RAM Clockspeeds

[Veyne]

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for some solid information on the impact of RAM clockspeed on performance.

I'm going to be building a new system over the next couple of months in stages (Case, Motherboard and Processor first, Graphics card next, and then RAM and harddrive, and keeping the rest of my current components), and while I won't be buying the RAM for a few weeks, I'm curious if the clockspeed of RAM matters enough to warrant picking a motherboard that supports 2400 Mhz RAM.

I'm building an Intel system, eventually with an Nvidia card and solid state hard drive, and this is the motherboard I'm looking at:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...279&CatId=6976

I'll also be biting the bullet and grabbing an i7-3770k.

The system will not just be for gaming, though I would like it to be pretty good at gaming. I'd be doing plenty of audio and video production and some 3D modeling and rendering work and software scripting.

I know that Intel's working on a new chip, but if I keep waiting for the to release the next chip, I'd never actually buy a processor. I've determined that in the future, I'll only upgrade my system when I start to notice subpar performance, and if I grab the best processor available now, it'll last longer until I have to upgrade it in the future.

If I really don't need the 2400 Mhz RAM, then I can save a little bit and get a cheaper motherboard.

Price isn't an issue, but if I can save myself a few bucks, then why not?

[chazus]

Intel chips really don't benefit all that much from faster ram. Stick with 1600.

I'll see if I can find some benchmarks, but that's pretty much the gist of it.

[n0cturnal]

For gaming the gain in going from 1600MHz to 2400MHz RAM is small enough that it is almost impossible to find decent benchmarks that show it. You might gain a few FPS in some games but it is not worth the money.

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/ram/38...memory/?page=5

[rhoark]

Memory bandwith is fairly linear with clockspeed. CAS is fairly irrelevant to bandwith.
How much bandwith matters to overall performance depends on use case. For gaming, its a consideration, but not the primary one. Likewise the CPU is a consideration, but not the primary one. The cost/benefit analysis of a top-end CPU is not compelling. Few current games can leverage more than 2 cores, fewer still more than 4. Compromise on clock speed before cache.
SSDs are a big win for load times. Framerate is mostly down to the video card. Allocate money accordingly.
With GPUs you can buy "good enough" every year for less net cost than buying the best every 5 years.
There's a good chance you'll regret a bargain motherboard or power supply.

[slasher0161]

Your looking at a $275 mobo? Get an asrock extreme 4, bring your cpu up to 4.2 and be a happy camper. There is no point spending more than $150 on a mobo unless you need it for a very specific purpose.

[Veyne]

Thanks for the replies. After a couple days of research and deliberation, I went with the 1600Mhz. Saved myself a little on the RAM (which I went ahead and got) and the motherboard, though I did end up spending a little more on the motherboard than you suggest, slasher0161. For some reason, I just like Intel boards, and I try to use as few different manufacturers as I can get away with when I build a system. I paid just under $200 for it.

I bought a 16 GB 2 module kit for right at $100. Same price as a 4x 4GB kit, and if the situation ever arises, I can raise that sucker to 32 GB for pretty cheap.

My next upgrade phase will be a Solid State drive and a Graphics card, in which I'm debating either a GeForce 670 or 680. There's such a small difference between their performance that it seems a little stupid not to choose the 670, and the price to performance ratio for the 690 and Titan, however tempting they might be to have, just doesn't feel worth it at all (again, price isn't a huge issue right now, but I'm also not stupid).

It seems like for the games that I play, I probably get reasonable performance from the eventual upgrade to dual 670 SLI compared at 2/3 the overall price of a single 690.

[n0cturnal]

Damn, Intel has been making horrible desktop motherboard the last few years. They even decided to stop making them after this generation since they hardly sell any. Looks like you overpayed a bunc has well, you could've saved like $70 going with a ASRock or ASUS board.