Need to double-check my RAM knowledge

-Ice · Nov 29, 2011

I'm thinking of buying some RAM... my current OCZ RAM has failed memtest and though it's working fine and I'm not too worried about stability/accuracy/dependability (home and gaming PC), I think this is a prefect excuse to upgrade my RAM.

I'm thinking of getting an 8GB kit from a well-known brand name. Currently, Corsair, Kingston, G.Skill, and Mushkin all have offerings along my price range budget (no more than £50). However, I follow some guidelines and since I've discovered this site, I want to run them by the community to see if I got my facts straight.

This is what Gigabyte says about my motherboard's RAM support:

4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

However, looking at RAM at various online stores, it seems like DDR3 now comes in 1333, 1600, 1866, and 2133 flavors. Am I stuck with 1333 then?

What does timings mean? Is 7-7-7-20 2x2GB better than 9-9-9-24 (2x4GB) in terms of speed? Is that speed even noticeable? Should I even bother with timings or should I just go for more GB?

If I buy 1333 RAM with different timings, will it play nice with my current RAM? Or even if it had the same timings, with 2x2GB work with a 2x4GB kit?

With 4GB of RAM, will I notice any difference in loading times/frame rates/startup time/etc with more RAM?

Thanks in advance for any help!

johan851 · Nov 29, 2011

Nope, you're not stuck at all. The faster flavors of RAM just state the maximum speed they'll run. They'll all run at speeds below that as well, and your motherboard looks like it's just listing the 'official' non-overclocked specs for RAM. So you can get faster RAM (rated for DDR 1600 or 1866) and overclock it from Intel's default (1333) up to its rated speeds. The speed improvement is pretty marginal.

Timings dictate how long the memory controller waits between certain operations, so lower timings are better. 7-7-7-20, for example, is faster than 9-9-9-24 by a decent amount. Again, the overall speed benefits in your system are pretty marginal.

New RAM may or may not play nicely with what you have. If what you have is giving you errors in Memtest86+, you should RMA it because it'll likely get worse. In general, mixing different RAM kits isn't ideal because you'll get the lowest common denominator from both. Mixing a stick of DDR3 1866 9-9-9-24 with a stick of 1333 8-8-8-21 will probably be the most stable at 1333 9-9-9-24. Sort of the worst of both worlds when you mix.

If all you do is games and the usual apps, and no photoshop-type activities or video editing, 4GB of RAM is enough and 8GB will give you a lot of headroom. RAM is really cheap right now - I would grab a 2x4GB kit rated somewhere around DDR3 9-9-9-24. That's a good price/performance point.

-Ice · Nov 30, 2011

Thanks for the reply!

So if I understand it correctly, I just have to get good, branded RAM within my budget range? Higher timed RAM or tighter timings bring only small amount (negligible) of performance gains, so it isn't really worth the extra money, correct? Unless they were priced very closely, why would I want 1600 or higher RAM?

Just want to be sure and make an informed decision before buying.

johan851 · Nov 30, 2011

Yes, that's right. DDR3 1600 is around the sweet spot for price and performance. You get a little boost going up to 1600 from 1333 - maybe 3-5%. After that the gains are smaller and the cost is a lot higher.

DDR3 1333 and 1600 are usually priced pretty closely together. DDR3 1866 is often about 50% more than 1600, which is silly given such a small performance improvement. DDR3 2133 is usually quite expensive. So if you can snag a deal on something faster that's awesome, but don't feel like you *need* to get the fastest.

-Ice · Nov 30, 2011

Hmmm... new question: What's with all this fancy heat sinks on RAM? Are they important? Or should I just get the cheapest RAM with something resembling a heat sink?

johan851 · Nov 30, 2011

When heatsinks like that first start coming out people were annoyed because they generally don't cool anything off. They tend to insulate the ICs, so the hardcore people remove them.

Unfortunately it caught on, and now all RAM that's even slightly enthusiast-branded has to have them. I tend to avoid the really big ones because they're inconvenient. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter, and most RAM runs cool enough for them not to be an issue one way or another.

-Ice · Nov 30, 2011

Ah, so "not important" then. Thanks!

catilley1092 · Dec 1, 2011

johan851 said:
Nope, you're not stuck at all. The faster flavors of RAM just state the maximum speed they'll run. They'll all run at speeds below that as well, and your motherboard looks like it's just listing the 'official' non-overclocked specs for RAM. So you can get faster RAM (rated for DDR 1600 or 1866) and overclock it from Intel's default (1333) up to its rated speeds. The speed improvement is pretty marginal.

Timings dictate how long the memory controller waits between certain operations, so lower timings are better. 7-7-7-20, for example, is faster than 9-9-9-24 by a decent amount. Again, the overall speed benefits in your system are pretty marginal.

New RAM may or may not play nicely with what you have. If what you have is giving you errors in Memtest86+, you should RMA it because it'll likely get worse. In general, mixing different RAM kits isn't ideal because you'll get the lowest common denominator from both. Mixing a stick of DDR3 1866 9-9-9-24 with a stick of 1333 8-8-8-21 will probably be the most stable at 1333 9-9-9-24. Sort of the worst of both worlds when you mix.

If all you do is games and the usual apps, and no photoshop-type activities or video editing, 4GB of RAM is enough and 8GB will give you a lot of headroom. RAM is really cheap right now - I would grab a 2x4GB kit rated somewhere around DDR3 9-9-9-24. That's a good price/performance point.

I just bought (from Newegg) a 8GB (4 x2GB) G.SKILL DDR3 1333 PC3-10666 RAM kit (for notebook). The stated timings from Newegg & on the package that the RAM came in says the timings are 9-9-9-24. However, SIW reports that my speeds are 7-7-7-20. And both my old & new RAM shows as PC3-10700.

My notebook is a MSI FX603-064US. It shipped with 6GB RAM, the timings were 7-7-7-20. I upgraded to run virtual machines, to give them the extra RAM to run as though they are "real installs". And they do!

My other specs are as follows:
Intel Core i5 480M (2.66GHz) w/Turbo Boost to 2.93GB
NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M (1GB DDR3) dedicated video card
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

What I want to know, which is better, 7-7-7-20 or 9-9-9-24? Normally, higher numbers are better, but I'm not quite used to RAM timings. I did gain 2GB of quality RAM, I just want to know about the packaged specs vs what I'm actually seeing.

Many thanks to any replies.

Cat

johan851 · Dec 1, 2011

As I mentioned before, lower timings are better. 7-7-7-20 is a fair bit faster than 9-9-9-20. Remember, timings represent a delay between operations, so the shorter the delay is the faster things will go. 7-7-7-20 is quite good, really - I'm surprised the memory is going down to timings that low. You might want to run a stability test like Linx or Prime95 to make sure everything is stable with the new RAM.

catilley1092 · Dec 1, 2011

Thanks, johan851! I just installed the RAM yesterday, and had it under load for a while, updating my VM's that's installed. But I only hit around 5.6GB of it. I've had no problems, though. Machine has never had a BSOD, although I've only had it since March.

The notebook is the MSI FX603-064US, not the top of the line, but the one below it. Apparently, it's geared for professional/corporate use, as the FX series is the only one that MSI recommends Windows 7 Professional. Compared to what it replaced (a Dell Latitude D610), it rocks! This notebook came with a lot of hardware for $749, & had many positive reviews.

I've got a couple of portable tools on hand to stress test the RAM, and will do so this weekend, if not before. However, I don't think that I went wrong with the purchase, as it had a 5 egg rating from Newegg.

Thanks again.
Cat

johan851 · Dec 1, 2011

Those D610's last forever. Sounds like everything's working well! Star ratings are fine, but it's always good to test the RAM in your machine while you have time to return it.

-Ice · Dec 2, 2011

New RAM arrived today, after an hour and a half of Memtest, everything looked fine. I suspect the Mobo has this new RAM on default settings so back to finding the sweet spot. Thanks for the help!

Need to double-check my RAM knowledge

-Ice

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-Ice

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johan851

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-Ice

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-Ice

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-Ice

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