Bought new ram but no perceivable improvement

[nickodemos]

Always noticed that my computer seemed a bit off. Not as responsive as I thought it should be, but lived with it. Just recently I downloaded PerformanceTest 9.0 and ran it.


CPU Type....................AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core
CPU Measured Speed.....3.50 GHz
Motherboard................970 GAMING (MS-7693)
Memory.......................16GB , A-DATA Technology DDR3 1600
Video Card Tested........GeForce GTX 1060
Hard Drive Tested.........Corsair Force MP500 (120 GB)



Looked like ram was a poor performer. So went to Crucial and went through the list to see what was compatible for my computer. So replaced it with:

CPU Type....................AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core
CPU Measured Speed.....4.00 GHz
Motherboard................970 GAMING (MS-7693)
Memory.......................16GB , Crucial Technology BLT4G3D1608DT1TX0.
Video Card Tested........GeForce GTX 1060
Hard Drive Tested.........Corsair Force MP500 (120 GB)

Turned on the Intel ram boost setting and MSI OC Genie. Yet I am not seeing anything better about the system. Was the money wasted and no more real improvement can be had?

 

[EarthDog]

Welcome!

Well, the ram you bought is the same speed has the ram you had from what you have listed (DDR3 1600). That said, RAM speed doesn't really make much of a difference either way. Of the things you can do, for example, overclock the CPU or video card (or a better GPU), buying faster ram would yield the least amount of improvement, typically not noticeable. So between the two it makes sense nothing was felt when swapping it out.

 

[Alaric]

FX chips will typically respond to tighter RAM timings, but as ED said, you'll see little to no real world improvement. There are certainly things that can be done with clock speeds with that CPU, but not on that motherboard. It will be your limiting factor, along with thermal headroom. I'm on a FX 8370 with only 4 GB right now and it hums along for browsing, youtube, email, etc. just fine. For heavier lifting than that I'm afraid you really need a bigger upgrade than a sideways RAM change. And for the money an upgraded FX rig would cost, it's pretty much time to look at new gear. If you like AMD (and who doesn't? ) your most affordable new options are probably Ryzen based. For used you'll have to figure out your budget and look around.

And

 

[nickodemos]

Bugger. So just tossed the money out. OK. Well might as well offload the computer to a family member and start looking at a new setup.

 

[trents]

What do you use the computer for mostly? Under what kind of use did it seem to be sluggish? General computing? Gaming?

 

[nickodemos]

Just everyday use. Gaming things worked fine for the most part. Just seemed to me to be a bit slow when opening programs or surfing the net. I have a fast internet connection (I understand the variables of distance and server response) yet browsing always seemed sluggish, even with an adblocker.

I think I might just turn this computer into a media center for the house. Start looking for a mid-ranged powered system that is built around the idea of being quiet this go around. Noise while gaming is understood but for sitting here for studies and browsing I am real tired of hearing fans.

 

[maxfly]

Bugger. So just tossed the money out. OK. Well might as well offload the computer to a family member and start looking at a new setup.

can you return the new memory and go back to your original? if so that would be a great start to saving up for a new cpu/mb/ddr4 combo!

and if you let us know when your ready to configure your new rig. we can help you find solid gear that will do exactly what you want. at a reasonable dba

 

[nickodemos]

Return? No. But will be selling on ebay at 25% off and show the buy date.

Just seen this in your forum $21.99 120 GB SSD | Overclockers Forums and bought Kingston 240GB PCIe NVMe M.2. Might have lost that 25% but made it back from members here alerting the forum to this deal. Going to use this for the gaming drive.

So win for me.

And thanks for the offer one help for the new rig. Probably see what I can get around $800-1000. Like I mentioned before. More than anything silence will be the big draw for me on the next build as my main computer is in the room I sleep in. Sounds like water cooled is the way to go but never messed with it. Reading in the forum that now days it is pretty simple to set up like any other hardware for a computer.

 

[maxfly]

np, yep an aio or clc as they are also called would likely be the best bet. they are easy as pie to hook up, you just need the room for the rad. with that budget you should be able to find a really solid rig.

 

[Brando]

water cooling isn't inherently less noisy than air. it's all about having good pwm fans that can spin slowly at idle without making weird noises while still being able to perform well under load. i recommend 450rpm at idle and 1000-1200 rpm under load for every fan in the case assuming they're 140mm and a tiny bit faster for 120mm fans. having rubber isolating mounts is also good. keeps hard surfaces from buzzing against each other. if you're not overclocking super high it should be easy to make a quiet system unless you're cursed with a buzzy case.

 

[caddi daddi]

being an 8 core you can try turning off 4 cores in the bios and set a bit of an overclock you can also set the cpu/nb up above 2500 and see if that buys you some.
I have found my fx cpus are up to feeding a gtx 970 but they tend to bottleneck a 1060 and up.