Necessary RAM for gaming

Well, i am not even sure if manufacturers care JEDEC specs, they simply rate a chip at the appropriate clock. However, there is many different chips and the very old chips are much less effective. I do not own the newest DDR3 RAMs, my chips are several years old, all of them. I surely will take new knowledge regarding temperature into account for next generations, although there will be the switch for DDR4 and this will be another technology with new stats, so DDR3 will end here and with the current gen. I dont expect it to be hotter, so i guess the sink will become a design element...

DDR4 uses less volts (starts at 1.2v) so the story there is the same. You had old info in your head is all.

JEDEC specs are always in SPD profile. XMP profiles are memory manufacturers profiles not related to JEDEC specs. However DDR3 supposed to run up to 1.975V for short period of time ( like current spikes etc. ) even though recommended voltage is 1.50V +/- 0.75V. Most manufacturers are selling DDR3 at 1.35V, 1.50V and 1.65V where 1.65V is out of specs but think that first DDR3 were only 1.65, 1.80 and 1.9V.

Right now I can only say that DDR4 specification is kinda joke. There is still no full specification regarding max values for clocks or voltages. You can check it on JEDEC website. Official docs have gaps to fill in the future ( no comments as it's available for about one year ). So right now there is only description for up to DDR4-2133 ( servers have lower clocks ).
I think that memory manufacturers weren't sure how high should be set voltage for consumer DDR4. Good example here is Kingston which was selling first DDR4 Predators running at 1.5V. In specs there is only 1.2V +/- 0.05V or something ( don't remember exactly now but is below 1.3V ). New kits have already changed XMP to 1.35V what in theory is also above JEDEC limits but somehow all manufacturers are using this voltage for every 3000 or higher clocked DDR4 and often for lower clocked kits too.

That kit came in at 1.5v (the Kingston you are talking about). The one I reviewed was hot of the presses and they didn't have time to change it.

Well in my case I do not live in a warm country and I'm still gonna be using my antec 1200 which has very decent airflow.

I've only ever overclocked once on 775 with DDR2 RAM (as you can still see in my sig), I will be buying a haswell chip now, will different RAM kits have a significant impact on overclocking the CPU or will they all mostly yield the same results?

They will all yield the same results...


Overclocking an unlocked Haswell does NOT raise the ram speed like it did with your Q9550 as you overclock using the multiplier only for all intents and purposes.

The K series (K = unlocked) got a unlocked multiplier, so the RAM speed can stay untouched. Although in term someone wants to OC a non K the RAM speed will always be affected, which i consider inferior because it is stressing a part that is not in need of more performance in most cases and it will always cause high issues at extended OC, so the K stuff or AMD in general clearly supreme for OC.

At the Nehalem generation there was no K series and the only unlocked chip was a X-type, they are notorious for being the most expensive consumer CPUs ever made (990X for example), although short time before the transition to the new Sandybridge era many of the high end Nehalem boards was "trashed" with big discount, so it is important always to calculate the total cost and not a single part only. For many years there is K-types, so the X-type was losing some glow, the gape between the different CPUs is reduced it seems.

Overclocking locked haswell CPU is totally pointless as it will lose stability above ~103MHz and this clock is barely affecting memory performance or stability. However locked CPUs have still unlocked memory ratio up to x29.33 and it depends from used motherboard if you can set it so high.

If we start to talk about AMD then we have to consider one thing. If we are looking for high performance or high clock. Locked Intel CPUs often offer higher performance than AMD after OC and price point is sometimes similar. i3 vs 4 thread FX/APU is good example here.

X CPUs on 1366 socket were waste of money for most users as bclk could pass 200MHz and average i7 920 could make 4-4.2GHz+ on air. Extreme series were always designed for extreme overclockers and enthusiasts who care about highest performance at all cost.
Right now we have 5960X. Even though X is not changing much comparing to K then it's still extreme series CPU and cost about $1k as nearly every older X series CPU.

8GB is on the recommended specs for most new & upcoming releases, but the general rule is being pushed up to 16gb nowadays. Star Citizen recommended is 12gb and there are some other MMO's that recommend more than 8, so looks to be based on what you are/will be playing. DDR3 pricing is starting to fall, so if building a new system today, I would definitely do 16 and be done with it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/gta-5-system-requirements-announced/

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-3-system-requirements-announced/

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=5490&game=Star Citizen

Bishoff said:

8GB is on the recommended specs for most new & upcoming releases, but the general rule is being pushed up to 16gb nowadays. Star Citizen recommended is 12gb and there are some other MMO's that recommend more than 8, so looks to be based on what you are/will be playing. DDR3 pricing is starting to fall, so if building a new system today, I would definitely do 16 and be done with it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/gta-5-system-requirements-announced/

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-3-system-requirements-announced/

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=5490&game=Star Citizen

Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree with this (as I think others would, as well). DDR3 prices are starting to fall, but still extremely slowly. 8GB is more than enough for any game on the market right now, and you won't see any appreciable gains by going up to 16GB (unless of course you're running other heavy workloads in the background).

Get 2x4gb from a reputable company right now. By the time games come out that actually require 8GB+, DDR3 will be older technology and should be more affordable to pick up another 2x4gb.

pcgamer4life said:

I'd have to disagree with this (as I think others would, as well). DDR3 prices are starting to fall, but still extremely slowly. 8GB is more than enough for any game on the market right now, and you won't see any appreciable gains by going up to 16GB (unless of course you're running other heavy workloads in the background).

Get 2x4gb from a reputable company right now. By the time games come out that actually require 8GB+, DDR3 will be older technology and should be more affordable to pick up another 2x4gb.

Click to expand...

Fair enough, but I disagree with buying ram later, as you'll be hard pressed finding 2 identical sticks from the same lot/brand to match your 8 previously purchased. This is a common post we see on gaming sites. DDR3 for gaming isn't going to be irrelevant anytime soon.

Bishoff said:

Fair enough, but I disagree with buying ram later, as you'll be hard pressed finding 2 identical sticks from the same lot/brand to match your 8 previously purchased. This is a common post we see on gaming sites. DDR3 for gaming isn't going to be irrelevant anytime soon.

Click to expand...

If it's dual channel that won't matter.

Buy 2x4GB now and 2x4GB later. As long as the speed and timings match from channel to channel you're fine.

ATMINSIDE said:

If it's dual channel that won't matter.

Buy 2x4GB now and 2x4GB later. As long as the speed and timings match from channel to channel you're fine.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Heck, all my life I've mixed and matched brand, timing, and speed without any problems. Granted it might perform slightly better by having four identical sticks, it's nothing that would be noticed.

pcgamer4life said:

Agreed. Heck, all my life I've mixed and matched brand, timing, and speed without any problems. Granted it might perform slightly better by having four identical sticks, it's nothing that would be noticed.

Click to expand...

Congrats on it working for you, but I'd never tell people to do that for obvious reasons. There's plenty of known cases where particular brands & lots just don't work well for certain MoBo's.

The short of it is get matching if you can. If you can't at least match the speed, primary timings, and voltages. There are some cases where the secondary/tertiary timings are off enough that could cause problems though for sure.

I wouldn't recommend mixing and matching completely different brands because you have a greater chance of running into different secondary/tertiary timings.