Hardware & Technical The frequency of the RAM

[Patrick_68000]

Currently I have DDR3 RAM with 1866 Mhz.

The motherboard accepts RAM up to 2800 MHz.

Of course, more frequency = more latency.

It is really interesting to change and buy the new RAM at 2133 Mhz for example ? The performance of the PC will be much improved ? Or no difference ?

 

[Zieman]

Usually not a noticeable difference.
Maybe some synthetic benchmarks show a couple % increase in performance.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Usually not a noticeable difference.
Maybe some synthetic benchamarks show a couple % increase in performance.

I'm not really surprised by your answer.

On the other hand, the price difference is often important.

 

[Morbad]

Currently I have DDR3 RAM with 1866 Mhz.

The motherboard accepts RAM up to 2800 MHz.

At the high-end CPU is likely to become a limiting factor before the motherboard. Be wary of buying very high clocked memory for a given generation with the expectation that it will automatically work...nearly all of it is way past the speed officially supported by CPU memory controllers and may need extensive manual configuration to work, if it will work at full speed at all.

Of course, more frequency = more latency.

Latency decreases linearly with increases in frequency, all other things being equal. Even with the looser timings needed for higher frequency memory, overall latency usually goes down slightly.

It is really interesting to change and buy the new RAM at 2133 Mhz for example ? The performance of the PC will be much improved ? Or no difference ?

The jump from DDR3-1866 to 2133 is highly unlikely to be significant enough to justify the cost.

 

[Patrick_68000]

At the high-end CPU is likely to become a limiting factor before the motherboard. Be wary of buying very high clocked memory for a given generation with the expectation that it will automatically work...nearly all of it is way past the speed officially supported by CPU memory controllers and may need extensive manual configuration to work, if it will work at full speed at all.



Latency decreases linearly with increases in frequency, all other things being equal. Even with the looser timings needed for higher frequency memory, overall latency usually goes down slightly.



The jump from DDR3-1866 to 2133 is highly unlikely to be significant enough to justify the cost.

Thanks for your advices.

To avoid a lot of unnecessary purchases.

The explanation on the latency is very instructive also.

 

[Patrick_68000]

At the high-end CPU is likely to become a limiting factor before the motherboard. Be wary of buying very high clocked memory for a given generation with the expectation that it will automatically work...nearly all of it is way past the speed officially supported by CPU memory controllers and may need extensive manual configuration to work, if it will work at full speed at all.

Yes I already had a preview by wanting to overclock my current memory.

Required to play with the latencies, the tensions.

So I imagine that for DDR3 at 2800 MHz, it would not be enough to insert the RAM into the slot.

 

[Zak Gordon]

The jump from DDR3-1866 to 2133 is highly unlikely to be significant enough to justify the cost.

This.

At some point in a specific PC build you hit diminishing returns, where the max upgrade available to you vs what you got vs the cost of that now older tech (harder to find, more expensive often etc) starts to make it not worth further investment.

At that point your often better off saving for a complete new build on a newer socket type, which will come with much faster RAM etc. What is the build your thinking of boosting with this ram (and new GPU from that other thread?)? Maybe you need a thread about that build and what you should do with it overall?

 

[Patrick_68000]

This.

At some point in a specific PC build you hit diminishing returns, where the max upgrade available to you vs what you got vs the cost of that now older tech (harder to find, more expensive often etc) starts to make it not worth further investment.

At that point your often better off saving for a complete new build on a newer socket type, which will come with much faster RAM etc. What is the build your thinking of boosting with this ram (and new GPU from that other thread?)? Maybe you need a thread about that build and what you should do with it overall?

I do not intend to evolve this platform.

I inquire in the forums, only by technical curiosity and to get confirmation of my intuitions.

The very good Cmdrs' answers confirm that this platform is well balanced and that any additional investment is not useful for a minimal performance gain.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I do not intend to evolve this platform.

I inquire in the forums, only by technical curiosity and to get confirmation of my intuitions.

The very good Cmdrs' answers confirm that this platform is well balanced and that any additional investment is not useful for a minimal performance gain.

+1, also got some great advice here.

As for PC upgrading, I adopted the following approach: upgrade the GPU once, then after a while upgrade everything else including the motherboard, then at the next step the GPU again. Logic: a proper GPU upgrade costs as much as upgrading everything else, so I can spread the costs over time.
Having said that, my current build is good enough and should last me through at least another generation, so hopefully I won't need to spend on my rig for some time.

 

[Patrick_68000]

+1, also got some great advice here.

Yes the Cmdrs are competent.

Always a pleasure to interact with connoisseurs.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I have a kit of Corsair Vengeance Pro Series sold for 1866 Mhz and with 9-10-9-27 timings at 1.5V voltage.

I went to the site of Corsair to see the different RAM sold in this series (from 1600 to 3100 Mhz).

I noted the DDR timings at 2133 Mhz, which is 11-11-11-27 and still at 1.5V of voltage and I applied this frequency and these timings to my kit.

My kit accepts this overclocking without any difficulty.

And I find my machine even more responsive than before.

These series of Corsair RAM has a reputation for being made for the overclocking.

I think that I can even go up to 2400 Mhz and maybe more by playing on the timings and the tension.

But I would not do it right now.

I just wanted to see the difference between 1866Mhz and 2133Mhz, and there is an real improvement in responsiveness.

Now I came back to 1866 Mhz. But from time to time I will increase the frequency because this series does not seem to heat too much and remains very stable.

However to buy a kit at 2133 Mhz would have been stupid.

Because I can do it with my current kit and also because the performance does not justify the expense of money.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I think the frequency can decrease with age.? not sure but yes

I am not sure that it is the case.

However, concerning of the others subject, it is indisputable

 

[Zak Gordon]

I have a kit of Corsair Vengeance Pro Series sold for 1866 Mhz and with 9-10-9-27 timings at 1.5V voltage.

I went to the site of Corsair to see the different RAM sold in this series (from 1600 to 3100 Mhz).

I noted the DDR timings at 2133 Mhz, which is 11-11-11-27 and still at 1.5V of voltage and I applied this frequency and these timings to my kit.

My kit accepts this overclocking without any difficulty. And I find my machine even more responsive than before.

It's always nice to find these little boosts to performance, and in this case for free as well

My last machine (an AMD Athlon socket 939 system) ended up tweaked all over, but then i noticed i had also increased it's power usage quite a bit (from CPU to GPU and RAM), so i decided for the performance gains i had been seeing, that dialing the overclocks back to more normal operation was better for my electricity bill!

My current machine does not overclock (the 1050Ti GPU has a boost thing it does itself) but is super efficient vs that old Athlon setup. As i'm not really into fps these days, I do not really need to OC it.

 

[Patrick_68000]

It's always nice to find these little boosts to performance, and in this case for free as well

My last machine (an AMD Athlon socket 939 system) ended up tweaked all over, but then i noticed i had also increased it's power usage quite a bit (from CPU to GPU and RAM), so i decided for the performance gains i had been seeing, that dialing the overclocks back to more normal operation was better for my electricity bill!

I had the same thought as you.

Because I noticed that the temperature of my CPU had increased by a few degrees. And certainly my RAM also.

However the temperature of my motherboard had not moved.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Yeah I'm with the most.
Not worth the cost.

And at this point I wouldn't want to spend anything more on a ddr3 system.
rather save up for a larger upgrade to a ddr4 platform.

I did myself notice some benefit from moving from 1600mhz RAM to 2400mhz ram.
But that was also on a i7 4790k with a 1080ti.
And only noticeable in VR.

So no I wouldn't recommend the expense.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Yeah I'm with the most.
Not worth the cost.

And at this point I wouldn't want to spend anything more on a ddr3 system.
rather save up for a larger upgrade to a ddr4 platform.

I did myself notice some benefit from moving from 1600mhz RAM to 2400mhz ram.
But that was also on a i7 4790k with a 1080ti.
And only noticeable in VR.

So no I wouldn't recommend the expense.

From 1600 to 2400, it was surely of the RAM Vengeance Pro Serie of Corsair ? This RAM goes up very well in frequency, I remarked.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Currently I have DDR3 RAM with 1866 Mhz.

The motherboard accepts RAM up to 2800 MHz.

Of course, more frequency = more latency.

It is really interesting to change and buy the new RAM at 2133 Mhz for example ? The performance of the PC will be much improved ? Or no difference ?

Don't you mean less latency?

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Regarding the question, I'd settle for DDR4 memory at 2666 MHz as any more may involve an unstable system.

[video=youtube;D_Yt4vSZKVk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Yt4vSZKVk[/video]

 

[Avago Earo]

Currently I have DDR3 RAM with 1866 Mhz.

The motherboard accepts RAM up to 2800 MHz.

Of course, more frequency = more latency.

It is really interesting to change and buy the new RAM at 2133 Mhz for example ? The performance of the PC will be much improved ? Or no difference ?

That's a good question. I got Kingston hyper X, because I use my PC to record music as well as playing Elite, and the advice I got was that of latency vs Mhz of performance. The consensus was that of diminishing returns. I think, to be fair, that to push further successfully, means a new motherboard and DDR4. Until the money income says otherwise, I'm stuck with DDR3. It works.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Don't you mean less latency?

You are right.

It is true that the ratio frequency / timings is generally more favorable at high speeds.

Regarding the question, I'd settle for DDR4 memory at 2666 MHz as any more may involve an unstable system.

For my part I am limited to the DDR3 for the moment.