How much ram till it becomes a bad thing for overclocking?

[White Rain]

I see threads where people are talking about getting 4 gigs of ram and whatnot and how they get flamed about it being a huge overclocking bottleneck. How much ram is the preferred amount for overclocking?

Most people are running 1gig in dual channel 512, I personally want 2 gigs, but am curious as to what preformance in overclocking I will be losing and to what preformance I might gain in current top end and future games.

Also what configuration should I go for, to get the best overclock out of 2 gigs of ram?

2x 1024 or 4x512 (will assume dual channel)

[White Rain]

Bump


Anyone able to explain some of this to me? plz

[MasterCraft]

I'm kinda curious about this myself, maybe heat is the issue? :confused:

[Trent]

Generally the rule of thumb is the more sticks of ram, the greater the potential to have a lower overclock is, because as we all know not all sticks preform the same. I would have to say if you want to go with 2 gigs of ram and obtain as high of an overclock as possible then your choice would be the 2x1024 sticks.

[wannaoc]

To max out your overclock you want the least amount of ram as possible. A single 256mb stick of single sided ram is the best bet for getting the max out of your setup. Really 1024mb of ram should run pretty much anything these days minus heavy video or graphical editing. So to get a decent overclock that will run most anything you need stick with 2x512 sticks of something like TCCD. A single 1024 stick will limit the overclock further.

[White Rain]

Essentially want 2gig for gaming. Game reccomends 1gig, and from this company to get the most of their software you really need 2x their reccommended specs at least.

So is the general consensus 2x1024 over 4x512?

I'm having a hard time finding a 2x1024 dual channel kit from OCZ

Was going to get their OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 platinum rev. 2 in 2 2x512 dual channel kits to make 2gig.

[Rahab]

putting 4x512 ocz plat pc3200 rev2, they will run at 2-2-2-5? (at ddr400)

[towcutter]

I am running 3X512 PC3200 OCZ EL @2-2-3-5
My Max stable FSB was 415. If I run 2x512, I can get my FSB to 430. I find my game performance is better with more ram, and no swap file.

[White Rain]

How much do you think 4 sticks of 512 dual channel pc 3200 ocz plat rev 2 (2.2.2.5) would hinder the oc versus 2 of the same?

[CandymanCan]

4 would use more power then 2 sticks. I would get 2x1024 instead of 4x512mb

[White Rain]

Haven't been able to find 1024 OCZ ram

Have my heart set on that brand, heard great things about it esp the specific model I mentioned earlier.

[Grov]

You really don't need 2 gig of ram for gaming.

Spend the money elsewhere.

[White Rain]

You really don't need 2 gig of ram for gaming.

Spend the money elsewhere.


Not to be picky, but what kinds of games are you playing to have that opinion?

In my current system I noticed a huge diffrence from 1 gig to 2 gig when I upgraded in the games I play.

[Knivez]

4 sticks of 512 should give you quite a lot better CAS timings. I wouldnt worry much about power consumption if your PSU is halfway decent. Personally I would go with 4 x 512 becuase of the better CAS timings. If you get like PC-3700 then you wont really have to worry about one stick not doing as well as another becuase it should give you enough le-way.

[ryanmartini]

you dont need 2 gigs of ram to game. 1 gig with a good vid card is going to help more. not to mention cpu power. unless this is a dually, it makes no sence to have 2 gigs of ram...
SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE

to answer your question on opinions only needing 1 gig vs 2? um lets see..

Doom 3 EQ2 Beta, Lineage 2 COH, americas army, call of duty, halo, UT 2004,

etc..

and all run great on my celly D @ 3.4 ghz with 512 kingston hyperX [2x 256]

[secretweapon]

Depends on your rig. On i875p chipsets PAT can't be fully enabled when running with all 4 DIMM slots filled. A64 memory controller is also under a lot more stress when using 4 sticks intead of 2. If you can get the 4 sticks to work for you I say go for it. More memory is never a bad thing, especially if you do stuff like CAD, encoding etc.

[White Rain]

you dont need 2 gigs of ram to game. 1 gig with a good vid card is going to help more. not to mention cpu power. unless this is a dually, it makes no sence to have 2 gigs of ram...
SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE

to answer your question on opinions only needing 1 gig vs 2? um lets see..

Doom 3 EQ2 Beta, Lineage 2 COH, americas army, call of duty, halo, UT 2004,

etc..

and all run great on my celly D @ 3.4 ghz with 512 kingston hyperX [2x 256]


1. I'm going to have 2 top end video cards.
2. Going to have AMD FX-55
3. EQ1 gains a big improvement from 2 gigs vs 1
4. To get the best preformance out of games that SOE makes you pretty much need 2x reccomended or you aren't getting the msot out of the game.
5. It's my money I'll spend it how I want.
6 You aren't stating how much ram until it becomes a bottleneck and by how much so you aren't reallying doing anything but flaming me for wanting 2 gigs of ram.

[towcutter]

Go with the 2 dual channel kits OCZ EL 3200 Platinum rev 2. The latency of the 1 gig modules isn't worth it. You should never need more than 2 gigs anyway. Go to the ocz website and read the reviews.

[TechtonicPC]

I'm with Whiterain on this one. I notice a huge difference in games like EQ when I jump from 1gb to 2gb. Not only a difference in the game, but also in trying to run other applications on top of the game.

If you want 2gigs get it. The performance you will gain from the extra ram will outweigh what you lose in OC abilirty.

[White Rain]

That's what I wanted to know, prefomance gain of 2 gigs vs the reduced overclockability of the ram.

(going to ahve an unlocked multi so I don't just have to rack up the FSB to oc the processor)

[TechtonicPC]

Oh and FYI, my HDD took a dump on one of my puters. I took the 1gb (2 sticks of 512mb) Corsair XMS 3200 and put it into my other box which already had the same.

I did not have to drop my FSB at all and notice no problems from having all 4 sticks in the one system. My FSB is currently 260 and the performance gain from the extra gig is amazing! :clap:

[White Rain]

Once again, thank you for answering what I needed to know, much appriciated!