which ram speed to use?

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caseybrunet

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Oct 25, 2013
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I am purchasing the i7 4820k and will be doing primarily gaming with the addition of some hd video editing. Which Ram should I use, 1866 MHz or 1600 MHz?

Also, I assume since it is quad channel I should use 4 x 4 Gbs instead of 2 x 8 Gbs, but what kind of difference would I see exactly?
 
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photonboy
Manual link for a random 2011 motherboard:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/P9X79-PRO/E8037_P9X79_PRO.pdf

If you look at the memory section, especially page 2-13 you discover this motherboard supports:

Single-Channel
Dual-Channel
Triple-Channel
Quad-Channel

So I'm pretty sure your motherboard supports Dual-Channel.
The PREVIOUS article I linked above somewhere concludes 1866MHz CAS9 in Dual-Channel is about as good as you need. The price is now comparable to similar quality 1600MHz CAS9 and cheaper than Quad so I can't think of a good reason to go any other way.
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ddpruitt

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Jun 4, 2012
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Go with the speed that's cheaper, more importantly if they're different brands get the better brand. Ram speed has little overall impact on performance outside certain corner cases and your not one of them. 4x4gb will allow dual channel operation provided the sticks are identical.
 
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caseybrunet

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Oct 25, 2013
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Does it matter that the i7 4820k supports 1866 MHz native?
 
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CTurbo

CTurbo

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Faster RAM speeds will help a little in editing, but not really at all in gaming. Yes definitely use 4X4GB sticks for quad channel. Don't spend much more money on 1866 over 1600, but honestly there's not much difference cost between the two.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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Hi,

Get the 1866MHz. There's little to no difference in price between COMPARABLE kits of 1600MHz and 1866MHz. Plus, I can find you benchmarks in a few games that do benefit with 1866MHz and it's expected that MORE games will benefit as the game engines utilize the CPU better.

Dual or Quad?
You did say it's Quad bit is that because your motherboard SAYS it supports Quad-Channel or is it because it simply has FOUR slots for DDR3 memory?

Also, I'm pretty sure quad-channel motherboards also support dual-channel so my advice in either case I guess is the same:

*get THIS 2x8GB 1866MHz C9 DDR3 memory from G. Skill:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231627

 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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I didn't want to assume the socket.
Anyway, it didn't change my recommendation but maybe I should clarify that:
1) QUAD Channel can theoretically boost performance, but then using lower performance memory negates any advantage there. Since 1866MHz C9 in Dual should almost max anything no point in bothering with Quad.

2) 4x4GB would also use all of your memory slots. Better to just use two and keep two free if you ever want to add more (preferably identical) memory.
Found one link: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/memory-performance-16gb-ddr31333-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/14

It varies by the program, so let's just jump to the final comment:

"..taking the DDR3-1333 C9 kit as a base, it seems a no-brainer to go for the DDR3-1600 C9 kit for $5 more. The boost across the board for a negligible difference in price is worth it. The jump up to the G.Skill 1866 C9 kit also provides enough of a measurable boost.."
 
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caseybrunet

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Oct 25, 2013
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I am using an lga 2011 board which contains 8 ram slots. For this reason along with the lga 2011 board/i7 4820k combo which (to my understanding) does not support dual channel I was going to go with the 4 x 4 Gbs. This leaves the system running quad channel and still leaves room for a future upgrade to 32 GBs.

At first I concidered going with 4 x 8 GBs to allow a future 64 GB upgrade...but I just can't justify myself needing 64 GBs of RAM for my uses, even in the next 4 - 5 years.

As far as 1600 MHz to 1866 MHz it is a $44 price difference. The 1600 MHz is a corsair vengence and the 1866Mhz is just a baseline corsair (or other major brand). What is the advanctage of corsair vengence over standard corsair?
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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caseybrunet,
Thanks for most of the system details, but please provide this data in your first post next time.

What MODEL of motherboard do you have?
I'm pretty sure most/all Quad Channel motherboards also support Dual-Channel.

Dual-Channel is cheaper than Quad so I'm not going to discuss differences in performance until I get the motherboard model and confirm what memory is supported.

As I said above, faster Dual-Channel will give the same performance as slower Quad-Channel but it would be cheaper. Quad Channel is great but you lose the performance advantage by getting slower memory anyway.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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Manual link for a random 2011 motherboard:
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA2011/P9X79-PRO/E8037_P9X79_PRO.pdf

If you look at the memory section, especially page 2-13 you discover this motherboard supports:

Single-Channel
Dual-Channel
Triple-Channel
Quad-Channel

So I'm pretty sure your motherboard supports Dual-Channel.
The PREVIOUS article I linked above somewhere concludes 1866MHz CAS9 in Dual-Channel is about as good as you need. The price is now comparable to similar quality 1600MHz CAS9 and cheaper than Quad so I can't think of a good reason to go any other way.
 
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