Ram question

[satimy]

So I installed 16 gigs of ddr3 1600 ram but has 4 slots so I kept the 8 gb of generic ddr3 1333 ram in there on advice from my buddy. Does this matter at all?

My board is a gigabyte z97 ga3h


Danke

[Lathais]

I would just take out the 8GB as your 1600 will downclock to 1333 automatically, unless you OC it. 16GB is more than enough though, the extra 8 will not make a difference. The speed really won't either though, so it doesn't really matter.

[satimy]

Ok it's actually 1066 ram I think, but I'm wondering if the extra ram helps with games like path of exile

[Ssateneth]

Ok it's actually 1066 ram I think, but I'm wondering if the extra ram helps with games like path of exile

you cna use cpu-z to determine what all your RAM is running at (the memory contorller will negotiate to the fastest common JEDEC speed when you boot the PC).

I am unclear how much total RAM you have. You had 8GB, installed 16GB more, now you have 24GB? If so, then it comes down to will you use more than 16GB of RAM consistently? If so, use the 24GB (but it will be slower). If not, only use the 16GB, since it will be faster.

[Lathais]

Ok it's actually 1066 ram I think, but I'm wondering if the extra ram helps with games like path of exile

Not really. 8GB is more than enough for a game like Path of Exile unless you are doing some pretty heavy multi-tasking at the same time. The speed may have some effect though, if your old RAM is 1066, though this also depends partially on your CPU. Haswell CPUs for instance, did not really make much use of additional RAM Speed. Skylake on the other hand, does.

[satimy]

Ok I'll download that cpu z thing. Thanks guys and I have a 4790k which is haswell I think

It appears the ram that came with the cpu is actually faster than the ram I bought

New ram is 16gb of gskill pc-10700 (667 mhz)

Old ram is 8gb of A data pc -12800 (800) mhz

[Ssateneth]

well, if you have a z97 motherboard, may as well just overclock the ram so it all runs at 800mhz (1600 effective)

[mr120]

Whether you see much difference is another question, but yes 3 sticks at different speeds will down clock to the lowest, and 3 sticks in a dual channel board will generally stop dual channels.

[satimy]

Whether you see much difference is another question, but yes 3 sticks at different speeds will down clock to the lowest, and 3 sticks in a dual channel board will generally stop dual channels.

It's 4 sticks