Is DDR3-2800 worth the price?

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Guinibee

Guinibee

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I'm looking into a new mobo/cpu/ram setup and I want a 4790K and possibly the Gigabyte Z97 UD5H Black Edition. I just need to settle on the ram.

Reading through toms review of the recent mobos it seems the Gigabyte Ud5H really goes well with the DDR3-2800 ram, but looking up prices for this ram, my jaw nearly hit the floor. It seems to be around 400 bucks for 16GB!

Is it worth the price difference to get ram this fast? I'm noticing one step lower, DDR3-2400 seems to be a much more realistic price, around 180. Is there a real difference between these kinds of ram setups? I would hate to pay 220 more for 1-2 more FPS in games...
 
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JackNaylorPE


That's the same link as in my above post"

From your link:

Choosing the lowest-acceptable settings for my high-end test platform, frame rates vary from 159 FPS at DDR3-1600 CAS 9 to 177 FPS at DDR3-2400...
Click to expand...
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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I can't make a case at above 2400 ..... everything I have bought of late is 2133 or 2400 .... getting slower makes no sense as its same price and doing 2666 or above is still a bit too pricey.

And yes, absolutely, you will see a difference. If ya wanna see the difference, look at THGs last review .... FPS can range from 0 % to 11% with 2400 instead of 1600 .... average is 2-5%

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/32-gb-ddr3-ram,3790-10.html
 
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hunter315

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It all comes down to whether or not you are doing something that is limited by the memory bandwidth, games generally are not.

Take a look at the gaming performance in this memory review, FPS is pretty close between 1600 and 2666 because the limit is really the CPU or the GPU not the memory, performance certainly isn't scaling close to linearly with memory speed, so there is no point spending twice as much on DDR3 2800 when DDR3 2400 will barely get you any gains.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/32-gb-ddr3-ram,3790-10.html
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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That's the same link as in my above post"

From your link:

Choosing the lowest-acceptable settings for my high-end test platform, frame rates vary from 159 FPS at DDR3-1600 CAS 9 to 177 FPS at DDR3-2400 CAS 11.
Click to expand...

All the 2400 I have bought in last year has been CAS 10 ..... 159 => 177 is 11 % .... no small potatoes. Some games are limited by CPU, others by GFX and others by RAM.... for a balanced system, you want to match the parts as best as possible.... a bottleneck anywhere among the three essentially determines fps. The STALKER series of games is another heavily influenced by memory but when there's an increase it's 2 - 5%

Since the whole system is being affected .... $167 for CAS 11 2400 versus versus $155 for CAS 9 1600 represents a $12 cost increase .... On a $1600 box that represents a 0.75% increase in cost

So what it comes down to is .... is it worth paying 0.75% more cashola for even a 2% increase in performance ? You'll certainly notice the 11%, ya might notice the five .... ya might not notice the 2.00 % increase, but one thing I will certainly notice less is the 0.75% increase in system cost.



 
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hunter315

hunter315

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Jack - I have no problem with small price differences for small gains, that is what the whole system building game is about. I have a problem with the scenario he was presented, DDR3 2800 for $400 but DDR3 2400 for only $180. Its more than twice the price, it might equate to a 15% boost in some scenarios but if you took that $220 difference and put it towards the GPU and CPU it would likely amount to more than 15% in most scenarios. In a $1600 build that $200 would be 12.5% of the budget for a 15%(at best when lucky) gain, it just doesn't seem worth it.

I really feel like the DDR3 2800 kits are just playing the game of being a premium product right now so they are premium priced, if you want it you will pay whatever they decide to charge you for them similar to the old $1k Intel Extreme editions of the past. In a performance/dollar stand point they are wayyy lower than the next tier down, do people buy them anyway just because they want the "best" thing? Yup, doesn't make it a good decision though.
 
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anbello262

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Everyone is talking about the difference between 1600 and 2133/2400.
Yes, there is a big difference when stepping up from 1600.
But NO, there is practically/absolutely no difference when going from 2400 to 2800. Probably not even 1-2 fps in most games. There might always be an exception, but still it would only show up when the wholse system is so good that the RAM becomes a bottleneck, and that only happens when your fps is already really high.

As tom's has showed, sometimes those extremely high frecuency make the motherboard adjust secondary/terciary timings so that bandwith stays the same, in some cases.
 
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JackNaylorPE

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If you look at the link comparing memory, the worst-case gaming scenario does show a benefit however it's important to note that 2666MHz and 2133MHz memory with good timings scored almost EXACTLY the same.
Click to expand...

If I am understanding you correctly, remember when ya take a 2666 stick of memory and drop it down to low CAS at 2133 ,you will get good timings because you have better sticks.....1600 CAS 7 will prolly run at 2133 CAS 9 .... CAS 9 2133 will likely run at CAS 7 at 1600


I have been using recommending these a lot.....cheaper and better timings than anyone else.

$154 2133 CAS 9

Good luck getting the Mushkin 2400s tho .... they sell in faster than new 970 shipments


Jack - I have no problem with small price differences for small gains, that is what the whole system building game is about. I have a problem with the scenario he was presented, DDR3 2800 for $400 but DDR3 2400 for only $180. Its more than twice the price, it might equate to a 15% boost in some scenarios but if you took that $220 difference and put it towards the GPU and CPU it would likely amount to more than 15% in most scenarios. In a $1600 build that $200 would be 12.5% of the budget for a 15%(at best when lucky) gain, it just doesn't seem worth it.
Click to expand...

That's exactly my position ..... and why I said

I can't make a case at above 2400 ..... everything I have bought of late is 2133 or 2400 .... getting slower makes no sense as its same price and doing 2666 or above is still a bit too pricey.
Click to expand...
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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To be clear, benefitting above 1600MHz CAS9 is fairly rare. The situations chosen to discuss this are generally worst-case scenarios forcing the CPU to work harder.

Games are often more GPU-bound thus removing the bottleneck away from the CPU and/or main memory.

And just because you have a 2800MHz kit doesn't mean it should run at 2133MHz at CAS9. You'd have to look at the profiles the memory has.

I haven't observed a very good reason to go above 2133MHz CAS9 when it comes to factoring in cost vs real-world performance.
 
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