What can I expect with new RAM?

[will_lud]

Hi, been a while!

I built a machine a while ago and its done me well so far but im plannig on giving it an upgrade or two to freshen it up.

currently it runs a [FONT=Arial]AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8GHz 6MB L3 Cache[/FONT] which I believe has a bus speed of 2000MHz
at the time I only had enough money to buy 1333MHz RAM so im looking to upgrade that.

now my question is if I change the ram out for some 2000MHz will my speed effectively increase by another 50%? due to the bus speed difference of around 50%.

or should I just buy another 8gb at 1333 to give my computer 16gb of ram?

thanks

 

[cliffordcooley]

What do you use the PC for?
You probably wouldn't see much difference with faster memory, if you are an average user.
Would you have need in more than 8GB of memory?

I'm currently running 8GB of DDR3-1600 and rarely see more than 4GB memory usage. I don't see a need in more memory or faster modules. Perhaps AMD is different than Intel, I'm not familiar with AMD configuration or performance.

 

[Dawn1113]

Like cliffordcooley, I'm unfamiliar with AMD, so I can't be 100% sure what I've seen of my system will hold true in your particular case.

Having said that, I'll venture that more RAM can't be ever be bad. But I would nonetheless think 8gb of RAM is more than enough for most users. If at most you use your PC for games, browsing and MS Office, as I do, then it is unlikely that you will ever use all 8gb, in fact. (I have 8gb of RAM installed on another PC I now use for multi-track recording -- and I've never seen that machine use more than 4gb. ) Some of my friends have claimed smoother performance. That might be true, for all I know. But, personally, the only reason I upgraded from 8gb to 16gb RAM on my gaming machine was a discount I found impossible to ignore.

If you like to use VM and -- for some reason -- at the same time have multiple Firefox windows up while you game, that's quite another thing. Also, if you use autocad, studio max, Sony Vegas -- or any other RAM-hungry software, for that matter -- then I'm guessing the benefits of having 16gb RAM would be more apparent.

 

[will_lud]

Thanks for the replies

I use my pc for AutoCAD and sketchup pro (with vray renderer). sketchup, from what gather renders in realtime so relies on ram constantly.

to be honest I might get another 8gb but if im not gonna notice a huge change in speed if I was to change from 1333MHz to 2000mhz then I may as well get another 8gb of 1333MHz as its less than 30quid.

im still undecided though so if anyone has any more advice id be happy for them

 

[slh28]

In pretty much all instances, more RAM is better than faster RAM. If what you're doing is really memory intensive then consider getting one or two sets of this Samsung RAM, easily the best kit out there. It's rated at only 1.35V (most DDR3 kits are 1.5V or 1.65V) and overclocks really well.

 

[nissanman]

I don't think you will see much of a difference in games. Maybe a few more frames but nothing major. I wouldn't spend money on buying more RAM considering you are already running 8GB. But RAM is so cheap these days, upgrading to faster RAM really couldn't hurt. But like I said, gaming wont show massive improvements. Faster RAM really only improves performance in benchmarks. But yeah, definitely go with faster RAM over more RAM if you really want to upgrade.