Fast 8gb or slower 16gb?

[TomasFr]

Hi!

So apparently RAM prices are sinking.

 

My budget couldn't afford 16gb before but if the prices drop I might be able to get a kit. It would have to be slower than I'd like since i plan on using a Ryzen processor though.

The other option is to stay with 8gb but buy a faster kit. That way I could always add more of the fast RAM rather than changing a whole 16gb set if it ever is too slow.

 

I don't actually think that I will really benefit much from 16gb since I will only play pretty simple videogames(CSGO, War Thunder).

 

Note that I'm NOT asking for specific RAM kits but that I just waned to see what you would do and what I should do.

 

Thanks in advance!!

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Slower 16, and overclock.

[xg32]

4 minutes ago, TomasFr said:

.

hands down slower 16gb, i don't think it's worth trying to work around 8gb ram anymore if you are buying new, i saw a gskill 2x8kit cl16 3200 on newegg last week (?) for 85usd.

[TomasFr]

3 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Slower 16, and overclock.

How much can you overclock RAM then?

Can I buy a 2400mhz set and oc it to 3000mhz? Or would I have to get 2800mhz to be able to oc over 3000?

[SupaKomputa]

Ram will overclock to 1 level up pretty easy without any tweaking. (2133-2400 or 2400-2666)

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

It depends on the system. Intel systems don't really see much benefit going to faster RAM, but AMD Zen systems will. It also depends on the speed difference between the two. If it's DDR4-3000 and DDR4-3200, this is less than a 10% difference in performance if the use-case is really memory bandwidth sensitive.

[Jurrunio]

What board is this? If it can only use 2 sticks at most, then definitely go slow 2x8gb because 1x8gb will suck even if you get very good overclock on it (say 3466MHz tight timings) because you only get single channel.

[TomasFr]

2 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Ram will overclock to 1 level up pretty easy without any tweaking. (2133-2400 or 2400-2666)

 

Thank you!

2 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

without any tweaking

What would tweaking mean then? Messing with the volts?

[Imglidinhere]

Getting 16GB of 2400mhz will always be better than even 8GB of 3600mhz. Hell, I'm only running 2400mhz RAM myself. 8GB just isn't viable for anything outside everyday machines. Crazy to think like that, but yeah, I see 14GB RAM being used in some games, and I never play the bit AAA-titles so, who knows how bad it can get. More RAM isn't a bad plan at this rate.  

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

10 minutes ago, TomasFr said:

How much can you overclock RAM then?

Can I buy a 2400mhz set and oc it to 3000mhz? Or would I have to get 2800mhz to be able to oc over 3000?

That's pretty reasonable.

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, TomasFr said:

Thank you!

What would tweaking mean then? Messing with the volts?

Yes, no volt tweaking for "light" overclock.

To get to 3000 you need to up the volt as well.

[TomasFr]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

What board is this? If it can only use 2 sticks at most, then definitely go slow 2x8gb because 1x8gb will suck even if you get very good overclock on it (say 3466MHz tight timings) because you only get single channel.

Oh I will definiately buy a mobo with 4 dimm slots. I've been looking at the MSI b450m MORTAR.

I'll probably buy a dual channel kit and leave two slots open for upgradeability.

[DailyProcrastinator]

Get the cheapest dual channel 2x 8GB kit you can get (from a reputable brand).

[Jurrunio]

16 minutes ago, TomasFr said:

Oh I will definiately buy a mobo with 4 dimm slots. I've been looking at the MSI b450m MORTAR.

I'll probably buy a dual channel kit and leave two slots open for upgradeability.

then my vote goes to 8GB kit, rather than rolling the dice on overclockability on memory sticks.