• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

DDR3 1600 vs DDR3 2000 in the real world

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

FuriousGeorge

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2004
I just got my ci7 and Asus Rampage II today, but my impression thus far is that those super high ram speeds may be an overclocking bottleneck.

Depending on my settings, I can run my mem at 2Ghz if my CPU is at 2.86Ghz, 3Ghz, 3.33Ghz, or (I think) 3.5 Ghz.

Then, if I allow my memory speed to drop to around 1.91Ghz I can get my CPU up to 4.03 Ghz... but my QPI / DRAM Voltage is at a too-hot-for-comfort 1.56V.

I get the impression that if I lower my bclck ratio by a multiplier or two and mem speed by a divisor that I could achieve the same speed, with a faster bclck, but slower mem (around 1.7Ghz)...

So can someone tell me how real the advantage is of DR3 2000 over DDR3 1600 if it means taking the block from say 200 to 191? Is a waste of time and an unnecessary strain on the CPU?
 
RW difference is zero, but in super pi it would be a good little boost. when i was checking out tri vs dual reviews. they showed that DDR3-1066 cas7/8 in tri mode as near DDR3-1600 cas8 in dual for bandwidth. i took the middle road and hit up DDR3-1333 cas7 sticks so that in terms of bandwidth should be at or slighlty higher then DDR3-1600 in dual more. now the other thing is that tri mode doesnt offer much over dual in the way of RW results. for setting WR's for speed and benches tri mode is great. the other thing is after chatting with mate about i7 and ocing. that in dual channel mode you can get away with less votlage. since the imc is on the cpu now and with tri mode ram, the imc is more worked then in dual mode. guess the question is, if you dont notice the difference from DDR3-2000 vs DDR3-1600 can you live with it? either that or can you live with dual channle mode for the higher ram speed? in either case in RW your not going to notice it.. you can buy a fast car but the speed limit is still 65mph on highway.
 
RW difference is zero, but in super pi it would be a good little boost.
i have to agree. with i7, anything over DDR3-1600 seems to be a waste in the real world aside for benchmarking or perhaps a couple specialized apps here and there (CAD type stuff). i have been doing a lot of motherboard reviews and i have been using them to do all kinds of benching at various memory frequencies and timings.

the results are always the same...the same. what the OP is running into is likely the IMC being stressed too much to run high mem clocks and CPU at the same time. increasing VTT "should" alleviate that but you only want to go so high with VTT.

you can see a lot of my benching results at hardwarecanucks.com...just look up the motherboard reviews. the EVGA X58, Classified, and DFI all have a pretty good comparison between memory sets.
 
Remember you will likely be able to drop your timings some going from 2ghz to 1.6... considering you are getting more cpu speed, and lower timing memory from the deal, it is certainly worth it in my book =)
 
Remember you will likely be able to drop your timings some going from 2ghz to 1.6... considering you are getting more cpu speed, and lower timing memory from the deal, it is certainly worth it in my book =)

Can you please tell me who is that on your avatar picture?:bang head
 
My rule of thumb has ALWAYS been;

NEVER SACRIFICE CPU SPEED TO GET MORE MEMORY FREQUENCY.

If you can get both great but CPU cycles are what actually do the work.
 
Back