16GB DDR3 1600Mhz OR 8GB DDR3 1866Mhz RAM?

Buy The 16GB ram over the faster 8GB.
In your line of work..More ram is going to be better....

Buy you only have to test it on a another machine...the one you are working on now. Use task manager to see just how much ram you are really using. If you're nowhere near close to the max, then grab the 1866.... but if you are close...grab the 1600.

If you can afford it and the laptop can handle it, grab them in 8GB chips....
Just an opinion on things...


Edit:
Only because i was doing this already doing this...
All at 3.3/turbo 3.7 ghz
1333

1600

1866

2133

 

wow...I didn't realize until just now that there were this many additional posts and this much debate from my original post.

I want to thank everyone again for all of your input. I read through all of the posts I missed and I actually ordered my new laptop just a few minutes ago. This is what i went with, which I think are fine for my needs.

- 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R303)

- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU – S2R174)

-Stock OEM Thermal Compound

- nVidia GeForce GTX 675M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology [User Upgradeable]

- 8GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (I'll be purchasing my own RAM as it's cheaper so I got the lowest option and I'll be upgrading to 32GB 1333MHz)

- 80GB Intel 310 Series mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )

- 750gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)

- 6x Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Special!

- Sager - Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module

Thanks again everyone...

btw...this "he" that many of you keep referring to is actually a she. Girls like computers too and yes my avatar might scream "boy" because what girl posts an avatar of a professional sports team? Where are the strawberries and unicorns? However, I only need to say 3 words and you'll understand my avatar. 1) Italian 2) Mens 3) Soccer (or what it should properly be called....football.) Anyway, just thought I'd get that out of the way since I saw several people say "he" in reference to me

 

nope we werent expecting unicorns, but I can say that we are deeply sorry regarding your choice of backyard team... I say it on my saddest tone possible, since I regard women as generally possessing better taste than men, but as they say s*** happens.

 

You really do not need 16gb at the moment. Go for the faster 1866 (retails for 87$ on amazon now)

 

8GB for less-than-1866MHz, if it is significantly cheaper than 1866MHz RAM. RAM is not going to be the bottleneck in the system so there's no need to spend more to get a faster speed that is only going to show up in benchmarking.

 

I would opt for 16 gigs of 1600

 

16gb no question.

 

Agree! Having less RAM than needed, while maybe unlikely, is a bigger concern than the extra MHz

 

Well they just won the Serie A scudetto so I think my choice of team has worked out pretty well for me. Forza Juve! :yes:

You must be talking about 4 x 4GB @ 1866mhz for $87? There's no way that price would be right for 8GB sticks of 1866mhz RAM. Seems ridiculous to go with 4GB sticks when I'm wanting to get to 32GB sooner than later. I feel like I'd just be wasting money.

I'm looking right now at picking up either one of the following:

1) G.SKILL 32GB (4 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333

OR

2) Corsair Vengeance Laptop Memory Kit 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz


I feel the general consensus is to go with option #1 because, for my purpose of 3D rendering, the more RAM the better, right?. To pick up 32GB of option #2 it would be an additional $100 on top of the cost for option #1. After buying a new laptop the additional $100 is more than I can spend right now.

OR do you think that purchasing option 2 would be better because then when I do have that extra $100 I will then be able to go to 32GB at the faster speed?

So...how important is the faster speed? If that won't be the bottleneck in the system then what will be?

Thanks everyone for their input.

 

RAM speed (as we already said) influences the system in a way that will NOT be noticeable (except in benchmarks).
The only situation where RAM speed would be noticeable is the one where you use the IGP (integrated gpu) for gaming (which can raise the FPS), but even in such situations, you need the fastest (and generally most expensive) type of RAM in order to see these gains (which again would be relatively minor and not worth the price premium).

For 3D work, 32GB 1333MhZ will be more than enough and RAM speed won't impact performance in this (or any other) regard.

 

I would go with the gskill as I've had better compatibility results using that brand... maybe the other one will work though, but my experience is mixed. Not sure about the comparison when looking at CL though as those two are speced different. Cost benefit though the more ram the better and to get the upgrade done in one clean sweep sounds like a nice option as you can get a matching set of ram... mismatching ram can sometimes not turn out so well.

 

I believe you mentioned the benchmarks earlier and that made sense to me then too. Opt #1 it is.

Thanks again for yours and everyone else's help.