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Ok I just upgraded my computer from a Quad-core 3.0ghz to a I7 3930k (12 cores) 3.2ghz, had 8 gig ram in old system, with how cheap ram is, I had them toss 32 gig (4 - 8gig simms) in the new machine.

Now before I did it, people kept saying you wouldn't see any real improvement over 8gig, etc.I have to disagree.

Taking WOW into account as it's easiest to use as I play it.. In the old system I got around 80 Frames per second, in the new machine I get 200+ (caps at 200) with everything set to max.

Now WOW doesn't use multi-cores, I'm using the exact same video card from my old system, both had windows 7 64 bit, etc.

Now some FPS could be accounted to the higher clock speed on the CPU, but not 120fps, so more than 8 gig of ram does help, Not sure if 16 to 32 or if 32 to 64 would show any more/less improvement. but don't believe people who say 8 gig is plenty and you don't need anymore than that.

Just thought I'd share my experience vs listening to people say over 8 gig is a waste..

It isn't BS, it's just that most games won't benefit like WoW does.

Most MMOs will need to load and unload textures as needed, dictated by the amount of RAM the game can allocate. More RAM = better performance, because it doesn't have to unload textures to load new ones.

Though in truth, it is surprising you see a bonus like that without the 64bit client though. as 32 bit can't address much more than 3GB. How much memory was used by the WoW process? Also, what was the CAS latency and Speed of the old RAM, and the new RAM?

Oh and what exactly was the model of the old Processor?

Byte Storm wrote:It isn't BS, it's just that most games won't benefit like WoW does.

Most MMOs will need to load and unload textures as needed, dictated by the amount of RAM the game can allocate. More RAM = better performance, because it doesn't have to unload textures to load new ones.

Though in truth, it is surprising you see a bonus like that without the 64bit client though. as 32 bit can't address much more than 3GB. How much memory was used by the WoW process? Also, what was the CAS latency and Speed of the old RAM, and the new RAM?

Oh and what exactly was the model of the old Processor?

The old CPU was a Q9650.

I'm at work so I don't have the CAS/Ram numbers in front of me, but from memory the old computer had DDR 3 1333mhz ram 4x2 gig sims, the new computer has DDR 3 1600mhz

I understand directly the game doesn't benefit from having more than 3gig ram (32bit games) But what does help and benefit is that windows doesn't need to unload tons of things or actually use a swap file, etc.

Now it would be nice if I could pull the 32 gig ram and test it with just 8 to see how much the additional ram does help, but if I read the manual right, you have to have one channel fully populated (there's 2 channels, 4 slots each).

But Honestly with how dirt cheap ram is right now (32 gig cost 225 bucks) I don't see the point of going with something smaller. esp considering you need all 4 slots filled..

I recently (6months ago), upgraded to a system with an i7-2600, 16GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD for the OS/page drive (with 2x WD Cavier Black 2TB in mirror for everything else).

And It's brilliant, I currently have virtual machines running, two games in the background (Mass Effect 2/Dirt 3), two browsers with 20+ tabs each. And there's no slowdown, ever. I just flick to a game and leave EVERYTHING else running.

Lots of RAM is awesome, the end

The old CPU was a Q9650.

So you basically got a new computer, then. That processor runs in a slot that your new one cannot run in, which means, new Processor, Motherboard and RAM.

You benefited from:

an improved front-side bus
an improved memory link
an extremely improved processor architecture (Core 2 to Core i7)
definitely a faster CAS latency and speed
and a faster PCIe bus.

Alot (not all) of the PCIe buses from the 775 chipsets were limited to 8x in a 16x slot, especially if you had more than one PCIe device. The board you have now supports full 16x PCIe2, which even offers improved speeds for PCIe1 devices as well, albeit not that much.

The RAM definitely helped you system overall, but you would have most likely seen the same improvement with only 16GB.

Also, did you happen to get an SSD? That would help games like WoW moreso than RAM, as the loading speed from drive to RAM would be the limiting factor.

Byte Storm wrote:

The old CPU was a Q9650.

So you basically got a new computer, then. That processor runs in a slot that your new one cannot run in, which means, new Processor, Motherboard and RAM.

You benefited from:

an improved front-side bus
an improved memory link
an extremely improved processor architecture (Core 2 to Core i7)
definitely a faster CAS latency and speed
and a faster PCIe bus.

Alot (not all) of the PCIe buses from the 775 chipsets were limited to 8x in a 16x slot, especially if you had more than one PCIe device. The board you have now supports full 16x PCIe2, which even offers improved speeds for PCIe1 devices as well, albeit not that much.

The RAM definitely helped you system overall, but you would have most likely seen the same improvement with only 16GB.

Also, did you happen to get an SSD? That would help games like WoW moreso than RAM, as the loading speed from drive to RAM would be the limiting factor.

The old motherboard did have the Pci-e 16x (was Asus P5N64 WS Professional), No SSD Drive yet, but Planning on adding one for caching debating a 64gig or 120gig one.. haven't read anything negative on the Asus SSD Caching built into the bios..

The whole post wasn't so much to say it's all my new motherboard, Yes some of it could have helped but 2x+ improvement just seemed more than just that, Considering that WOW doesn't use Multi-threads at all. and I'm kinda annoyed with everyone saying 8gig is "too" much, or Just right, etc, when ram prices are so dirt cheap right now (could have gotten 64gig for around 400), the only reason I didn't go to 64 gig was I had to keep the costs below 2k and the video card I wanted (which is still on back order) was $550.. (gtx 680)

Lower latency overall probably helps.
The best thing you can do now is make your boot drive an SSD. 120GB if you must, but ideally 256GB so you can install your apps to there too.

My (only) computer (other than the home server and media centre boxes) is a ~1 year old laptop (Sandybridge CPU) with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. That's currently driving a Dell U2711 27" 2560x1440 screen (but can run another two DisplayPort displays, c/- the dock) and it barely blinks at most of the stuff I throw at it.

Spec8472 wrote:Lower latency overall probably helps.
The best thing you can do now is make your boot drive an SSD. 120GB if you must, but ideally 256GB so you can install your apps to there too.

My (only) computer (other than the home server and media centre boxes) is a ~1 year old laptop (Sandybridge CPU) with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. That's currently driving a Dell U2711 27" 2560x1440 screen (but can run another two DisplayPort displays, c/- the dock) and it barely blinks at most of the stuff I throw at it.

/me wipes the drool from his mouth.
nice setup.

Spec8472 wrote:Lower latency overall probably helps.
The best thing you can do now is make your boot drive an SSD. 120GB if you must, but ideally 256GB so you can install your apps to there too.

My (only) computer (other than the home server and media centre boxes) is a ~1 year old laptop (Sandybridge CPU) with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. That's currently driving a Dell U2711 27" 2560x1440 screen (but can run another two DisplayPort displays, c/- the dock) and it barely blinks at most of the stuff I throw at it.

I'm thinking of getting a small one, 60-80gig SSD, and using the ASUS Bios Caching, from what I've read it's works pretty good.