Best RAM for my system?

[Firedrops]

Hi guys! I was hoping someone could help me choose the RAM at the *sweetest* spot for my upcoming build.

I plan to get 8GB(2x4GB) 1600MHz, as this will mostly be for gaming and general usage, no studio-editing/simulations etc.

GPU: 7850
Mobo: Asus Z68 V-Pro Gen 3
CPU: i5-3570k

Most indecisive part is the CL7/8/9 part. Unsure of at which point does this value stop translating into worthwhile real-world performance.

Most past reviews consider the SB architecture to be a bottleneck to lower latencies and higher clock cycles, so I'm hoping to get some more relevant insight since I'll be getting an IB CPU.

Let's ignore my budget for the time being

Thanks in advance for all input!

 

[Guest]

Hi guys! I was hoping someone could help me choose the RAM at the *sweetest* spot for my upcoming build.

I plan to get 8GB(2x4GB) 1600MHz, as this will mostly be for gaming and general usage, no studio-editing/simulations etc.

GPU: 7850
Mobo: Asus Z68 V-Pro Gen 3
CPU: i5-3570k

Most indecisive part is the CL7/8/9 part. Unsure of at which point does this value stop translating into worthwhile real-world performance.

Most past reviews consider the SB architecture to be a bottleneck to lower latencies and higher clock cycles, so I'm hoping to get some more relevant insight since I'll be getting an IB CPU.

Let's ignore my budget for the time being

Thanks in advance for all input!

what the hell are you talking about?!?!?!?

do not be confused with sandy bridge simply does NOT need expensive low latency fast ram to be efficient.

 

[Firedrops]

what the hell are you talking about?!?!?!?
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4503/39728.png

1600 CAS8 is a better choice than 1866 CAS9, that said gains are minor. Check your motherboard for memory overclock options.
Sandy Bridge is 1333, Ivy Bridge goes higher.
The Sandy Bridge memory bandwith/architechture allows the CPU to workabout as fast as possible at 1333. It does overclock.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1637252

I probably misinterpreted this, but I'm under the influence that SB caused rapidly diminishing returns at a performance point, which is raised by IB. But then again he was the only user to have mentioned that, so it may be a very minor argument. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

That aside, thanks for that benchmark graph!

However, at which point does the diminishing returns of real-world performance scale up dramatically? I'm bad at gathering that kind of info from synthetic benchmarks.

 

[Guest]

didn't mean to be abrasive, sorry.

try giving this a read:
Sandy Bridge Memory Scaling: Choosing the Best DDR

 

[Firedrops]

Hi, thanks for the read!

From the "Graphics and Gaming" page, it pretty much confirmed my speculations that for DDR3-1600, there was not much real-world performance difference between the CL7/8/9. In fact, in most cases the CL9 actually managed to churn out slightly higher FPS than the CL8, and at the lowest was CL7. Kinda odd, innit?

However I wonder if there's any sort of increased differences between CL7-CL9 on IB? It seems unlikely, though.

 

[Guest]

i have not seen much in the way of memory testing like on the sandy article. just ONE bench so far that suggests the bandwidth is about the same:

from:
http://www.techspot.com/review/523-ivy-bridge-intel-core-i7-3770k/page3.html

EDIT: i seem to have not posted info regarding your question about latency. as the bandwidth may have stayed the same it seems the latency has gone down "somewhat"

from:
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/37989-intel-core-i7-3770k-22nm-ivy-bridge/?page=9

 

[Firedrops]

Best answer selected by Firedrops.

 

[Firedrops]

Hey thanks for all your help!
I guess all in all the slight increase in performance from CL9 to Cl8/7 just isn't worth the money for me

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr