RAM size vs speed for gaming performance?

I would certainly pick the 8GB of 1.3GHz RAM, capacity of the RAM is more influential on gaming performance than the speed generally. I doubt any game is going to be using more than 4GB to run in the next couple of years though, having said that however. Technology is rapidly improving.

+1 on the 8GB. Stick with DDR3-1333 and go with the lowest latency you can afford. CL9 is fine, but CL8 or even CL7 would be better with the lower latency.

Or if you are budget contrained, go with a 4GB kit of DDR3-1333 @ CL7.

I currently have 4GB of 1866Mhz CL9. I have it clocked at 1450Mhz CL7. I was trying to decide whether upgrading to 8GB would make sense since it's getting so cheap. If I did upgrade, I would probably get 1333Mhz CL9. Would lowering my RAM speed really have no affect on my gaming? Would the additional 4GB actually help? Do you have benchmarks?

You are set up nicely with your current memory at 1450 CL7. I would not upgrade to anything CL9, rather match what you have and run 8GB @ 1450 CL7. For gaming you are fine with 4GB unless you are seeing your resource consumption going way up...

A little dated, but still a good read => http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2008/07/08/is-m...

Faster ram is worth perhaps 1-3% in fps.
No game out now will take advantage of more than 4gb of ram.
If you will be exclusively playing the game, and no other multitasking, 4gb will be fine.
There is some argument for more than 4gb though, read this Corsair document:
http://blog.corsair.com/?p=65

Read this Article and decide for yourself.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,...

I would personally go with 8 Gigs especially now that RAM is so cheap you can get 8 gigs for what 4 cost just a year ago.

That was an interesting article. I don't quite understand their reasoning though. They showed that more RAM doesn't help, but then recommended a minimum of 8GB. Am I missing something?