Should I upgrade my RAM?

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Sesameopen

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Dec 15, 2013
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So before I upgraded my computer, I thought it was pretty slow, and it still is. I upgraded from an i7 2600 and the stock motherboard to a i7 4770k, the asus maximus vi hero, a corsair h100, and a couple I can't think of. The only thing I didn't upgrade was my RAM, which I have 2 sticks of, and according to CPU Z, they are clocked at 665 mhz. Is it time for an upgrade? And since RAM is quite expensive, I was thinking of getting one or two of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4GB-MEMORY-512X72-PC3-10600-1333MHZ-1-5V-ECC-REG-DDR3-240-PIN-DIMM-1RX4-/160676882122?pt=US_Memory_RAM_&hash=item256916a6ca#ht_2978wt_1124

I have 2 questions:

Is my computer "slow" because of the ram, because at max load, I am only using around 70% of available ram, do I need more than 4 gb's?

Is 1333mhz ram fast enough?
 
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rvilkman

rvilkman

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Jun 12, 2009
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Well your CPU and motherboard should most definitely be up to par now. And most likely your slowness is not related to the memory. Generally i would say that your problem is most likely the hard drive.

Getting a 120-256GB SSD such as Samsung 840 EVO as your OS drive would help with bootup and general responsiveness of the system.

But if you want to upgrade the memory, you can get reasonable 8GB kits new for 60-65 dollars.
CAS9 1600Mhz ones will work fine.
AData 2x4GB CAS9 1600Mhz
 
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Damn_Rookie

Damn_Rookie

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Feb 21, 2014
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Your current RAM is already 1333MHz, so that won't do you much good (modern RAM is double data rate, so the value reported by CPU-Z is half the speed it's actually running at. 2 x 665 = 1300MHz).

If the 'slow' feeling is only really apparent after you've loaded up a lot of programs, as opposed to something you feel from the moment you turn on the laptop, the RAM could very much be to blame.

While your RAM is only 70% utilized you could still be suffering the effects of low RAM. Take a look at your disk usage in resource monitor; does it show a lot of activity connected to the pagefile? I have a laptop with 4GB RAM that never gets over 76% usage, but that's because by that point the computer has already started shifting things too and from the pagefile, making the whole thing feel horribly sluggish.
 
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Entomber

Entomber

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Apr 21, 2014
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You probably do want to get at least 8GB of 1600MHz RAM. Don't get the RAM that you listed.

It's not a mistake that CPU-Z lists your current RAM at 665 MHz. Since they are "DDR3" or "Double Data Rate" that means that the frequency is doubled so 665x2 = 1333. This means if you buy 1333MHz RAM it's not going to be faster at all.
 
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Entomber

Entomber

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No, you cannot/should not mix different timings and speeds for RAM. At best, they will only run at the slowest timing. At worst, they will not work at all. When you buy RAM it's highly recommended that you buy all identical sticks at a time.
 
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