Can CL be decreased - stupid purchase

Angelicus · Dec 18, 2011

impulsively (ie stupidly) bought 8gb gskill sniper ddr3 1866 for $45 - anticipating an upgrade later this year - but learned the 8gb is overkill for gaming and I'd do better with 4gb 1600 with CL7 timing - returning these to newegg will cost $15 - more stupid on my part - if i keep them for a z68 build, is it possible (and if so likely I can reduce the CL timing by running these things at 1600?

bmwbaxter · Dec 18, 2011

you will be able to run tighter timings by lowering the speed. Although you won't see much of a real world improvement by changing anything. Maybe 1-2 FPS, but nothing substantial.

redduc900 · Dec 18, 2011

I'm not sure why you would want to run DDR3-1866 at DDR3-1600, but yes... the timings can be tightened w/ the lower frequency. Assuming the timings are 9-10-9-28-1T at DDR3-1866 and 1.5V, overall bandwidth would probably be higher than at DDR3-1600 w/ tighter timings. You could open CPU-Z to the SPD tab, check to see what the XMP / SPD programmed timings and voltage are at DDR3-1600, then adjust those accordingly in the BIOS.

Angelicus · Dec 18, 2011

redduc900 said:
I'm not sure why you would want to run DDR3-1866 at DDR3-1600...

...based on poking around other threads my impression is (1) that 8gb is overkill for games - making my purchase stupid out-of-the-gate, and (2) performance diff between 1600 & 1866 is considerably less than difference between CL7 and CL9 timings - So given that it makes ZERO sense to rma these sticks (stupid #2) , thought I might go for a bargain asrock z68 mobo (which doesn't support 1866 in any case) and try for tighter timings...(trying to patch stupids # 1 and #2)

johan851 · Dec 18, 2011

The ASRock motherboard will still overclock to 1866. I don't think you have anything to worry about here - RAM speed doesn't make much of a difference on Sandy Bridge, and 1866 should be faster than 1600 at tighter timings.

Angelicus · Dec 18, 2011

johan851 said:
The ASRock motherboard will still overclock to 1866.

the specs on NewEgg only show 1866 OC for the Pro version of the board - the Extreme does not - but since I see from your sig line you actually have the Extreme, I will take your opinion over posted specs, which sometimes are not 100% ...course, if I could tighten the timings @1866, heh, heh...

johan851 · Dec 18, 2011

Raw bandwidth usually makes a bigger difference than timing adjustments. Like redduc said, you'll probably get better performance at 1866 with looser timings.

Angelicus · Dec 18, 2011

...so maybe not-so-stupid...even if impulsive :-/

Can CL be decreased - stupid purchase

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