Could my memory hurt overclock performance

Hi,

I posted a message about overclocking a few days ago and the people on this site was very helpful. I was trying to overclock my I7 4770K but couldn't go past 4.3 ghz. I have a Z97 Gigabyte Gaming 7 motherboard with a H100i cooler. I have 4 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 memory. Could the memory be affecting my overclocking ability? I'm not sure the quality of these memory chips but they pass the Memtest86. I have XMP enabled so they are running at 1.65 V at 1600 mhz. Thanks.

David

davidst95 said:

Hi,

I posted a message about overclocking a few days ago and the people on this site was very helpful. I was trying to overclock my I7 4770K but couldn't go past 4.3 ghz. I have a Z97 Gigabyte Gaming 7 motherboard with a H100i cooler. I have 4 x CORSAIR XMS3 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 memory. Could the memory be affecting my overclocking ability? I'm not sure the quality of these memory chips but they pass the Memtest86. I have XMP enabled so they are running at 1.65 V at 1600 mhz. Thanks.

David

Click to expand...

If in doubt, run them slower than their rating.
Ie: Rated at 1600? run them at 1333 instead.

That way you eliminate the RAM as instability in your CPU overclocking.

Silver_Pharaoh said:

If in doubt, run them slower than their rating.
Ie: Rated at 1600? run them at 1333 instead.

That way you eliminate the RAM as instability in your CPU overclocking.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice. If I am able to overclock higher at 1333 does it mean I should get higher quality RAM? I'm not sure how the RAM speed affects the overall performance of the computer.

davidst95 said:

Thank you for the advice. If I am able to overclock higher at 1333 does it mean I should get higher quality RAM? I'm not sure how the RAM speed affects the overall performance of the computer.

Click to expand...

Anything over 1866 Is worthless.

You will only see a very small performance boost from 1333 going to 1600

If you overclock higher, TBH, just tighten the timings. That's what I have done on my crappy RAM.
No need to buy "better" RAM

On this platform, you don't have to, and usually do not overclock the ram as you raise the multiplier and not the BCLK. So once it is set it doesnt matter. Stock speed should be fine. Ram speed that low will not hinder overclocking ability. You are talking 5Ghz+ on teh CPU and 2666+ on the memory before things may get in the way. It all depends on the CPU/IMC.

Ram is not a bottle neck. Anything 1600-2133Mhz is great for the average user.

Hi,

I found that running my memory at 1333Mhz at 1.5V instead of 1600Mhz 1.65V seems to keep my desktop cooler during stress tests. Would it be worth upgrading to 1600Mhz or higher ram at 1.5V? Thanks.

David

davidst95 said:

Hi,

I found that running my memory at 1333Mhz at 1.5V instead of 1600Mhz 1.65V seems to keep my desktop cooler during stress tests. Would it be worth upgrading to 1600Mhz or higher ram at 1.5V? Thanks.

David

Click to expand...

IMHO, not worth the upgrade.
Some will argue that 1600Mhz is the sweet spot for computers in terms of performance/$, but I didn't see any difference when I OC'd my RAM past 1600.

It's your rig, thus it's your call

Haswell is able to run without issues at least up to ~2800 regardless of CPU OC. You can set 2933 clock on stock voltages even on i3.

In some programs high memory clock is helping a lot but if you stick to average daily soft and games then it won't help at all. Upgrading memory just for that would be waste of money. If you were buying new PC then I would say get 1866+ but if you already have memory then it won't give you much.
However if you find someone who wish to buy your 4x4GB 1600 and you won't add much more for 2x8GB 1866+ then I would go for it.

Generally DDR3-1866 is becoming standard memory clock for all new series even in servers.

Here is PCMark08 test from my last review including web browsing, simple games, text editing and some other daily stuff ( so no one say it's only synthetic test ):