Is it worth it to upgrade my ram?

[Stealth3si]

Will I notice a significant difference in art applications, heavy internet browsing, and gaming?

From what is listed in my specs, I am thinking of upgrading to the following RAM mainly because it's on sale for Labor Day.

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL11D-8GBXL

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231468&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL082812&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL082812-_-EMC-082812-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20231468-L04B

 

[Traildriver]

How much ram do you have now and what is the OS?. XP's limit is 4GB (approx - depending on on-board graphics etc)

Going from 2 GB to 4 is excellent for any OS. Going from 4 to 8 is only good for Win 7. You will notice improvement in various programs you run. As long as the ram matches your system then go for it.

 

[schnitter]

first of all, just because that ram is 2133 doesnt mean your motherboard will support it.

If your MoBo does support it, you will have to force it in BIOS to run on that frequency.

Furthermore, you cannot pair this new "fast" ram to "slow" old and expect the new one to run fast.

Ram is of little importance and you will not notice much of a difference. Save up for a SSD and thats when you will see performance in big quantity.

To better assist you, please let us know what Motherboard you have, what CPU you have, and if you are thinking on replacing the old DIMMs with these or adding to your current setup.

 

[Stealth3si]

If you click "More Information > Member configuration" under my username, you will that my setup is:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/configuration.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&pseudo=Stealth3si

Antec 300 Illusion Case
Antec NEO ECO 620C
Asus M5A88-V EVO
Phenom II X4 960T OC\'d @ 4.2GHz / 6 cores @ 4014Mhz
CPU/NB @ 3038Mhz
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 1736Mhz CL9 1T
Asus Radeon HD 5450
Asus Xonar DX & Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 Darth'd w/ O2 Desktop Amp
Crucial M4 128GB, Barracuda 500GB, Hitachi 160GB/WD 500GB
Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard & Logitech G500
Viewsonic LCD 27" VA2702W @ 1920x1080
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1

I would be replacing them.

 

[gskill support]

Due to your CPU, you will be limited to DDR3-1866, so frequency gain won't be much there. Check to see how much memory is used when you have all possible applications up and running to see if it is near 8GB. If it is, you can try to upgrade to 16GB. Other than that, you can try to achieve DDR3-1866 CL8 with some new memory for max performance.

Should you upgrade to an FX CPU in the future, then you can achieve DDR3-2133.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

If you click "More Information > Member configuration" under my username, you will that my setup is:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/configuration.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&pseudo=Stealth3si

Antec 300 Illusion Case
Antec NEO ECO 620C
Asus M5A88-V EVO
Phenom II X4 960T OC\'d @ 4.2GHz / 6 cores @ 4014Mhz
CPU/NB @ 3038Mhz
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 1736Mhz CL9 1T
Asus Radeon HD 5450
Asus Xonar DX & Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 Darth'd w/ O2 Desktop Amp
Crucial M4 128GB, Barracuda 500GB, Hitachi 160GB/WD 500GB
Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard & Logitech G500
Viewsonic LCD 27" VA2702W @ 1920x1080
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1

I would be replacing them.

 

[Stealth3si]

Best answer selected by Stealth3si.