Gaming RAM for new system

adampcpower

Honorable
May 26, 2012
209
0
10,680
Im building my first PC for high end gaming. I want to know, are the G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231460

...compatible with the ASRock z77 Extreme4 Mobo and if yes, is there a noticeable difference between 1600 and 1866 ram for high end gaming? What do these numbers represent?

Thanks for your time
 
Solution
SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Cas Latency: 9
SDRAM = Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
DDR3 = Double Data Rate, 3rd generation
1600 = data rate of each signal on the memory bus, 1600 Megabits per sec (Mbps). The clock rate is 800 MHz. The data rate is double the clock rate.
PC3 = Printed Circuit generation 3. i.e. the entire memory stick.
12800 = Data Rate of the entire memory stick. 12.8 GigaBytes per sec (GB/s)
Cas Latency 9 = number of memory bus clocks it takes for the memory stick to respond to a read request. Each clock of an 800 MHz clock is 1.25 ns. 9 clocks = 11.25 ns.
Regards

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Your link is broken but 1866 and higher speeds won't mix well with Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge, and neither will 1.35V or 1.65V RAM.

A good rule of thumb is to check your motherboard vendor's QVL to see what they recommend as far as RAM kits go. This is what I'd recommend over the Sniper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

And no there's no noticeable difference between 1600 and 1866 - on default settings your motherboard runs the lowest speeds and timing settings it can handle. Intel actually recommends that you don't go above 1600 on SB/IB builds or they will void your CPU's warranty.
 
Yes it's listed as compatible on the mobo list as far as if your question goes The maximum transfer rate for a memory module can be calculated through the following formula:

Maximum Theoretical Transfer Rate = clock x number of bits / 8

Since DIMM modules transfer 64 bits at a time, “number of bits” will be 64. As 64 / 8 equals 8, we can simplify this formula to:

Maximum Theoretical Transfer Rate = clock x 8

If the memory module is installed on a system where the memory bus is running at a lower clock rate, the maximum transfer rate the memory module will achieve will be lower than its theoretical maximum transfer rate. Actually, this is a very common misjudgment.

For example, let’s say that you bought a pair of DDR3-2133/PC3-17000 memories. Even though they are labeled as DDR3-2133, they won’t run at 2,133 MHz automatically on your system. This is the maximum clock rate they support, not the clock rate at which they will be running. If you install it on a regular PC system supporting DDR3 memories, they will probably run at 1,333 MHz (DDR3-1333) – which the maximum DDR3 standard speed –, achieving a maximum transfer rate of 10,664 MB/s (or 21,328 MB/s if they are running under dual channel mode,. So, they won’t automatically run at 2,133 MHz nor automatically achieve the 17,000 MB/s transfer rate.Thus buying a memory module with a labeled clock rate higher than what your system supports is useless if you are not going to overclock your system.

So, why would someone buy these modules? Someone would buy them for overclocking. Since the manufacturer guarantees that these modules will run up to 2,133 MHz, you know that you can raise the memory bus clock up to 1,066 MHz to achieve a higher performance with your system. However, your motherboard must support this kind of overclocking read this to understand it more fully http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CFoQFjAAOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hardwaresecrets.com%2Farticle%2FUnderstanding-RAM-Timings%2F26&ei=DfDPT-H-NqbM2AXxz7mxDA&usg=AFQjCNFbn40dZfX0JWYARsr-qoamT1lndw&sig2=d6ruYvoC_icj-YNqhvkzOw
 
SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Cas Latency: 9
SDRAM = Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
DDR3 = Double Data Rate, 3rd generation
1600 = data rate of each signal on the memory bus, 1600 Megabits per sec (Mbps). The clock rate is 800 MHz. The data rate is double the clock rate.
PC3 = Printed Circuit generation 3. i.e. the entire memory stick.
12800 = Data Rate of the entire memory stick. 12.8 GigaBytes per sec (GB/s)
Cas Latency 9 = number of memory bus clocks it takes for the memory stick to respond to a read request. Each clock of an 800 MHz clock is 1.25 ns. 9 clocks = 11.25 ns.
Regards

 
Solution