Which is better? 8gb DDR3-1066 or 4GB DDR3-1600

[ScrewySqrl]

I am purchasing this laptop:

http/www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2008029&CatId=4938


it comes with a single stick of 4GB DDR3-1066
for gaming performance, am I better spending $20 in a second 4GB Stick of 1066 or on 4GB of DDR3-1600?

Basically, will I see enough gaming performance improvement between the 1066 and 1600 to make it worth tossing out the old memory, or am I better with just more memory of the same speed (upping to either 6GB or 8GB of 1066)

 

[cl-scott]

I would take twice as much of a slower RAM any day of the week.

 

[cuecuemore]

I would take twice as much of a slower RAM any day of the week.

And you'd be wrong. Go for the fast stuff.

 

[C12Friedman]

I think I'd agree with cuecuemore here, the need for more ram is not as great as the speed benefit of the 1600MHz ram (IMO).

 

[Inferno1217]

1600 MHz all the way any faster and the benefits are marginal if any.

 

[duxducis]

just read article about DDR3 comparison
faster ram does not provide any real word performance increase (you can see boost on benchmarks)
faster ram does not provide any gaming performance. theres dozen of articles that tested from cheapest/slowest to top of the line ram on games and results

 

[cl-scott]

And you'd be wrong. Go for the fast stuff.

Considering the slowest RAM is still thousands of times faster than the alternative in the HDD, maybe only hundreds of times if using a SSD, I'd still go with more RAM. The majority of people, even those posting here, will never be able to tell the difference in speed between the two kinds of RAM without the aid of some sort of benchmarking program. However, you WILL notice a difference between RAM and swap and not need a benchmarking program.

 

[userxvi-JOE]

Depends really, the faster ram is like having 1 core clocked at 8GHz while the slower ram is like having 4 cores at 3.5ghz

Some games want the single core at 8ghz, while most things you do want the quadcore.

In a nutshell just what is it exactly that you want to do with your computer?
once you know then you will know what the zen choice is for you.

 

[tehSteve]

Upgrade to 8gb if you use a lot of applications or multitask while gaming . Gaming performance will be mostly affected by the APU on your laptop, as it's not meant to play anything demanding.

 

[SinisterSalad]

AMD's APUs use RAM as VRAM as well. There have been multiple tests run on Toms showing that faster RAM resulted in better FPS. Go for the faster stuff.

EDIT: I just noticed that your laptop of choice has a dedicated GPU/VRAM. So, you'll be less hampered by the speed of the RAM. Personally, I'd still go for the faster stuff. 4GB is usually good enough on a laptop, and upgrading later is pretty easy.

 

[tiger6k]

Doesn't his motherboard matter? What if it only handles 1333MHz RAM or less? Wouldn't it be a pointless upgrade if that's the case?

I'm not being sarcastic I actually don't know.

 

[getochkn]

First, looking at the specs, the 4GB it comes with is 2GB + 2GB, so you can't get a 2nd stick anyways, you'd have to swap out both and get 2 x 4GB. Not sure where you get that it comes with a single stick because it states right in the specs on the page you linked that it's 2x2GB.

Second, most laptops don't let you adjust anything in the bios, so I don't think the faster ram would help.

 

[GoldenI]

Go with the RAM that has the highest clock speed.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Best answer selected by ScrewySqrl.