1333MHz-1600MHz, what's the deal?

Hi, I've been wondering for a moment about the utility of a RAM upgrade. Is the difference between these two important?

I play games, watch tv episodes and movies, listen to music, all the casual stuff, and haven't had any problems with the 1333MHz in my actual laptop and iMac.

I'm looking to change my laptop for the Sager NP9130, and put in my SSD for my gaming needs on the go.

1) Should I keep the default 8Gb 1600MHz RAM or should I save on money (50$) by downgrading to 8Gb 1333MHz?

2) Does the higher clock speed RAM have any visible advantages on the system vs 1333MHz?

Thanks!

 

Minimal difference (2-3 fps only) at games, and doesn't affect anything else

But it does matter if you like to benchmark

 

There's not much of a practical point to upgrading RAM simply to bump up speeds like that. As Mobius 1 said, you'll only notice the difference in benchmarks, which are not representative of real-world use.

For $50 savings, of course you should downgrade to 1333MHz. I've had 1333MHz RAM in my laptop for as long as I've owned it and I've never had a slowdown that can be attributed to the RAM speed.

You'd be better off spending that money towards a SSD purchase or bumping up your GPU, either of which will allow you an *actual* performance boost on a day-to-day basis.

 

Faster RAM will only matter with the IGP for gaming, it won't make a difference if you're using the dedicated GPU.

 

Thank you all for your answer. Very appreciated! I see people running crazy on the forums about faster RAM and I've always been skeptical about the effectiveness!

 

Faster RAM does result in a more responsive system. I've noticed it myself, running my Samsung RAM at 2133MHz. But it's really a luxury and hardly required. If you go from 1333 to 2133 you can get significant improvements in IGP performance. But that's if you game on IGP.

 

But 1333 to 1600 will not be noticeable.

 

No it will not.