RAM: Speed vs size

LucianH

I'm putting together the spec for a new PC and want to know what factors affect the RAM - primarily what's better: bigger of faster?

The spec so far is:

Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Motherboard
Intel Core i5 2500K Processor (which can be Overclocked to up to 4.2GHz)
128gb Crucial M4 SSD for the system drive
Gainward GeForce GTX 560Ti 2048MB (2GB) Phantom Edition Graphics Card
Windows 7 Pro

And now I'm looking at RAM. Within my budget I can get:

either:
- 16GB of PC3-10666 1333MHz DDR3 Memory (4 x 4GB sticks)
or:
- 8gb of PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 Memory (2 x 4GB sticks)

I'm not a gamer but I want good performance for image (photoshop), audio (goldwave) and video (TBD) editing. Also do a fair bit of (large) database work with Access and Excel pivot tables.

I generally work with many applications open so I'm guessing that the more memory the better but will I be compromising performance with the lower speed (and will I get the benefit of any overclocking with the lower speed)?

robmar0se

In my vote - IMHO - size! Won't notice in day-to-day stuff, but for intensive graphics work with Photoshop you will definately see an advantage.

Mista_C

Also have a look at the Cas Latency of the sticks you intend to buy. The lower the CL the better.

John_Gray

One set of memory sticks is 1.2 times faster than the other.
One set of memory sticks has twice the capacity of the other.

Not a difficult choice, surely, when you're using programs which need lots of memory?!

LucianH

John_Gray wrote: »

One set of memory sticks is 1.2 times faster than the other.
One set of memory sticks has twice the capacity of the other.

Not a difficult choice, surely, when you're using programs which need lots of memory?!

Thanks. I realise that it looks like a no-brainer but I suppose that I don't fully understand how much RAM is used in reality - how often will a full 8gb be used. What I was unsure of is is there a point of diminishing return with memory size?

Yut_Man

Life is never simple, and this is one of those times. for 95% of the time speed is everything as long as you have a reasonable amount of memmory to play with, and 8GB is plenty. Unless you are particularly careful with your chosen software any more memmory would not be utilised anyway. It would have to be a 64 bit operating system with the suitable software your require also running 64 bit. since I play games mostly, then 8GB would be plenty. My HDD is more important as is my graphics card. however if your running windows 7 professional with a 64 bit photoshop editing program then more is good. Having read your system and your usage I would say more is good for you. but bare in mind that if you was to buy the 2 faster memmory sticks you always have the option to buy more in future

somersethillbilly

No mention of a PSU in your proposed build....whatever you do make sure that you invest in a good quality suitable unit.

23n1th

I would go for the 16gig as you wont notice any hold up and you'll have way more memory than you need. The biggest bottle neck on modern systems is the hard drive which you've gotten around with the SSD. I would plumb for a bigger capacity SSD in your boots.

Figment

Personally I'd go for 8GB of PC3-12800 1600MHz now, which you can add a further 8GB to at a later date.

Notmyrealname

John_Gray wrote: »

One set of memory sticks is 1.2 times faster than the other.

Without seeing the CAS RAS and TTL settings, you cannot say that. DDR3 was initially slower than a lot of DDR2 despite the higher FSB because of the high CAS latency.

MadTechie

If you load only a small number of programs (not including media editors) at once and don't have many processes loaded then the 8Gb would be better.. (but it wouldn't be really noticeable)

But your using PhotoShop so ignore that

So IMHO I would go for the 16Gb, as once the 8Gb is full the data would need to be re-read from the Hard Disk Drive,
So as soon as you use 8.0001Gb of memory the 16Gb would of been faster..

So I vote for the 16Gb

Also just one extra thing..
if you get another HDD or maybe created a partition (another HDD would better) and use that for a scratch disk (see preferences in the photoshop) you will also get a performance boost)