Upgrading Ram

[jazen]

Hello, want to upgrade from 12 to 16 (max) on my inspiron 3656 desktop.

have 1-Hynix 8gb 22rx8 pc3l, and 1 4gb installed now.


any recommendations on brand? see a lot of price variation, not sure why such big difference. can get a 16g Hynix kit for about a $100, but saw others ranging in price up to $300.

[Netherspark]

The price difference is largely due to speed, but also due to type. Most RAM is 1600Mhz - 2400Mhz, but can be found all the way up to 4000Mhz and beyond, which is alot more expensive. There are also two separate types of RAM in common use today - DDR3 and DDR4. DDR3 tends to be slightly cheaper because it's old and actually obsolete.

Your Inspiron can only take DDR3 RAM and a maximum of 2133Mhz, so make sure you're buying something compatible.

For the most part RAM speed has very little real-world effect on performance. On your PC it will have practically none, so I would just buy 1600Mhz (it's generally the cheapest anyway). BUT in all honesty I don't see the point of upgrading from 12-16 GB unless you're already maxing out your 12, it's probably a waste of money especially with today's sky-high RAM prices.

I would save the money and put it towards a newer PC.

[jazen]

Only reason I want to upgrade is FPS drops so much, and from what I gather the most common solution is more ram.

[Netherspark]

RAM capactity has nothing to do with FPS. RAM speed can have a very minor affect in some situations, but for the most part you wouldn't notice any difference. 12GB is enough for any modern game, even at 1600Mhz.

What affects FPS is the Graphics Card and the CPU, and yours are quite outdated and low-performance.

What FPS are you getting in games at the moment, and what FPS would you like to have?

[jazen]

RAM capactity has nothing to do with FPS. RAM speed can have a very minor affect in some situations, but for the most part you wouldn't notice any difference. 12GB is enough for any modern game, even at 1600Mhz.

What affects FPS is the Graphics Card and the CPU, and yours are quite outdated and low-performance.

What FPS are you getting in games at the moment, and what FPS would you like to have?

ranges from as low as 1-2 up to 40-50. I'd be happy with a consistent 20 to be honest, just not the massive swings

[Crillam]

ranges from as low as 1-2 up to 40-50. I'd be happy with a consistent 20 to be honest, just not the massive swings

Consistant 20? Even that would look choppy as hell. Would say minimum is 30 and even that is unbarable for most "gamers".
Anyway I did look up your PC and the CPU and GPU is very low end, but should still be able to handle games on low settings.

[Netherspark]

ranges from as low as 1-2 up to 40-50. I'd be happy with a consistent 20 to be honest, just not the massive swings

Unfortunately the only thing that's going to give you better FPS is lowering in-game settings or buying a new graphics card or PC. I would lean more towards getting a whole new PC.

I can't say for sure what's causing such drops but it's most likely just a system that can't handle modern games. You could try turning Vertical Sync off, it might give you some better performance but you will end up with screen tearing.

[Coldkil]

First of all, complete specs of the machine are needed; just the ram won't help much.

Then, as above people stated, increasing the ram from 12 to 16 won't make any difference honestly - it's a problem of raw power.

If anything, 12GB don't help at all compared to the 8GB you had before; you always want to go either with two identical modules or with a single one; having two completely different modules won't net you any performance increase other than having more ram - which is good only if you consistently cap it out.

Also, given the age of the pc if i go with ram type (it's 1600MHz DD3) and given it's a DELL machine, i'm not really sure you actually have a dedicated graphics card; those numbers are really low, to the point that even a GTX 760 would be much much better.

All in all, going to 16GB ram is better simply because 12GB don't help at all; but the FPS issues look much more tied to the fact you're using either a very old, or faulty, or the integrated graphics card.

Answering the price question: depends on a lot of factors, speed, heatsinks and so on. For your pc, just pick the cheapest you can, but maybe avoid unknown brands. Hynix is a manufacturer so it's fine. Kingston is another very safe bet.

[Twoddle]

Only reason I want to upgrade is FPS drops so much, and from what I gather the most common solution is more ram.

More RAM will only help if you're running out when the PC starts using disk space for virtual memory. Open the Task Manager the performance tab once in a while.