DDR3 1600 vs 2400

[elkido122]

I am currently interested in possibly upgrading my ram from 1600 to something higher. I was curious if its worth going to 2400 for gaming or even something higher, i play battlefield hardline and titanfall. thanks

 

[Berryracer]

In benchmarks, maybe by 10 to 15%

As a user, you won't notice a perceivable difference.

My laptop came with 1600 MHz. RAM. I upgraded it to 1866 MHz and didn't feel any difference, but I like to max out the specs of any system I own so.....I had to upgrade

 

[Dasa2]

faster ram improves cpu performance
most games are gpu limited
if you are cpu limited then increasing your oc by 10-15% combined with a extra 10-15% from faster ram adds up to a nice improvement
but is it enough to be worth spending money on?

 

[bigboxes]

My research said it didn't do squat so I went the other route and bought 1600 ram with the lowest latency I could find, CL7. I wanted faster responsiveness, not the highest benchmarks. Of course, I still like teh benchies... :biggrin:

 

[tweakboy]

You wont notice difference. Get 1600 and 16GB ..

 

[Cerb]

2133MHz-2400MHz 1.5V kits for only a few bucks more than 1600MHz pop up somewhat often. If there aren't any when you order parts, no big deal. If there is one or two, the worst case is that it won't help much, and you'll have wasted $10. Faster RAM can improve performance, especially if overclocking, but the amount of performance increase tends to be far lower than the gains from overclocking your CPU, having more RAM, or having a faster GPU. In some cases, the difference will be a big fat 0. So, it's rarely worth spending much additional money on, and never worth it for a budget-constrained build.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It also depends on which generation of processor and chipset you have. For pre-Ivy-Bridge, the limit seems to be about 1866 in terms of extra performance before the gains taper off to zero above that. It depends on the integrated memory controller first and foremost.

Beyond that -- what everyone else said. At most maybe 10%.

BigBoxes also had a useful idea: get the tightest latencies you can find for a more modest speed-rated RAM kit. On the other hand, in terms of marginal gain, speed trumps timings.

You can also overclock good RAM, but it demands patience for testing thoroughly. Just as well to buy the speed you want. However, if you don't submit to the tribulations and choose to set the timings at spec, you can still test the RAM to run at CMD=1. Sometimes, a motherboard's BIOS XMP profiles will serve you up CMD=1 on a silver platter, even if the RAM spec is CMD=2.