Hi all,
Thinking about making an upgrade to my PC. I have an 8700K and GTX 1080, both of which serve me well. I pretty much fly exclusively in the Caribbean, so I get good performance (more water, less land, buildings, traffic, etc.)
To keep this short, my RAM is 16 GB at 2400 Hz. Which I’m pretty sure is laughable compared to the other components in my system. So my questions:
- What is the biggest difference that RAM makes? For me, I would value smoother performance over more FPS;
- what should I upgrade to?
- how much RAM (32 vs. 64)
- what speed?
- how do I find out what my system can handle?
I’m not looking to double frame rates or anything like that, I just figure that with such a small and slow amount of RAM on an otherwise well-performing system, this upgrade may be a smart one to make.
Many thanks in advance.
it will may be a bit smoother, because you not run so often in pagefile usage.
Too more than 32GIG I would not upgrade your system. You will may not notice a real diff in 32 vs 64.
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There’s no reason to exceed 32gb of RAM for this sim … and most other things.
I have 64gb and spent money that should have gone into a faster pair of 32gb.
Also you want two matching sticks in their appropriate slots for dual channel, many motherboards currently want two sticks in slots 2 and 4 not 1 and 3 as you might assume with 4 slots and 2 sticks.
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Thanks guys.
Yeah I just checked and my stock RAM that came with the system is in slots 2 and 4. I’m thinking 32 GB of this:
Corsair Vengeance
It comes in 3200 and 3600 speeds. I do have the XMP available on my motherboard (do you see how I pretend like I know what I’m talking about? 
), so I would assume going 3600 is better?
For the price difference, if 3600 is better, it’s a no-brainer.
Thanks again in advance, fellas. If you think that’s a good RAM package to go for I’ll do that.
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you wrote you own currenlty 2400 RAM and now you want buy 3600 ?
Be ware you can usually not mix the speeds on most mainboards, at least its not recommended and you lost may be the main beneffit ( may you can only use slowest speed then ).
Also please check first the mainboard docu ( or tell which one you own ).
And, in case 3600 is much more expensive, choose the 3200. You will not notice the difference.
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Sorry for the confusion. I want to replace the 16 GB 2400 that I have with 32/3200 or 3600.
My motherboard is an ASRock Z370 Pro4-IB P4.30.
The 3600 is only $20 more, so for that I figure why not?
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I think he plans to bin the old pair, with how the price of DDR4 seems to have fallen through the floor I say get the faster stuff just because it’s been QC’ed higher.
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I think, If I checked the correct type-number of the RAM, it is also mentioned in QVL list:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/intel/z370%20pro4/#Memory
But allways consider what also the manual mentioned:
Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
• 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
• Supports DDR4 4266+(OC)*/4000(OC)/3866(OC)/
3800(OC)/3733(OC)/3600(OC)/3200(OC)/2933(OC)/
2800(OC)/2666/2400/2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Please refer to Memory Support List on ASRock’s website for
more information. (http://www.asrock.com/)
- 8th Gen Intel® CPU supports DDR4 up to 2666.
2666 is the highest safe supported frequency.
I don’t understand this statement.
Sorry, but I don’t agree with it.
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these the line from manual I refered 
- 8th Gen Intel® CPU supports DDR4 up to 2666.
All above is OC ( therfore xmp ). It can works, but it can cause trouble or it can auto step down.
I own a i7-8700K and 64GIG 2666 RAM.
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True, although if you get a matched pair of sticks (buy as a pair, not indivodually) then the XMP failing is very rare and you can always return the RAM for a replacement in that case.
Like others noted above the difference between 3200 and 3600 will be marginal and not noticeable in the real world.
CAS latency is also important. See here (for example):
I believe (I’m no expert) that 3200 with lower CAS Latency will be better than 3600 with higher CAS Latency in the real world. Whether this is actually noticeable is perhaps questionable, but I do notice that 3600 sticks tend to have quite a bit higher CAS Latency.
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fully agree ( I also mentioned it former : xmp and speed ). I only would not forget to mentioned it, not that “in the case of cases” the OP is disappointed.
ah… and I think for these sticks is 3200 with CL18 and 3600 with CL19 ( not deeply checked )
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If so, then the 3600 CL19 will be quicker - whether you’d be able to notice being another thing entirely 
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If you guys think I’ll be fine with the 3200 that’s what I’ll get. Appreciate the responses!
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Assuming the CAS Latency is the same, why not buy the faster memory.
It is better spec memory being warranted by the manufacturer.
You can run it at 3200 if you want.
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you know, your system, like my, is in meanwhile no longer up2date. If you buy in may be two years a new system then these memory is also outdated ( we are at ddr5 ) and can no longer used. Additional you will realy not notice the diff 3200 vs 3600, you only get may be a little higher risc that somewhat will not work. You can do it like Ron mentioned an spend this 20$ more or just buy a pizza for that money - these hard things we can not decide 
MSFS works also fine with my 2666 RAM ( I own 64GIG because video editing, etc. ). The currently main limiting factor is the CPU and then the GPU ( the 2080TI has hard work with near 4K ).
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Yeah I figure for $140 I don’t mind performig the upgrade and seeing what happens. I went with the 32/3600. I really appreciate everyone’s feedback and I’ll let you all know how it works out. Arrives on Tuesday!
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I have an 8700K With an RTX 2080 ti with only 16gb of ram and it’s as smooth as butter, pancake mode and VR.