More Ram or A Slightly Better GPU?

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maxraj

maxraj

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Hey guys, how are you all? Hopefully, I fixed on buying an AMD FX4300 and an Msi mobo that supports up to 16 GB as a second hand PC. But I’m confused as to how much ram should I buy for that combo. My budget is low for getting a 16 GB ram and I only have 2 slots.

My first option is I can buy 8 GB ram now and save up some money to change my current HD 5770 for a 7770 or R7 260x if I got the buck or a GTX 750Ti (unlikely since it’s more pricey but I might wait for it if it’s worth it).

Or else I look for 16 GB ram and stick with my current HD 5770 for a while cause it will take a lot of time for me to go for a GPU change.

Going for an FX4300 and the Msi motherboard is fixed for me but I am confused about the 8 GB ram and a slightly better GPU or 16 GB of ram with current GPU. Is my current GPU good enough for next gen gaming with that FX4300 and 16 GB ram or is it good for getting a 7770 with just 8GB ram? With 7770 or the others, am I going to see a significant FPS increase in gaming in just 8GB ram?

And speaking of ram, should I look for 1 piece 8 GB ram now as I might look for more ram in the future even after getting a GPU? Or 8GB dual-channel kit (2x4GB)? I heard the latter is better but then I will have to change both for increasing the ram to 16GB. And what's the maximum bus speed for this CPU? Here, most of them are like 1600 mhz. What's the difference in G-skill and vengeance and adata? Adata is the cheapest and affordable for me.

Please suggest me which option is better as newer next gen games are coming and I am satisfied with medium settings with a reasonable FPS of 30 give or take. Thank you all in advance.

Under current settings, I finished Ghosts, Advanced Warfare on a good FPS and finished Watch Dogs with some trouble but played well with some tweaks in setting low graphics and played many games with a reasonable FPS except Unity which got me stuck on sequence 9 after which it just wouldn’t run well and that is the reason I have been waiting to change my current PC.

My Current PC Configuration is:
Motherboard: XFX X-G31
Processor: Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz
RAM: 3GB DDR2 (Max 4GB in 2 slots)
GPU: Gigabyte HD 5770 1GB GDDR5
PSU: Corsair VS 450
Resolution: 1366x768
 
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No need for 16gb of ram you will not use it.

Get 2x4gb sticks of whatever gskill has on sale (ripjaws, ripjaws X, aegis). 1600mhz is preferred, no reason to pay more money for faster but if they have faster for cheaper then no reason not to get that. 2x4 will run 10-15% faster real world over 1x8 as ram is designed to work in pairs.

You should go ahead and just pay the small difference for the fx-6300 over the 4300. This will help a lot in performance.

If you have the 5770 already I would save the money and wait until you can afford the small price difference to get a 270x.
The 6300 cpu, plus 8gb ram, and a 270x will be a very good and balanced combo.
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molletts

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I'd be inclined to go for a better GPU (the 5770 is pretty modest by today's standards, after all) and 1 x 8GB stick of RAM. It'll only run in single-channel mode, but that doesn't make a huge difference to real-world performance - it'll be more than balanced out by the beefier graphics card in most, if not all, cases. If you get mainstream RAM rather than exotic ultra-low-latency RAM (which makes even less difference except in benchmarks specifically designed to measure RAM performance and will save you some more money) you should be able to get another stick that is sufficiently closely matched fairly easily in a year or so.

Stephen
 
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boosted1g

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No need for 16gb of ram you will not use it.

Get 2x4gb sticks of whatever gskill has on sale (ripjaws, ripjaws X, aegis). 1600mhz is preferred, no reason to pay more money for faster but if they have faster for cheaper then no reason not to get that. 2x4 will run 10-15% faster real world over 1x8 as ram is designed to work in pairs.

You should go ahead and just pay the small difference for the fx-6300 over the 4300. This will help a lot in performance.

If you have the 5770 already I would save the money and wait until you can afford the small price difference to get a 270x.
The 6300 cpu, plus 8gb ram, and a 270x will be a very good and balanced combo.
 
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pasow

pasow

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for now, 8GB's of RAM is plenty for a gaming computer. i would invest the money saved by grabbing 8GB's of RAM instead of 16GB's for a faster GPU. speed wise, 1600MHz memory verses 2400Mhz is hardly noticeable in benchmarks and not at all in gaming, so i would just get the cheep stuff. for weather or not to run in single channel of duel channel mode. i favor duel channel, however the difference in gaming is small.
 
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boosted1g

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Now that I think about, you could get a Core i3 + h81 motherboard for the same cost and have better performance now and better upgrade path latter.
I know you are set on the AMD route but this would really be the better route to go. You are looking at USD $160-170 for the cpu/motherboard now, it will use less power and have less heat and the i3 is equal to 6300 in real world multithreaded performance, and better in real world single thread performance.
 
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maxraj

maxraj

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Thanks a lot for the replies!

So should I go for any ram like adata in the matter? Still confused about the single channel or dual-channel kit! Is having 8 GB ram good enough for 2 years of gaming from now? If so, I will opt for a g-skill dual-channel 8gb (2x4GB) or else 1 stick of 8gb will be better for future upgrade. What's the difference of using 2 pieces of adata ram (2x4gb) and 2 pieces of g-skill anyway?

Can I run games on at least medium settings with 8 gb ram and an HD 7770 or R7 260X? Thank you!
 
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boosted1g

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GSkill is better build quality over ADATA so I would go for gskill hands down.
8gb is plenty for the next 2 years, you are not going to be limited because you only have 8gb and not 16 gb, your cpu and gpu will limit you way before that.
Ram is designed to run in pairs and its bandwidth is split across the two chips. Real world is 10-15% performance difference having 2x4gb over 1x8gb.
8gb plus 260x will do medium on 1080p just fine, high settings for 720p
 
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maxraj

maxraj

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Thanks a lot man! I will look for dual kit then! Btw, that Grandmaster title is cool! It's good to know that I can get a high settings in my resolution. Last thing, I heard that the difference of 8gb and 16gb ram is not that noticable. Is it true? Can you give me some FPS benchmarks on CPU plus GPU together? Thanks again.
 
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maxraj

maxraj

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Hmm. Got it! Is it required to put same bus speed and same memory size in dual mode? Or it doesn't matter whether I get 1 4gb piece and another 8gb piece making a total of 12gb ram altogether as long as it is dual channel mode? Thank u
 
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pasow

pasow

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Dual Channel mode only works when the quantities of RAM match. one 4GB stick and one 8GB stick will run in single channel mode.
 
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maxraj

maxraj

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I didn't understand your ram size. Its 12 GB but mentioned like 2x4, 2x8. Why not try dual channel mode and get a total of 16GB?
 
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