Memory 12 GB for Gaming

Hi I'v got:

CPU: Intel Core i7-930 clocked 4 GHz
GPU: GTX 480 SLI
Hard disks: 1X 64GB Crucilal M4, 3x 1TB Samsung F3, 1x 2TB Samsung F4
Memory: 6GB Corsair 1600GHz
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E
Sound card: Creative X-FI Titanium Pro Fatal1ty
Power Supply: Antec Quattro 1000W
Cooling: 2x Silver stone 180mm Air Penetrator, 2x 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle

Would it be worth adding an extra 6GB of Ram to my system? I use it mainly for games. Would it have any effect on overclocking? Thanks.

 

No for games, might have to up the voltage to keep it stable.

 

Nope. Check that your memory is running under the XMP profile though, I have a similar rig to you and the memory defaulted to something much slower.

 

I'd say don't worry about the extra RAM if it's only for gaming. A single game process is going to be limited to something like 4GB anyway (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). You're only really going to need more than 6GB for very heavy multitasking or audio/video editing.

Just make sure you put the three RAM sticks in the correct slots so that they run in triple-channel mode. Remember, you can always pick up another 6GB as an upgrade later.

 

when you consider that 32bit windows limits 2gb for the OS and 2GB for applications by default, I expect that most games will be developed with this in mind.

 

Cheers for the replys. I will be saving my £35 in that case.

 

I found that on my P6 I didn't have to up the voltage but I couldnt overclock as easily, But on my UD3 I had to raise the QPI slightly to get it to run solidly with a big overclock.

 

Games are in 32-bit.. so they are limited by Windows to 2GB.
Assuming a gaming system, 4GB is enough. 6GB is playing it extra safe (game, Windows, background programs, and room for large programs left on the back while playing, and/or for the future potential 64-bit games that actually consumes more than 2GB of RAM).

 

If you are using a better OS than Windows, like a Linux variant, then the extra 6GB of RAM will let the OS cache frequently used stuff into memory and increase responsiveness. I upgraded to 12GB for this reason. Just for gaming - you won't see any difference. Even so, memory is so cheap nowadays that unless the extra £35 makes a significant difference, there is no reason not to go for the extra RAM. If RAM was this cheap when I was building my PC 2 years ago then I would have put 24GB into it straight away.