Is this an upgrade?

I'm thinking about upgrading from:

8gb (2x4) Mushkin Redline DDR3-PC-17000 CL9

To

16gb (4x4) Mushkin Radioactive DDR3-PC-12800 CL7

8gb to 16gb, but slower speed.

also 2 dimms to 4 dimms.

Questions are, will I see upgraded performance? speed?

noticable slowdown from the speed change?

The radioactive modules crank up pretty well but I know they are rated slower, Trying to decide if the upgrade is worth it. I will definitely be using all 16gb, VM + video editing.

Obvious benefits from a lower CL?

any thoughts?

The way I see it, you are better off with less, faster RAM than more, slower RAM unless you need all of the extra RAM. If, as you say, you'll need the whole 16 GB then you should get the 16 GB.

I reckon the better timings will probably make the rig feel faster, while I doubt the difference in frequency will make much of a tangible difference, to be honest. I'm not sure exactly what pressures your video editing puts on the RAM, however.

For Sandybridge chips, gains are pretty miniscule above 1600mhz CAS 8/9 RAM, so for VM's and video editing you're really better off with more memory rather than faster. You can drop back to CAS 8 kits instead of CAS 7 with no real performance loss outside of synthetic benchmarks if you want to save some cash as well.

I went with 4x4GB 1600mhz CAS9/1T G-skill over 2x4GB 2000mhz CAS9 sticks as I wanted more memory for photoshop/Vegas, and I haven't noticed any real differences on benchmarks or general system usage with a 2600K (other than the benefits of more memory).

I went ahead and got the radioactives.

We'll see if I see any difference.

Probably gonna put my redlines up here soon.

If you need 16GB then you need 16GB. If you don't, you don't.

That's how I see these kinds of questions, really. The speed of the RAM isn't going to make a huge difference in the vast majority of applications. The only thing that matters is having enough RAM; paging to disk is what really kills performance.

johan851 said:

If you need 16GB then you need 16GB. If you don't, you don't.

That's how I see these kinds of questions, really. The speed of the RAM isn't going to make a huge difference in the vast majority of applications. The only thing that matters is having enough RAM; paging to disk is what really kills performance.

Click to expand...

These are my thoughts as well. Realistically you might be able to tell the difference between 1066-10-10-10 and 2133-7-8-7 ram seat of the pants, maybe.
But try using 9GB of your 8GB of ram vs 9GB of 16GB of ram, and you'll definitely notice.

I am at 8, but looking to bump up to 16 myself. For video editing reasons. And as others have said...more memory is better in these cases.