Performance gain with 2133 RAM even though CPU rated for 1600?

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natem

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Aug 6, 2013
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Dear all,

I'll have to invest in a new workstation quite soon, which is equipped with two E5-2687W. According to Intel those are rated for 1600 MHz RAM only (see http://ark.intel.com/products/64582/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2687W-20M-Cache-3_10-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI).

I've heard different opinions on whether faster RAM might still be advantageous and was wondering whether you can confirm or deny this. Precisely: Is it worth investing in 2133 MHz or even 2400 MHz RAM?
Note: I am aware of the other performance-related parameters apart from the frequency.

Thank you for your valuable comments.

 
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outlw6669
Welcome to the forums!

No, I would not recommend spending anything extra on faster RAM, unless the upgrade cost is very inexpensive.
If you see any performance increases at all, it would be in the low single digit percent range.
Assuming that you will be doing RAM heavy work, focus first on the quantity of RAM your workstation has.
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outlw6669

outlw6669

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Dec 4, 2006
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Welcome to the forums!

No, I would not recommend spending anything extra on faster RAM, unless the upgrade cost is very inexpensive.
If you see any performance increases at all, it would be in the low single digit percent range.
Assuming that you will be doing RAM heavy work, focus first on the quantity of RAM your workstation has.
 
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natem

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Aug 6, 2013
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Thanks a lot for you advice, outlw6669!

I'll allow myself a follow-up question: The workstation provider (Dell) offers only ECC RDIMM. I'm not sure whether this is really necessary, so I thought about not ordering any RAM from Dell, but stuff in my own RAM (non-ECC), which would be a lot cheaper.
Is there any true necessity to use ECC RDIMM? As far as I know a Mobo that supports ECC has no trouble with non-ECC (vice-versa it's different), so technically it should work I assume.
For info: My application background is computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Thanks again!
 
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outlw6669

outlw6669

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Yes, that would be a lot less expensive, but I would not necessarily recommend it.
ECC RAM protects against errors and could be the difference between your 12 hour long simulation finishing or crashing when almost finished because of a falsely written bit of data ;)
I am also not sure if Dell would be willing to sell a RAM free workstation; you would have to enquire with them directly about that.
 
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natem

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Aug 6, 2013
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Well, thanks a lot again!
Dell wouldn't sell a RAM free workstation, but you could always just buy something like 4-8GB and later plug in your own 256GB or whatever...
Also it's interesting to hear that you recommend ECC in this context. Opinions seem to vary quite a lot, some claim ECC is a must, some claim it's unnecessary and expensive...
 
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outlw6669

outlw6669

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Dec 4, 2006
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Yes, you could make arguments either way.

For the average, not critical system, I think it is definitely not necessary.
Even if you have an error you are probably not going to lose much important data or a few days worth of simulation work.
Annoying, yes. Deal breaker, not at all.

For mission critical applications or extremely RAM and time intensive applications though, I would always recommend it.
Especially if you are planning to fill up 256GB (!) of RAM with your simulations, I would expect the probability of a fatal memory error to increase greatly over a user that is only filling up 1-2GB with a simpler application.

In the end, it really comes down to the workload you will be subjecting your hardware to and how tolerant you are to any potential failures.
While I have not directly worked with CFD calculations, I believe they are quite time and resource intensive to perform.
For my peace of mind, I would probably prefer the security of ECC, assuming the price is not unreasonable for the amount I require.
 
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natem

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Aug 6, 2013
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Thanks a lot for your further comments, outlw6669!
My picture by now is that it would be acceptable to use non-ECC RAM (I could afford to lose a few days of computing time every now and then), however since I'm aiming for a total of 256GB I will probably have to use ECC RAM, because non-ECC doesn't come in 16 GB units.

You're right about the option of upgrading with my own RAM, would probably save a few bucks. Actually I've done with my old workstation, back then it was possible without voiding the warranty. But thanks also for making me again aware of this issue.

Cheers
Nate
 
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