Games on SSD vs RAM disc/drive.

Jak_Sparra · Jan 28, 2014

Hi,

I am currently using this motherboard:-

http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/RAMPAGE_II_EXTREME/

I have 3 x 2Gb ram sticks in it (6Gb total). I have an i7 920 @ 3.6Mhz and everything is stable.

I recently bought a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-x and am loving its performance.

I don't use anything like Photoshop, or any video editing. I just play games and watch videos.
I had Battlefield 4 installed on a normal 7200rpm HHD and it took ages to load the maps in (about 2mins 30 seconds or so). I have deleted it and put it on an SSD and it loads in less then a minute now.

There is no issue with frames per second, the game runs super smooth in ultra settings but if could install 24Gb or 32Gb or RAM would I get even faster load times?

Would I see any improvement in ARMA 3?

Would it be easy to set up a RAM disc and load a game from an HDD into it initially and then see fast performance when loading maps for the rest of the day or until I rebooted?

I think the RAM I have is triple channel. My friend said that I would be better getting dual channel as it is quicker. Another friend said that was wrong and that I should get quad channel. Who is right?

Are there any games that would benefit from more then 6Gb of RAM?

Should I just wait until next year and then buy a new Motherboard, CPU and lots of RAM?

The only game that still seems to have a low FPS is ARMA 3, but I think it is a 32bit game. Does that mean it would not use more then 4Gb of system memory anyway?

Thank you. Also if there is an idiots guide to RAM somewhere please point me in the right direction.

markaflias · Jan 28, 2014

I dont think that you will get faster boot times maybe a bit but nothing special . I recently installed on my hdd bf3 and it takes a while but I prefer to leave them on the hdd instead of the ssd due to terms of space . Maybe oc that i7 to 4.0GHz would be nice

James Mason · Jan 28, 2014

Ram speed is just important as ram quantity. What's the speed of your ram? (you dont need more than 16 gbs for anything except running a server anyways, and 16 is way more than you can realistically use. 8 GBs would be ideal. or 9 in your case 3x3gb)

Jak_Sparra · Jan 28, 2014

James Mason :

I used CPU-Z and under memory it says:-

NB Frequency 2806
DRAM Frequency 701.6
FSB

RAM 2:8
then the timings (I think they are called timings):- 9 9 9 24 74

Also I found my motherboard only supports up to 24Gb of memory and after reading about 20 threads I think 12Gb will probably be fine for me for gaming and just use the SSD for windows, drivers and 2-3 games. So would 6 x 2Gb sticks be better then, worse than, or the same as 3 x 4Gb sticks?

Oh, and also; am I correct in thinking I need to take out the existing memory if I can't find exact make an model match for sale?

Traciatim · Jan 28, 2014

Jak_Sparra :

More channels are better, you have a motherboard that does triple channel then that's what you buy in three sticks at a time, you can't just change it to dual or quad channel RAM.

I've heard a few 64-bit games can load extra stuff in to RAM so going from 6GB to 12GB might make sense. Win7 Home Premium will only use up to 16GB anyway, so depending on your OS it might not make sense to go more than that.

I think the waiting to upgrade the whole machine is probably the best option.

Correct, 32-Bit process in Win7 64-bit will be able to use up to 4GB of RAM. You could however run it off a RAM drive and get ultra-quick load times, but it generally won't make the actual game play any faster.

Jak_Sparra · Jan 28, 2014

Thank you all for your help so far.

I have another question:- On the motherboard site (linked in original post) it says:-

MEMORY "6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Triple channel memory architecture
* Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
**Due to Intel spec definition, DIMMs of DDR3-1333 or above are out of spec. Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors List)."

What does it mean by DIMMs of DDR3-1333 or above are out of spec?

And I found these 2 kits:-

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=93C8C914A5CA7304

&

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=05FD8F58A5CA7304

one kit is 1333mhz and the other 1600mhz. Which should I get?

AND. Cos my CPU is overclocked do I need to do anything special to the RAM voltage and timings?

James Mason · Jan 28, 2014

It means you have to overclock the ram to get it to run at speeds higher than 1333, hence why all the other speeds listed have (O.C.) next to them

Jak_Sparra · Jan 28, 2014

James Mason :

So I'm better buying 1600mhz rather then 1333mhz ram as it is effectively already overclocked? Sorry if I'm being a bit dim here.

(Would you believe I use to know a lot of this stuff and used to do a lot of overclocking with water cooling, but I had 2 seizures last year and a lot of the stuff I used to know is completely gone from my memory. I can't even game like I used to be able to so now I like just look at the eye candy)

James Mason · Jan 28, 2014

No, if you buy 1600mhz ram it's NOT overclocked. But when you put that ram into your motherboard you have to go into the bios and tell it to overclock it 1600mhz.

Jak_Sparra · Jan 29, 2014

So finally, do you see any issues with me getting this RAM:- http://www.ebuyer.com/237402-corsair-12gb-ddr3-1600mhz-dominator-memory-cmp12gx3m3a1600c9

or should I get this:- http://www.ebuyer.com/169258-kingston-12gb-ddr3-1600mhz-hyperx-genesis-xmp-memory-khx1600c9d3k3-12gx as it is kingston Hyper X, the same make and timing as my existing 3x2Gb sticks?

Is there anything else I should consider?

Jak_Sparra · Jan 29, 2014

well i counldn't wait. I bought the Kingston Hyper-X RAM 3x4Gb.

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