RAM and overclocking

lostsoul62 said:

I'm building a new computer a i5 or Amd 965 and I was told by one of the store geeks that DDR3 1333 is as high as you can go without overclocking. So buying 1600 or 2000 would be a waste of money. Does anyone know anything about this?

Mostly a correct statement. If you don't plan to overclock, you won't need Ram over 1333MHz. However, that is a general statement. The 1333MHz Ram might have looser timings, or be lesser quality. If the 1600MHz Ram had tighter timings and was a better quality, it will run better at 1333MHz then the lesser Ram.

I have an i5 750 and good 1600MHz Ram. I run my BCLK at 160 which overclocks my CPU and runs my Ram at it's native 1600MHz.

If you ever plan to overclock in the future, you could adjust your Ram multiplier to keep your Ram under 1333MHz, or run it a bit higher than 1333MHz if it is good quality. But 1600MHz Ram will allow you room for improvement. Also, it's sometimes possible to get 1600MHz Ram at similar prices as 1333MHz Ram.

A Guy

NonitoAV said:

I would've thought 4gb was sufficient for virtually most applications/games. Adding more ram doesn't actually speed your computer up, it allows you to keep more files open without slowing down.

Agreed. I have 8 GB of RAM in my laptop because I run VMs on it a lot which can eat up RAM pretty quickly, but for most purposes 4GB is enough. Also, for games, you are better off focusing on the video card, CPU, and storage device (for loading times). For example, I could have got 12 GB of RAM in my desktop, but then I would have had to cut my graphics card down a few notches. Obviously, that was not what I wanted as I stuck with 6 and got a good video card. Also, the reason I got 6 and not 4 is because my options for this PC as it has triple channel were either 3, 6, 12, or 24GB for optimal performance. I'm not totally sure on this, but I believe that by having the exact same RAM in each channel, it helps.

Errr, the OP asked about frequency, not total amount of Ram :)

A Guy