1866 MHz compared to 1600 MHz Ram

[GoldenTree]

Hey i'm planning my build and i'm going for looks. I do not know what to chose, i'm going for Patriot's Virper 3 and i'm not sure if I go for 1866 Mhz at 2 sticks with 8gb or 1600Mhz at 4 sticks with 16gb. The 16gb is 40 dollars more. Does it look better with all dims filled I want looks and is there a performance change between the two. Thanks in advance.

[DLM_012]

Well if looks are really important for you, I'd fill all of the RAM slots.

Regarding the frequency of the memory, you won't see a real world performance difference between 1600Mhz and 1866Mhz RAM unless you're running a system with AMD's APUs which do benefit from faster memory.

[MTROB]

The RAM running at 1866 MHz will be faster than the one with the lower clock speed. The more sticks of RAM you have the hotter they will get but you don't have to worry about heat for RAM unless you plan on OCing it. In terms of size if you will be running multiple programs at once or video/photo editing the more RAM the better. But if your gaming 8GB is enough. In terms of looks its up to you. Think about what you mother board looks like then think about it. IMO dual sticks looks fine.

[airdeano]

some systems overclocked do not play well with 4 stick RAM configs. especially early releases of

chips. the integrated memory controller (IMC) were weak and some mobo mfgs didn't revise the

PCB and can fail in quad stick configs.

RAM speed that close isn't much to worry about. 15% speed or 25nano seconds difference.

another thing to ponder is when purchasing RAM, you should consider a matched stick kit.

buying a 2x 4gb kit now and buying that same kit say 6mo later, usually will have RAM releated

errors due to "speed/timing" differences. that's why a 4stick kit is higher, because of binning 4

sticks matched.

airdeano

[Maverik5124]

The frequency will basically not make any difference. Just get what you can afford and what you need. Do you really need 16gb? The only reason I can think of is video editing and rendering. For gaming and browsing 8gb will be plenty!

[GoldenTree]

Thanks guys I will look for 4 sticks to make up 8gb I think it will look better like that. If I can not find it I will got for the 1866 ram. Thanks a lot

[TechTheWorld]

1866mhz ram is 266mhz faster than 1600mhz ram.

[Rhizo]

1866mhz ram is 266mhz faster than 1600mhz ram.

This is the most helpful thing to ever have escaped the mouth of a human being. Period.

[That Norwegian Guy]

The frequency will basically not make any difference. Just get what you can afford and what you need. Do you really need 16gb? The only reason I can think of is video editing and rendering. For gaming and browsing 8gb will be plenty!

Next gen open world sandbox type games WILL utilize more than 8GB of RAM, so I strongly recommend 16 gigs if you like series like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Stalker etc.

[TechTheWorld]

1866mhz ram is 266mhz faster than 1600mhz ram.

This is the most helpful thing to ever have escaped the mouth of a human being. Period.

Lol sry I was not in a very good mood:(Sorry.

[GoldenTree]

1866mhz ram is 266mhz faster than 1600mhz ram.

This is the most helpful thing to ever have escaped the mouth of a human being. Period.

I forgive you

[Nertballs]

comparing apples to apples, as in 8gb 1866 and 8gb 1600, there really will be no notable difference for common use, unless as said, with an apu

[HEXiT]

if you use ram thats faster then what the cpu's mmu can handle natively then you will be limited to 1 dim per channel. which means if you hav ddr3 1600 you can use it in all 4 slots but ddr3 1866 may only be usable in 2 slots. yes the ram will show up in bios but it will randomly appear and disappear in windows. i ran into this issue with the first gen i7 and its still the same today on the 3rd gen.

all you get when you use ram thats faster than what the cpu can handle natively is more bandwidth. but in reality that extra bandwidth isnt gonna ever be used so its just wasted.

so the best thing for you to do is buy the ddr3 1600 and buy it with as low a latency as you can find...

ddr3 1600 at 777-20 is actually more efficient and faster in real world applications than ddr3 1866 999-27.

it would be a different story if you were using an amd apu as that can handle faster ram natively so you will see an improvement but on an intel system you just dont.

better to have less but use it efficiently than have more and never use it or use it wastefully.