DDR3 1600 (Cas 7) vs DDR3 2200 (Cas 9)

lthompson94

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New to the community, sorry for the long post.

Is there a major visible difference here? I use the computer for a lot of gaming, also 3-d applications like 3ds-MAX and Maya, so it's pretty system intensive stuff. The setup is currently under-construction, here's the main specs:

ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 OR GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 - mobo.
EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 - video
Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition - CPU

I can provide more info if needed.

The ASUS mobo. only supports DDR3 1600 (2000OC). The GIGABYTE supports DDR3 2200, but apparently not DDR3 1600, so I'd have to use 1333. I know the Gig got the 2010 mobo award from Tom's, but from what I've read people seem to be much more satisfied with the ASUS.

Question is, is it worth getting the GIGABYTE just for the DDR3 2200 support?

DDR3 2200 Cas Latency 9 - $300 (8 gigs)
DDR3 1600 Cas Latency 7 - $220 (12 Gigs)

I can get the ASUS and use 1600 with a lower latency for a little cheaper, also get more RAM. But if 2200 outperforms the 1600 by a significant amount I may spend the money. Is there another option?

Also, how much lower does latency need to be to really see a difference?
 
Going only from your choices; see below. Maya works a lot better with the AMD e.g. 1100T, and I'm not an AMD fan boy.

Choices:
ASUS P6X58D-E
DDR3 1600 Cas Latency 7 - $220 (12 Gigs)

It's all about the IC's used in the production of the RAM:
Comparison Module #1: Mushkin Redline 996805 6-8-6-24 1600MHz
Comparison Module #2: G.Skill Pi Series 7-8-7-24 1600MHz
Comparison Module #3: Mushkin 998687 8-9-8-24 1866MHz
Comparison Module #4: Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 8-8-8-24 1600MHz
Comparison Module #5: Kingston HyperX T1 9-9-9-27 1600MHz
Comparison Module #6: Mushkin Blackline 998677B 7-7-7-20 1333MHz
Comparison Module #7: Patriot Viper II Sector 7 9-9-9-27 1800MHz

DDR3__Bench_RES.jpg

DDR3__Bench.jpg

Stock:
DDR3_Bench_StockPCMV.jpg
 

lthompson94

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Thanks for the info, by the chart it would appear that the Muchkin Blackline 1333MHz actually beats out the G. SKill Pi 1600MHz I was considering, or am I reading that wrong. Are these only OC statistics? I don't do a lot of that. Sorry, I know my way around PCs for the most part but some of the intricacies still evade me. Is there a chart like this that compares 2200 to 1600? Also, can you recommend a 1600MHz RAM? It seems like Kingston HyperX from the chart, or the Mushkin 1333.
 
The bottom chart is stock and the top two are all at 1800 MHz. From the chart, the Kingston HyperX H2O was the best -- but take a look at them -> http://www.kingston.com/hyperx/products/H2O.asp

2000 MHz RAM is bordering on the i7 9XX IMC, and in most cases the BCLK needs to be increased to 160 MHz or above to keep the CPU and RAM stable. Therefore, I caution it's use and the overall gain between 1600 MHz to 2000 MHz is at best 2~3%; beyond Gaming the errors would concern me for any of the rendering Apps listed. However, 2000 MHz RAM can indeed be set at slower speeds.

The first thing I look for is tight & low CAS timings e.g. {better} 1600 8-8-8 vs 1600 7-8-7 {worst}. I have 10 rigs running the Corsair Dominator 3X2GB TR3X6G1600C8D or it's higher density variants and find them to b rock solid.

Rendering:
If high density: Corsair Dominator 3X4GB CMP12GX3M3A1600C9 9-9-9-24-2N, or G.SKILL F3-12800CL8T-12GBRM 8-8-8-24-2N.

If high density bang per $: CORSAIR Vengeance 3x4GB CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9, or G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-12GBRL
 
The Asus would be my choice of the two .... last year .... now I use the Asus Sabertooth

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665

Can't speak for the 3D Studio Max but in Autodesk's AutoCAD, I'd recommend the CAS 6

If you are OC'ing and using an aftermarket cooler, avoid anything with tall heatsinks.

For example, these will likely interfere with ya cooler

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233145
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231352
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145321
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233146

These won't

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145236
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226181
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104127
 

lthompson94

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Thanks for all of the responses. I'm still tossing around which to ultimately go with, I'll post my results here once I've placed the order and let everyone know how things went.
 

lthompson94

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Thanks for all of the responses. I'm still tossing around which to ultimately go with, I'll post my results here once I've placed the order and let everyone know how things went.

* EDIT * Sorry for the double-post. Not sure how that happened.
 

ir33d

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first.
AMD uses something called an IMC (Integrated Memory Controller).
It helps the AMD chips perform very well in memory related tasks (because now the ram isn't controlled by the motherboard through the FSB)
but it also has a few quirks.
The IMC doesn't seem to like a lot of stress, and so in general, you wont get as much of an OC out of your ram if you have all of your ram slots populated.
So it should be easier to get more performance out of only two sticks of ram.


*Intels Nahelem architecture utilizes this same design, leaving the Core 2 series as the only mainstream processor to still use the FSB design.


Also, the same thing goes for mismatched ram, the IMC just doesn't like it.
So if you have ram that is not from the same kit, and are experiencing instability, try taking out the non-matching set, and see if that helps out.


Also, you might have heard about the “timings” of the ram, and how that is important.
I have seen a lot of people get confused with that.
Let me explain this as simply as I can.


There is memory speed, and then there are memory timings.


Speed is the frequency that the memory operates at (in MHz... and remember that when you are looking in CPU-z that ram is DDR [Double Data Rate], so the frequency that it says will always be half of what it is actually running at). It is fairly straightforward and easy to understand.
And remember that the ram speed is tied to the reference clock, and in this way you can easily OC your ram beyond the stock speed.
Speed is mostly important for higher bandwidth, as it just means that the ram can move more information.


Timings are different, and should not be confused with the speed. Timings do not effect the speed (in MHz) of the ram at all.
Instead, they change how “efficient” the ram is. In other words, the timings affect the “turnaround” of the information.
The timings are generally listed something like this: 5-5-5-18. While I wont go into all of the details about what those each mean here,
I can give you a basic idea of what the timings mean. Timings change how long the ram will wait to do something.
So having ram with looser (numerically higher) timings, means that the ram will “wait” longer in between processes.
Using the example of 5-5-5-18 ram, information is copied, it then waits for 5 clock cycles before it moves onto the next step.
Ram with 7-7-7-23 timings running at the same speed (in MHz) will move the information there just as quickly,
but then will need to wait for 7 cycles between doing things, rather than 5.
This is why “performance” ram is in fact faster.

May I ask what "performance RAM" is? Is it RAM with tight timings, or is it RAM running @ higher frequencies?