i7 (first-gen) running memory on 1066Mhz vs 1600Mhz - any performance loss?
2014-07
Shiki
I tried to read about this, like what is the actual difference, but I could not find any benchmarks or helpful posts. Most of them are simple placebo effects, like "oh my god the 1600mhz module made my office load faster". Sure, bro.
I'm curious about the actual difference.
All of my modules are XMP compatible, but for some reason the new 8GB pack does not like the XMP profile at all. For now, they are running just fine on 1066mhz. Triple channel, that is.
Is there really a performance loss like this?
Like if I compile a lot (as a programmer, I often max out the CPU full), or for gaming, or anything?
(I'm not an avid gamer, but games are so taxing that my PC struggled to get 60FPS in most modern games anyway. With the 1600Mhz XMP speed, that is.)
Best would be, to run my own tests. But again, I cannot really do that. If I take out the new modules, it's not triple-channel anymore. If I put them in and switch on XMP, BSOD.
Biggest anomaly is that memtest works and passes 100% each and every time.
But once I fire up prime95 with "Blend" profile, I get a BSOD pretty soon. (with XMP).
First I did not even stress the modules, just started working. Then I met the BSOD pretty soon.
Specs
CPU: i7 950
RAM: 4x Kingston 2048MB 1600Mhz XMP + 2x Kingston 4096MB 1600Mhz XMP
MOBO: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
Frank Thomas
You will generally not notice a distinct difference from faster ram. Faster ram does mean every operation is a little faster, but it does not directly address a bottleneck except for a small class of applications that maintain millions of small objects which are each accessed every cycle. The only app I can think of that meets this definition is Dwarf Fortress.
Darkwoof
I'm currently thinking of upgrading my current gaming machine from it's original 2GB configuration. It's currently using a pair of Kingston HyperX PC2-9200 DDR2 1150MHz RAM (KHX9200D2K2/2G - kit of 2 x 1GB). Performance so far has been quite well and stable on my Intel Q9550.
As I also use the PC to run virtual machines and to do software development, multimedia and 3D work, I am intending to upgrade the RAM to about 8GB (e.g. 4GB for main host/Win7, 2GB for each guest OS/WinXP).
Unfortunately, the KHX9200D2K2/2G are quite hard to find where I come from. Also, my motherboard (Asus P5Q-E) supports only a maximum of 4 sticks of RAM. If I were to stick to the KHX9200D2K2/2G, I would only be able to get a maximum of 4GB.
The only Kingston HyperX (I've generally only had good experience with Kingston RAM) DDR2 solution that would allow me to upgrade to 8GB seemed to be their 1066MHz RAM. I'm currently looking at the KHX8500D2K2/4G (2 x 2GB) kits but wondering if the performance hit will be significant. I have my reservations as the PC2-9200s seemed to be getting generally good reviews, yet reviews for the PC2-8500s seemed to be getting reviews ranging from just "not bad" to even "mediocre".
Appreciate any advice. Thanks.
Sasha Chedygov
The faster the clock speed the better (assuming your motherboard supports that high of a speed, which yours seems to), but such a small difference will hardly be noticeable I think. The bottleneck is very rarely the memory, so I wouldn't recommend really even looking at the clock speed. Mine is only 400 MHz and I'm doing just fine on Crysis with full settings.
8GB of 1066 MHz memory would be better than 4GB of 1150 MHz memory, especially if you use virtual machines, since those take up a lot of RAM.