How much of an impact will upgrading DDR3 669Mhz RAM to DDR3 1600 Mhz RAM have on gaming?

[Dragonfly]

Before I say anything else, yes I do have 669 Mhz RAM which came free with my toaster. Anyways, I plan on upgrading to 1600 Mhz RAM, but how much of an impact will it have on my gaming performance? I play games like CS:GO, Killing Floor 2, and LoL. Will it bump up my fps a lot (like 10-20 frames) or just a measly 3 frames? Thanks.

[babadoctor]

Before I say anything else, yes I do have 669 Mhz RAM which came free with my toaster. Anyways, I plan on upgrading to 1600 Mhz RAM, but how much of an impact will it have on my gaming performance? I play games like CS:GO, Killing Floor 2, and LoL. Will it bump up my fps a lot (like 10-20 frames) or just a measly 3 frames? Thanks.

i think that without your build we cant make any assumptions.

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2 - 5FPS assuming your build is OK. (Also depends on latency of the RAM)

[Dragonfly]

i think that without your build we cant make any assumptions.

My build is a GTX 650 and an AMD A4-5300.

[Syntaxvgm]

5FPS 

lol

[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

lol

 

Educated guess

[babadoctor]

My build is a GTX 650 and an AMD A4-5300.

I think that you should anyways.... your toaster is crying out to you... its whispering faintly...

 

 

GET ME NEW RAM!!!

[Syntaxvgm]

Before I say anything else, yes I do have 669 Mhz RAM which came free with my toaster.

No, you don't. That's the single channel speed of 1333 memory. If you have only 1 stick or not a kit or something, you may be running at that speed, but if you have 2 or 4 sticks properly installed, you are getting that speed x2, (dual channel)

[Cheddle]

Before I say anything else, yes I do have 669 Mhz RAM which came free with my toaster. Anyways, I plan on upgrading to 1600 Mhz RAM, but how much of an impact will it have on my gaming performance? I play games like CS:GO, Killing Floor 2, and LoL. Will it bump up my fps a lot (like 10-20 frames) or just a measly 3 frames? Thanks.

 

likley 1-2 fps if your lucky... also where are you getting 669mhz from? its DDR so "1600"mhz is actually reported as "800" mhz. you might not be making as large a jump as you think.

 

going from 1333->1600 mhz makes 1-2% difference with a dedicated GPU (more with an iGPU as its like overclocking your vram) and higher than 1600mhz really does nothing

[babadoctor]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I'm stupid lol.

 

But, but, but... IT BURNED MY TOAST AND NOW IT'S GOING TO PAY.

gg

[Cheddle]

No, you don't. That's the single channel speed of 1333 memory. If you have only 1 stick or not a kit or something, you may be running at that speed, but if you have 2 or 4 sticks properly installed, you are getting that speed x2, (dual channel)

 

no. channels has zero impact on RAM mhz. its DDR = double data rate memory.

 

"DDR RAM is Double Data Rate RAM. Although DDR RAM can be designed for various clock rates, we will concentrate on DDR-266 RAM. It operates with a 133 MHz clock, but it uses both the leading and trailing edge of the clock cycle. Hence, it produces data at an equivalent clock rate of 266 MHz, which is a double data rate."

[Dragonfly]

No, you don't. That's the single channel speed of 1333 memory. If you have only 1 stick or not a kit or something, you may be running at that speed, but if you have 2 or 4 sticks properly installed, you are getting that speed x2, (dual channel)

Actually, I'm using 1 stick. I just looked in my toaster and there's one stick of RAM. What would be the impact anyways?

[Cheddle]

Actually, I'm using 1 stick. I just looked in my toaster and there's one stick of RAM. What would be the impact anyways?

 

some specific tests show higher bandwidth when using dual cahnnel over single channel however in practice the benifit is basically 0%

 

99% of the time an applciation is CPU bound and a game is GPU bound

 

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-dual-channel-works-vs-single-channel/Page-3

 

look at the gaming FPS on that link

[Godlygamer23]

No, you don't. That's the single channel speed of 1333 memory. If you have only 1 stick or not a kit or something, you may be running at that speed, but if you have 2 or 4 sticks properly installed, you are getting that speed x2, (dual channel)

Incorrect. Regardless of the number of channels being utilized in the system, your memory will still achieve two data transfers per stick, effectively doubling clock speed. It's right in the name. Double Data Rate.

[Syntaxvgm]

Incorrect. Regardless of the number of channels being utilized in the system, your memory will still achieve two data transfers per stick, effectively doubling clock speed. It's right in the name. Double Data Rate.

rrriiight...exactly what I'm saying. I'm saying he likely opened cpu-z and saw " 669MHz", and if he had two sticks of memory would still show that, as each stick on its own is technically that speed

I don't know what you guys think I'm saying

oh wait hold on

no no I'm right. 1 stick doesn't allow double data rate.

@Godlygamer23 please swoop in and correct me, I either messed something up or I'm misunderstood

[Godlygamer23]

no no I'm right. 1 stick doesn't allow double data rate.

The technique is known as double pumping. Completing two data transfers per clock per DIMM. That's exactly why motherboard manufacturer's display the frequency the way they do. Double pumping regardless of how many DIMMs you have. The clock displayed is per DIMM.

[Syntaxvgm]

The technique is known as double pumping. Completing two data transfers per clock per DIMM. That's exactly why motherboard manufacturer's display the frequency the way they do. Double pumping regardless of how many DIMMs you have. The clock displayed is per DIMM.

Can you link me to some documentation?

I have no idea how that works. I can pull a stick from my desktop right now and will literally have the memory speed in synthetic benchmarks.

[Godlygamer23]

Can you link me to some documentation?

I have no idea how that works. I can pull a stick from my desktop right now and will literally have the memory speed in synthetic benchmarks.

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/5276/double-data-rate-ddr

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/SDR_DDR_QDR.svg

http://www.directron.com/fsbguide.html#part3

[Syntaxvgm]

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/5276/double-data-rate-ddr

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/SDR_DDR_QDR.svg

http://www.directron.com/fsbguide.html#part3

Update [sept. 2007]: At this point, pretty much any motherboard you buy is going to have either Dual Channel DDR, DDR2, or DDR3. Most but not all Dual Channel supporting motherboards will operate in a slower single channel mode if using one stick of ram, but work best with ram in pairs. On these boards its best not to try the odd 3 stick of ram configuration though as some motherboards will have problems operating in this fasion or plain won't POST.

 

what I'm not understanding so far, (and I'm still reading) is how most things say having a single stick or mismatched sticks (like 3 odd ones or something, if it woks at all) will effectively half your speed, yet you, and some things, say it can somehow work with one stick...is this not supported by all motherboards or something? is it a special kind of feature or something? Because every time I've ran a single stick I did get half the effective speed. 

[Godlygamer23]

what I'm not understanding so far, (and I'm still reading) is how most things say having a single stick or mismatched sticks (like 3 odd ones or something, if it woks at all) will effectively half your speed, yet you, and some things, say it can somehow work with one stick...is this not supported by all motherboards or something? is it a special kind of feature or something? Because every time I've ran a single stick I did get half the effective speed. 

What program were you using to measure the speeds? Going from dual channel to single channel can effectively halve your bandwidth in half.

[Syntaxvgm]

What program were you using to measure the speeds? Going from dual channel to single channel can effectively halve your bandwidth in half.

anything, mainly dumping stuff from vram into main memory. 

I have a feeling I'm not lacking a basic understanding, but an understanding of the terminology behind this, thinking (as others appear to) that double data rate and dual channel are the same thing?

[Godlygamer23]

anything, mainly dumping stuff from vram into main memory. 

I have a feeling I'm not lacking a basic understanding, but an understanding of the terminology behind this, thinking (as others appear to) that double data rate and dual channel are the same thing?

Channels are effectively pathways of communication that can be utilized. Kind of like lanes on a highway or maybe even separate roads that go to the same destination. DDR is a technology that allows DIMMs to complete two data transfers per cycle per DIMM compared to SDR which only allows for one data transfer per clock per DIMM.

[Syntaxvgm]

Channels are effectively pathways of communication that can be utilized. Kind of like lanes on a highway or maybe even separate roads that go to the same destination. DDR is a technology that allows DIMMs to complete two data transfers per cycle per DIMM compared to SDR which only allows for one data transfer per clock per DIMM.

dual channel effectively doubles the clock rate while double data rate affects the amount transferred each cycle? 

[TheMechEngineer]

Before I say anything else, yes I do have 669 Mhz RAM which came free with my toaster. Anyways, I plan on upgrading to 1600 Mhz RAM, but how much of an impact will it have on my gaming performance? I play games like CS:GO, Killing Floor 2, and LoL. Will it bump up my fps a lot (like 10-20 frames) or just a measly 3 frames? Thanks.

 

It's a fallacy that upgrading your CPU or RAM will yield any framerate gains for gaming. Unless you're running a GTX Titan X on a Celeron and bottlenecking the absolute crap out of your system.

From my own experience, upgrading and overclocking your CPU or RAM does absolutely nothing to help gaming performance.

[Syntaxvgm]

It's a fallacy that upgrading your CPU or RAM will yield any framerate gains for gaming. Unless you're running a GTX Titan X on a Celeron and bottlenecking the absolute crap out of your system.

From my own experience, upgrading and overclocking your CPU or RAM does absolutely nothing to help gaming performance.

not the memory so much but CPU can have a big effect,e specially in OP's case with a beefier GPU