New RAM Advice

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by juanmanuelsanchez, Apr 26, 2016.

  1. juanmanuelsanchez

    juanmanuelsanchez MDL Junior Member

    Aug 21, 2009
    54
    1
    0
    #1 juanmanuelsanchez, Apr 26, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2016
  2. bpwnes

    bpwnes MDL Member

    Aug 11, 2015
    151
    27
    10
    Links are broken for me, but G-Skill and Kingston are good brands.

    If you're wanting to do 4k gaming, video card is way more important than memory as memory speed doesn't really make much of a difference. I'd say you probably want at least 16 GB of RAM total, but the amount you need depends on what you run at the same time. If money isn't really an issue (which it shouldn't be considering what you're planning), you could just max it out and not worry about it.

    You'll need some serious GPU horsepower to game at 4k. It may not be the case anymore, but when 4k monitors came out I saw some gaming builds that had to use two GTX 980 Ti cards in SLI just to get a stable playable framerate at max settings. Not everyone has ~$1300 USD to spend on video cards tho. A single GTX 1080 might be good enough, but idk--they aren't out yet.
     
  3. juanmanuelsanchez

    juanmanuelsanchez MDL Junior Member

    Aug 21, 2009
    54
    1
    0
    thanks man, links are fixed in case you want to take a look.
     
  4. burfadel

    burfadel MDL EXE>MSP/CAB

    Aug 19, 2009
    2,627
    3,856
    90
    #4 burfadel, Apr 27, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2016
    What CPU do you have? Knowing the CPU and GPU you have is important in determining whether RAM will actually be beneficially over other potential changes.

    I would definitely go 16 GB, so the first one is out. Also the first one is DDR3-1600, DDR3-2133 or 2400 would be much better. There isn't much performance difference for the computer between 2133 and 2400, but there is a difference between 1600 and 2133. Since the prices have come down for the faster RAM, it's well worth getting the fastest RAM possible before the price starts inflating.

    The G.Skill Ripjaws V RAM you linked is DDR4 RAM. This is not suitable for Z77 board. The Kingston you linked is the most suitable, however try and go for 2133 if you can.
     
  5. burfadel

    burfadel MDL EXE>MSP/CAB

    Aug 19, 2009
    2,627
    3,856
    90
    The RAM compatibility charts don't really mean much, just that the listed RAM should work on the motherboard. Any RAM in theory should work because of standards. Thinks like DDR4-2400 etc are 'non-standard' at the 2400 speed for DDR3, however it should meet the XMP spec of Intel, meaning they just comply with a different standard. In that sense, any RAM as long as it is DDR3 should be just as compatible (within reason).
     
  6. rEApEAt

    rEApEAt MDL Senior Member

    Jan 5, 2011
    355
    170
    10
    Well, I innocently believed during all this years that QVL lists were not something meaningless and useless. I should have noticed that compatibility issues between RAM and motherboard never happen. As we say in my country, "living and learning".