Memory speed upgrading

[DotoreN]

Hello,

 

One of the games I play is Arma 3, this is a well known "huge" game, that requires a lot from your computer.

Recently my friends upgraded their Memory speed from the default DRAM: 666Mhz (1333Mhz) into DRAM 800 Mhz (1666Mhz) in the bios.

They have good results so far, they have a FPS boost from 20 up to 40-50.

They said almost any memory can run at 1666Mhz, as the system sets it on 1333Mhz by default as "Safe" setting.

 

I just want to make sure if I can do this without damaging my computer, keep in mind that i'm not an expert with computers and only been in the bios once.

I provided a link to my memory specs wih CPU-Z : http://oi58.tinypic.com/302ujo5.jpg

 

So my question basically is: Do you think I can upgrade the memory speed into 1666Mhz without damaging my computer and if yes, how do I do it?

 

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Regards,

 

DotoreN

[cesrai]

What??? how does changing the speed of ram gives 20 fps this doesn't make sense, linus video said it doesn't matter 1333 Mhz is fine, I think your friend did something else or he is lying to you.

[mlbguy4life]

specs?

[yimello]

nonono... lower video settings, if that does not help -> fresh windows install, if that does not help -> better gpu, that will probably help -> better cpu, (-> ssd)... that's the way for higher fps  ))

[runit3]

One of the games I play is Arma 3, this is a well known "huge" game, that requires a lot from your computer.

Recently my friends upgraded their Memory speed from the default DRAM: 666Mhz (1333Mhz) into DRAM 800 Mhz (1666Mhz) in the bios.

They have good results so far, they have a FPS boost from 20 up to 40-50.

They said almost any memory can run at 1666Mhz, as the system sets it on 1333Mhz by default as "Safe" setting.

There is no conceivable way to get 20 fps from a RAM speed increase of 333MHz, even with an APU. They either never set up their RAM timings properly, or they're lying.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/6

 

 

So my question basically is: Do you think I can upgrade the memory speed into 1666Mhz without damaging my computer and if yes, how do I do it?

You can't "upgrade" RAM speed. You can do one of two things, either buy a new kit that is rated to run at a higher speed via an XMP profile, or you can try overclocking your RAM. That being said, you're not going to see any benefit from doing this, especially in gaming. You would get more theoretical benefit moving from CL9 to CL7 (tightening down your timings).

 

What is the exact model # of your RAM? You may just be running it at JDEC as opposed to an XMP profile that the RAM supports. If you switch to the SPD tab of CPU-Z you should be able to see a column labeled "XMP" if it does have an alternative profile.

[DotoreN]

nonono... lower video settings, if that does not help -> fresh windows install, if that does not help -> better gpu, that will probably help -> better cpu, (-> ssd)... that's the way for higher fps   ))

 

Is it worth it to put for example Arma 3 on a SSD?

I thought it only increased loading screen and such, not actual fps, and I thought SSD wears out quickily if you install games on it, instead of the HDD.

 

And I think i ment "memory frequency" if that makes sense.. I'm not an expert on this, so bear with me.

 

Thanks for the quick reponses, wooh!

 

 

- DotoreN

[mlbguy4life]

yes if you have arma3 , it should be on a ssd.......and there is no way in hell they increased 30 or so fps by upping ram speed

[DotoreN]

yes if you have arma3 , it should be on a ssd.......and there is no way in hell they increased 30 or so fps by upping ram speed

 

Sorry to ask the same question twice, but if I put it on SSD, are you sure my FPS will increase?

I seriously thought it only increased loading screens and such.

[yimello]

Is it worth it to put for example Arma 3 on a SSD?

I thought it only increased loading screen and such, not actual fps, and I thought SSD wears out quickily if you install games on it, instead of the HDD.

 

And I think i ment "memory frequency" if that makes sense.. I'm not an expert on this, so bear with me.

 

Thanks for the quick reponses, wooh!

 

 

- DotoreN

 

Why not. I am personally going to buy 1TB SSD soon and get rid of HDDs. Why should you care about SSD to fail if you take for example Samsung 850 PRO which have 10 year warranty. Remember what PCs there were in 2004 and after that imagine what they will be in 2024....I guess there will be something much better than SSDs that we have today.. 

[runit3]

Is it worth it to put for example Arma 3 on a SSD?

I thought it only increased loading screen and such, not actual fps, and I thought SSD wears out quickily if you install games on it, instead of the HDD.

 

And I think i ment "memory frequency" if that makes sense.. I'm not an expert on this, so bear with me.

 

Thanks for the quick reponses, wooh!

 

 

- DotoreN

Some games will run better off an SSD, and no, it should not decrease the life of the SSD. SSD life-times are reduced by many writes, games do not perform multiple writes, you're only reading data that already exists on the drive (levels, textures, models, etc.)

 

You're right that it theoretically should not increase FPS, but it may reduce stutter/hitching/load times that could be attributed to low read times off a HDD, especially if you're using a 5400RPM HDD. However, most well coded games will receive little to no benefit. The main exception to this that I've had experience with was Diablo 3 pre-RoS. The game was coded like shit and played horribly off any HDD. People went so far as to move the MPQ files to USB thumbdrives to improve stuttering/load times. Blizzard has since patched up their mistakes and now it runs similarly off HDD's and SSD's.

 

Decent SSD vs. HDD from HardOCP

Charts

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/10/hdd_vs_ssd_real_world_gaming_performance/4#.VH3MM8mEvZo

Conclusion

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/10/hdd_vs_ssd_real_world_gaming_performance/5#.VH3MSMmEvZo

[yimello]

Sorry to ask the same question twice, but if I put it on SSD, are you sure my FPS will increase?

I seriously thought it only increased loading screens and such.

 

It will not actually increase your frames but it will increase read and write speeds... Maybe your bottleneck is (OLD) HDD?

[mrconan]

yeah definitely lying...

[mlbguy4life]

Sorry to ask the same question twice, but if I put it on SSD, are you sure my FPS will increase?

I seriously thought it only increased loading screens and such.

i never said that if you install the game on a ssd that your fps will increase....but the game will see an improvement by being on a ssd......

[i_build_nanosuits]

RAM speed won't affect gaming performance in any way unless you are using on-chip video processing (APU) and even then you will never see 20 extra FPS in games...never.

Linus has proven this long ago testing as low as 800MHZ speed vs fast as possible ram and the results where within margin of error across the board