2400Mhz DDR3 vs 1600Mhz DDR3 for Ivy Bridge Desktop System

[CHADBOGA]

I mentioned a few weeks ago that reading all the new build threads got me excited and inspired me in part to do a midlife kicker/upgrade for my current i5 3570K @4.0Ghz system.

As there is 8gig of DDR3 1600Mhz Cas 8 ram in my system as we speak, I've decided to upgrade that to 16gig, but am wondering what benefit if any, would I get from throwing away by current 8gig and installing a new 16gig set of ram, running at 2400Mhz Cas 11.

Overall my memory latency is improved and obviously the bandwidth is significantly increased, but I don't know if Ivy Bridge benefits much from the bandwidth increase.

Whilst I will be doing other upgrades too(like new SSD O/S drive), I just want to focus on the ram here.

If I got a 3 to 5% performance lift, then I would definitely consider the extra cost worth it, but if my performance increase was going to be 1 to 2%, I probably wouldn't bother.

So considering I'll be going to 16gig of ram, one way or the other, will the extra speed of the 2400Mhz ram make much difference here?

Any insights will be gratefully received.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Are you using the iGPU or dGPU? If using the iGPU, then the faster memory is useful but if CPU only, difference likely is negligible.

 

[SPBHM]

if it's for gaming and you have a fast VGA, it might be a ok gain, you can check the tests made by digital foundry, they had a few on witcher 3 and so on showing gains.

 

[epsilon84]

If this is for gaming then it's definitely worth it, providing your GPU is up to the task.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...it-finally-time-to-upgrade-your-core-i5-2500k

I upgraded from a 2500K with 8GB DDR3 1600 to a 2600K with 16GB DDR4 2133 and the difference in gaming was substantial especially in min fps. The extra threads helped as well of course.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Are you using the iGPU or dGPU? If using the iGPU, then the faster memory is useful but if CPU only, difference likely is negligible.

I'd be using a dGPU.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I'd be using a dGPU.

Yeah then I wouldn't bother -- keep your perfectly good stick and just pop in a twin to it.

 

[CHADBOGA]

If this is for gaming then it's definitely worth it, providing your GPU is up to the task.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...it-finally-time-to-upgrade-your-core-i5-2500k

I upgraded from a 2500K with 8GB DDR3 1600 to a 2600K with 16GB DDR4 2133 and the difference in gaming was substantial especially in min fps. The extra threads helped as well of course.

Great stuff.

DDR3 @ 2400Mhz it is then.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Yeah then I wouldn't bother -- keep your perfectly good stick and just pop in a twin to it.

The link Epsilon84 posted, looks might convincing.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Great stuff.

DDR3 @ 2400Mhz it is then.

Oh wow. Just saw the Eurogamer numbers. Nevermind, yeah, get the 2400!

 

[epsilon84]

The good thing is that this is actually a very cost effective upgrade as unlike DDR4, DDR3 prices have remained largely unaffected in the past year.

I got my 16GB of DDR3 2133 (CL9 Ripjaws, pretty fast kits) for $60 used, good luck finding DDR4 for anywhere close to that price!

The only "downside" of my 2600K/DDR3 2133 upgrade is that I am no longer CPU bottlenecked in games and can't justify a new 8700K platform... For now at least

 

[.vodka]

Get that sweet fast DDR3.

The extra threads help A LOT lately... all of us who got i5s back then sure are regretting not getting the i7! If you can also find a 2600k/3770k for a decent price then you'll get many more years out of that rig at least for gaming, probably one more GPU upgrade or two.

Have you considered going higher than 4GHz on that 3570k?

 

[CHADBOGA]

Get that sweet fast DDR3.

The extra threads help A LOT lately... all of us who got i5s back then sure are regretting not getting the i7! If you can also find a 2600k/3770k for a decent price then you'll get many more years out of that rig at least for gaming, probably one more GPU upgrade or two.

Have you considered going higher than 4GHz on that 3570k?

I've considered it to the extent of ruling it out.

I'm never going to be someone seeking to get the maximum overclock and as long as I don't experience slow downs in games that effectively make the game unplayable, then I am happy to hold on to what I've got, for as long as I can.

Probably in late 2019/early 2020, my resolve to resist upgrading my CPU & motherboard will have been destroyed and then I'll get an 8 core or more monster, from whoever has the best CPU at the time.

 

[imported_bman]

I did the same upgrade last summer before DDR3 prices went insane. Held onto the old DDR3 without much thought for almost a year. Noticed DDR3 prices in 2017 and sold the old 1600MHz DDR3 this spring for a nice profit.

The upgrade did make a difference in Fallout 4, that Eurogamer article was what convinced me to upgraded in 2016.

 

[PingSpike]

Oh wow. Just saw the Eurogamer numbers. Nevermind, yeah, get the 2400!

Yeah, these were some interesting numbers when I first saw them. It seems a lot of the "IPC gains" or whatever in games moving to new platforms might just be improved memory speeds...which are actually available on the older platforms too.

 

[epsilon84]

Yeah, these were some interesting numbers when I first saw them. It seems a lot of the "IPC gains" or whatever in games moving to new platforms might just be improved memory speeds...which are actually available on the older platforms too.

To some extent that is correct. DDR3 tops out at 2400MHz though, whereas DDR4 is available beyond 4000MHz even.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-intel-kaby-lake-core-i7-7700k-review

The 4.5GHz results are interesting, because the 4790K gains over the 3770K are definitely from improved IPC (both running DDR3-2400) however the 6700K/7700K @ 4.5GHz wouldn't look so good had it been limited to DDR4-2400 instead of DDR4-3000. You can actually immediately see in the subsequent chart the impact memory speeds make to the 7700K, some games gain over 10% going from DDR4-2400 to DDR4-3000.

 

[PingSpike]

To some extent that is correct. DDR3 tops out at 2400MHz though, whereas DDR4 is available beyond 4000MHz even.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-intel-kaby-lake-core-i7-7700k-review

The 4.5GHz results are interesting, because the 4790K gains over the 3770K are definitely from improved IPC (both running DDR3-2400) however the 6700K/7700K @ 4.5GHz wouldn't look so good had it been limited to DDR4-2400 instead of DDR4-3000. You can actually immediately see in the subsequent chart the impact memory speeds make to the 7700K, some games gain over 10% going from DDR4-2400 to DDR4-3000.

Yeah, its not that the memory speeds are the only thing that matters...its that they made more of a difference than I would have ever given them credit for. For most of the time I've been into PC hardware, memory speeds weren't really worth getting excited about for gaming at least. Sometimes you needed faster memory to overclock but whenever I read benchmarks it barely seemed to matter. But that doesn't seem to be true these days. It makes a difference, especially to theimportant minimum fps numbers.

But DDR3 also doesn't equal DDR4 speed (which I'm sure everyone is aware). Anandtech had a nice article when skylake came out comparing DDR3 and DDR4 on the platform and IIRC it basically boiled down to DDR4-2133 being a bit worse than DDR3-1600 most of the time. I believe you had to get up to DDR4-2400 before it was barely an upgrade. But that same story played with with the DDR-DDR2-DDR3 transitions I suppose.

 

[Smoblikat]

I know ive done my own testing, but Linus made a video about this exact topic once too. IIRC his findings and my findings were very similar, anything over 2133 is irrelevant, and anything 1600+ is when diminishing returns starts to really kick in.