Should I go with 8GB or 16GB? 1600mhz or 2400mhz?

Jason099 · Dec 16, 2015

I’m currently debating whether to go 8gb or 16gb of ram. I know that 8gb of ram is currently considered enough for gaming and 16gb would be more for those who do heavy editing. However I feel that with a cost of 50$ more, it isn’t that much more money if it really helps to future proof myself even if I will mainly game with the rig.

Now the main questions that I’m wondering are the differences between 1600mhz and 2400mhz. Will I notice a difference between 1600mhz and 2400mhz in performance and will that difference depend on what my other parts are? If so, what parts do I need in order to notice a difference between these two speeds? Will 2400mhz put more stress (run hotter) over 1600mhz?

Also, can having that additional 8gb cause more stress on the MC (memory controller) or any additional stress at all? Can having that extra 8gb of ram possibly put more stress on the cpu, motherboard, psu?

That’s all the questions I have for now, thanks in advance if anyone could answer these questions.

Justkeeplookin · Dec 16, 2015

Depends, higher clock memory isn't really useful in gaming, but significantly useful in encoding, decoding, compressing, basically video editing.

The difference between 4GB and 8GB is significant, but 8GB and 16GB is now minute.

Dark Lord of Tech · Dec 16, 2015

Some Games are now starting to recommend 16gb , with prices being decent get 16gb.

Laucha · Dec 16, 2015

As you wrote, more ram will be justified if you work with heavy video files or editing a billboard size image in photoshop.

For the matter of speed, I think more speed implies OC, thus, increasing heat, decreasing lifespan, etc.

You should take this into account and make your choice, but if you have the money and don't know what to buy, it's a safe upgrade.

Jason099 · Dec 16, 2015

Justkeeplookin :

So would you recommend me to go with 2400mhz over 1600mhz? I guess the main thing I'm concerned about is if 2400mhz would be too strong and put more stress on the cpu with insignificant performance gains over the 1600mhz in gaming. I would prefer sacrificing negligible performance gains over possibly running my cpu hotter. Should I be concerned or is the increase in heat not significant enough to be a deciding factor between these two speeds?

Dark Lord of Tech · Dec 16, 2015

What are your full specs?

Jason099 · Dec 16, 2015

This is going to be a new build and I haven't actually picked out the parts yet but I can tell you what I will go with thus far: i7-4790k, GTX 980, Asus z97-A ATX.

If there is any parts I'm missing that you were wondering about to help you to help me, let me know

Tradesman1 · Dec 16, 2015

If looking to the future - even near future, 16GB of 2400 (if your CPU can run 2400), as SR-71 mentioned there are games already calling for 16GB (Star Citizen, Star Wars: Battlefront with more to come) and developers are using DRAM more and more, i.e. Fallout 4 shows marked improvement with faster sticks, these trends aren't going to change backwards

Justkeeplookin · Dec 17, 2015

It's what your CPU, and your motherboard can support. If your CPU can't support 2400mHz it will just use the maximum it can from that ram stick, but get the full package, 16GB and 2400mHz,

If you may kindly give us the full specifications of your build, we can all help you further

Jason099 · Dec 17, 2015

Tradesman1 :

So there are improvements to gaming performance between 1600 and 2400? I was doing a bit of research prior to this post and they've all said the difference in gaming between these two speeds would be very small, like 2-5 FPS more. They stated that a reason to go 2400 over 1600 would be for benchmarking. I'm not sure if this information is correct now, or if things have changed and 2400 is more beneficial now.

The main debate now for me is if there isn't much performance gains between 1600 and 2400, then wouldn't the better buy be the 1600 since it would put less stress on my cpu? Or is the stress difference between 1600 and 2400 negligible?

Jason099 · Dec 17, 2015

Justkeeplookin :

Do you need the full specification or just the motherboard and cpu? I haven't put my build together yet but I'll have something very soon and this is going to be a new build. The cpu that I will be going with is the i7-4790k, and the motherboard I'm looking at getting is the Asus z97-A ATX, and the gpu will be the GTX 980.

Tradesman1 · Dec 17, 2015

As an example, Fallout 4

http://wccftech.com/fallout-4-performance-heavily-influenced-by-ram-speed-according-to-report/

More and more developers are utilizing DRAM and using more of it, Star Citizen and Star Wars Battlefront both call for 16GB

Jason099 · Dec 17, 2015

Tradesman1 :

Thanks for linking me to that post. However, according to a guy in the comments named Bruce Campbell, he's claiming the tests are not trustworthy since they don't show any latency and timings.

How do I make sure I buy the correct 16gb with 2400mhz? What's the right number for CL that I should get? Does CL # = CAS #? Is the general rule that higher the number after CL = worse? What is the lowest CL # 16gb 2400mhz can go?

Sorry if this is a lot of questions I'm throwing at you but I just want a full understanding of this before I decide on a specific memory

Justkeeplookin · Dec 18, 2015

I recall this previous thread Tradesman1 answered back in 2014,

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2075194/lower-timing-higher-frequency.html

A summary of it is, it all depends on your CPU. But please go explore the thread for more.

CPU+Mobo combo would be useful to know.

Tradesman1 · Dec 18, 2015

At 2400, CL10 (yes same basically as CAS) is generally the best you'll find, CL11 is good and quite close, might get some ideas of performance in an article I did earlier this year on 2400 sets (they were 32GB but also ran some testing at 16GB (2x8GB)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dram-benchmark-fluctuations,4080.html

Jason099 · Dec 19, 2015

Tradesman1 :

Between 16GB DDR3 1600/ CL 7 and 16GB DDR3 2400/ CL 10, which out of these two ram would provide the best performance? And how much different is the performance? This is probably my final questions and I will also take a look at the article, thanks for the link.

Tradesman1 · Dec 19, 2015

2400/10, much wider bandwidth. If you would want (don't know why

) you could downclock them to 2133/9, 1866/8 or even 1600/7. On the other hand if you went 1600/7 and tried to OC them to 2400 would prob be doing very good to get themn to a slower 2400/11 and prob need 2400/12

Should I go with 8GB or 16GB? 1600mhz or 2400mhz?

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