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GTX 660ti - Can DDR3 1333 RAM really cause a performance hit?

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June 12, 2013 7:59:31 AM

Well, my question is pretty much summed up in the title. Will DDR3 1333 RAM bottleneck an nvidia 660ti? A bit over a year and a half ago I purchased an Alienware x51 because the higher end models were muuuch more reasonably priced when they first released, and their small size was appealing to me being a college student in a packed dorm. The plan is/was to upgrade my GPU. I'm pretty familiar with the basics of computer hardware but as far as the real specifics go I'm a bit hazy.

Here are the specifics...
My current specs are Intel i5-2320 @3.0mhz, 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM, generic Dell H61 mobo, 330w external psu, and nvidia gtx 555. Like I said, looking to get a 660ti, but a very knowledgeable friend of mine insists that sticking with 1333 RAM will bottleneck the card and I'll take a performance hit. They suggest using 1600 RAM at minimum with a 600 series card, however the motherboard my system uses (to my understanding) wont accommodate RAM above 1333, it will work, but for some reason downclock it back to 1333. So, is 1333 ram really going to bottleneck a 660ti GPU? And if so, is this really a practical problem that will cause a noticeable performance hit (say, over 5fps lost in a gpu intensive game), or just something you'd notice on paper running benchmarks?

I really DON'T want to replace my mobo if at all possible given that would defeat the purpose of buying the x51 system in the first place since I would then have to replace the case as well (as typical aftermarket mobo's won't fit in them). Not to mention buying new ram/mobo/case would tack another $150 minimum onto my GPU upgrade, and since I'm a college student soon attending law school spending over $450 on my computer at the moment isn't something I'm willing to do.

Here is a link to the card i would be buying...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Thanks ahead of time for any advice, much appreciated!

More about : gtx 660ti ddr3 1333 ram performance hit

June 12, 2013 8:10:56 AM

1333 ram definitely will not cause any sort of bottlenecking. I have seen many performance comparisons between different speed ram and they all pretty much perform the same. All sandy bridge motherboards only officially support 1333 Mhz ram, 1600 is technically an overclock but a safe one that all CPUs can handle.

I do have some concerns about your proposed upgrade though. Does your current system have the space, power supply and ventilation so support a GTX 660 ti?

I've probably made more worries than I have settled, but you can rest assured that 1333Mhz ram will be just great.
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June 12, 2013 8:27:54 AM

The DRAM can if it's high CL like 9 or 10...
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June 12, 2013 8:31:16 AM

Optimus_Toaster said:
1333 ram definitely will not cause any sort of bottlenecking. I have seen many performance comparisons between different speed ram and they all pretty much perform the same. All sandy bridge motherboards only officially support 1333 Mhz ram, 1600 is technically an overclock but a safe one that all CPUs can handle.

I do have some concerns about your proposed upgrade though. Does your current system have the space, power supply and ventilation so support a GTX 660 ti?

I've probably made more worries than I have settled, but you can rest assured that 1333Mhz ram will be just great.


Thanks for the quick reply!

As far as space, power and ventilation go; the research on those aspects I've done show the card will be fine in my system. My current card and the 660ti pull the same max power, and many others I've spoke with on forums with the same rig as myself have upgraded to the 660ti with no issues there (anything power powerful than a 660ti is where I'd start seeing issues without downclocking). As far as space and vetilation; any card under 10" will fit, and as long as I stick with a reference card (like the EVGA one above) it'll get proper air flow since the case was designed for them specifically.
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June 12, 2013 8:39:27 AM

Tradesman1 said:
The DRAM can if it's high CL like 9 or 10...


Hmm... the ram in my system now has a CL of 9. Would you suggest it's worth spending the extra $70 to get something with a lower CL rating? G.Skill has a few different ones to choose from that are rated at 7.
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June 12, 2013 8:42:55 AM

Might well, better than building a whole new rig, performance wise, 1333/7 equates roughly to 1600/8 whereas 1333/9 equates to 1600/11, with the biggest difference being not having the additional bandwidth that 1600 allow
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June 12, 2013 9:18:24 AM

Tradesman1 said:
Might well, better than building a whole new rig, performance wise, 1333/7 equates roughly to 1600/8 whereas 1333/9 equates to 1600/11, with the biggest difference being not having the additional bandwidth that 1600 allow


But how do these things contribute to in game performance?

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June 12, 2013 12:14:36 PM

While the CPU and GPU are prime moving factors, the data has to come off the disk to the CPU and then to the GPU and it travels through the DRAM also everything else running on the system (the OS, services, programs that load at startup, etc) uses DRAM and in effect, think of it as the CL being a clock, so if at CL9 it represents 9 seconds, it can handle an action every 9 seconds, and will just say the freq, 1333 can handle 100 bits per cycle thus something that requires 1,000 bits would take 10 cycles or 10 cycles x 9 seconds per cycle or 90 seconds..... DRAM with the same 1333 freq and a tighter (7) CL can still handle 100 bits but do the cycle in 7 seconds or 10 cycles x 7 seconds per cycle = 70 seconds - of course this is an extremely simplified example, but explains things fairly well.. Faster sticks can handle more per cycle so can do bigger chunks per cycle
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