RAM is installed and running. I ran Cinebench R15 with a score of 1331 and FPS of 117.92 and R20 was scored at 2948. These seem consistent with similar builds. No weird temps. or any other problems appeared. games seem to load about the same. Unfortunately, I did run some tests before, but I seem to have lost those results for comparison.

As far as the RGB.... I'm not a big fan of it, but those light are awful purdy in there