More total ram, or faster speeds?

[bdubyah]

I currently have 8gb of Kingston HyperX Blu 1600mhz C9 that I've had for a few years and I decided I wanna move to at least 16gb. I ordered a set of GSkill Ripjaw 1866mhz C9 to replace it.

What I was curious about was if just adding the new ram and keeping the Kingston installed too would be better. If I do, it would be 24gb running at 1600mhz and the timing would be around 11-11-11-28 at 1.5v. Would that be better than 16gb at 1866mhz with 9-10-9-28 timings? Just a gaming pc, nothing much else.

 

[LTC8K6]

I would go with the 16gb at 1866.

You aren't going to need more than 16gb, imo.

Having said that, my guess would be that you would not be able to tell any difference between the 16gb setup and the 24gb setup unless you look closely at benchmarks.

Overall priority with ram is the amount, then the speed, then the CL number, iirc.

 

[JimmiG]

There's no real benefit to having more than 16 GB RAM today unless you run some specific application that needs it (or run several virtual machines).

I don't like using all four memory slots because of stability and performance (higher CL, 2T command rate etc.). So when I bought 2x8 GB, I took out the 2x4 GB sticks I had before.

 

[Blain]

There's no real benefit to having more than 16 GB RAM today unless you run some specific application that needs it (or run several virtual machines).

I don't like using all four memory slots because of stability and performance (higher CL, 2T command rate etc.).

Sounds very reasonable.

 

[Viper GTS]

I have generally taken the opposite approach - You'll definitely notice when you run out of RAM, but unless your normal day consists of watching synthetic memory benchmarks run you're unlikely to ever notice the benefits of slightly faster RAM timings.

If you don't have a specific need for every last bit of performance possible of a known workload size then I'd go with more RAM over faster every time.

Note that this is for desktop use, for server platforms where you are going take a major memory bandwidth hit by adding a 3rd DIMM per channel I will avoid maxing on capacity to preserve bandwidth.

Viper GTS

 

[Dasa2]

If I do, it would be 24gb running at 1600mhz and the timing would be around 11-11-11-28 at 1.5v.

I dont see why you would have to loosen the timings so badly
depending on the memory controller and the mb you may have to loosen them a bit but with some extra v they may oc to 1866c9 just fine

from my testing with a 2600k in the game arma3 at 4.3ghz 2133c9 is ~8% faster than 4.9ghz 1600c11

with the cpu at 4.9ghz 1866c9 is ~14% faster than 1600c11 which is enough to take the fps from 48fps to 55fps
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2474056
on its own higher ram speeds are noticeable but not hugely which is much the same as cpu overclocking
but you put the two together and you get a large improvement that is very noticeable if the software your using needs the extra performance

unless your running programs that need the extra ram the extra will make no difference at all when at the same speed
currently no games need much more than 8g

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There's no real benefit to having more than 16 GB RAM today unless you run some specific application that needs it (or run several virtual machines).

I don't like using all four memory slots because of stability and performance (higher CL, 2T command rate etc.). So when I bought 2x8 GB, I took out the 2x4 GB sticks I had before.

I had mixed experience with the 4-slot configuration. In one situation, I had two identical 1600 RipJaws kits totaling 16GB which would overclock to 1866 with loosened timings and run at CR=1 with all slots filled. Currently, I wanted at least 4 GB extra for 20GB or more so I could increase the size of my PrimoCache RAM caches. The RAM all runs stably at its rated 1866 and 9-10-9-28, but only at CR=2.

So I sacrificed one advantage for another. But you're probably right: nobody needs more than 16. Right now, my RAM caches are using 6GB, and that leaves me still with 10 if I hadn't expanded to 20.

 

[tweakboy]

Depends what you do. 1866 and 1600 make both run @ 1600Mhz. gl