OC for CPU and ram
OC for CPU and ram
Hi, I'm working on upgrading my PC. I have an i5 2500k, a NH-D14 dual radiator cooler, a mb z68 gen 3, 64 GB SSD for Windows, a CORSAIR KIT 2X4 13333MHZ and recently bought an ASUS CERBERUS-GTX1050TI-O4G GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5. I hope it fits. ...and I have a few questions:
What improvements should I look for when overclocking the i5 2500k?
I want to buy some RAM and need to decide whether to keep it or upgrade to 2x8 GB with what speed? Should I also overclock the new RAM?
...and I was wondering...
More ram only makes sense when you really need more memory.
Try to understand this: imagine a game that demands a precise amount of RAM—say exactly 8 gigabytes—and nothing else is running. If your system is using nearly all available memory (99% utilization) and there are no background processes, you’ll perform optimally. However, if the game requires more than 8 gigabytes, you’ll experience significant slowdowns or crashes.
Upgrading to a higher amount of RAM restores full performance, just like increasing from 8 to 16 gigabytes brings the game back to normal operation.
Not justified to upgrade the RAM.
If you really need 16gigs, fine, but getting a DDR3 now is a poor use of money. You're more likely to be limited in other ways sooner (because that computer is quite old).
Upgrading to a 2500k might offer some benefit, but I'd suggest around 10% in performance and about 3% for modern games since newer titles require more cores rather than just faster ones (though both are helpful, it's about having enough cores first).
Thanks for your reply
So, having 16 GB RAM won't change things, I should stick with my 8 GB RAM.
16gb would likely be beneficial, but you're investing in outdated equipment. The main problem is a 4-core, single-threaded old CPU, which isn't suitable for modern games. For overclocking, if you manage to hit 30fps in a game, increasing the clock speed by 10% could push performance to around 32-33fps at most.
More ram only makes sense when you really need more memory.
Try to understand this: imagine a game that demands a precise amount of RAM—say exactly 8 gigabytes—and nothing else is running. If your system is using 99% of its capacity and there are no background processes, you’ll perform optimally. But if the game requires 9 gigabytes, with only 8 available, it will either run extremely slow or crash completely.
Upgrading to 16 gigabytes restores full performance, just like having the exact amount needed.
My experience with a 4670k system a few years ago when upgrading from 8gb to 16gb provided some improvement. Even with only 7gb being used, there was still significant swapping to the SSD, which increased the CPU load beyond what I had capacity for. Switching to 16gb reduced the swapping and eased the CPU burden.
I’m not recommending investing in DDR3 right now. But since Windows manages memory efficiently, you don’t need more than 90% RAM usage to see benefits, as it will start caching data on the main drive before reaching that level.