Is this ram upgrade the same timings as my current or better/worse?

Hi, i currently have 16gb ram in my g5 5500.

It has 2 different ram modules supplied by Dell

1 x 8GB SK-Hynix HMA81GS6CJR8N
1 x 8GB Micron HMA81GS6CJR8N

I was wanting to upgrade to 32GB and was looking at the dual kit from Crucial, which has:

2 x Crucial 16GB CT16G4SFRA32A

I was wondering as well as doubling the memory would i also see faster timings, the same or worse if i got it?

James

These new SO-DIMMS has pretty much the same timings. CL22 @ 3200MHz and should be CL19 @ 2933MHz, which your laptop supports.

I think my laptop supports 3200 doesn't it, or is 2933 it's max?

A quick Google search for each model's specs reveal that they do have the same timings. However, unless you play some demanding games or do some serious image/video processing don't expect to see much difference in performance from 16GB to 32GB. I am editing 2-3 HD videos at the same at and maximum RAM usage hardly goes higher than 10GB. It is better if you can replace your CPU with a faster model suitable for your laptop. You will see much greater increase in performance than going from 16GB RAM to 32GB.

RAM requirements are very different for different usage. I have 32GB RAM in both my laptop and desktop PC and it's barely enough on either.

Just something to think about...

My next desktop PC I build will have 64-128GB of RAM.

spapakons said:

It is better if you can replace your CPU with a faster model suitable for your laptop

Click to expand...

UH...? The 10750H is no slouch. For more performance, next step would be to go full desktip PC build.

james_uk said:

I think my laptop supports 3200 doesn't it, or is 2933 it's max?

Click to expand...

Yes, that is what Dell states, but the CPU officially support 2933. It is possible that this model can do 3200 too...

@james_uk No matter what speed your ram is rated, you will get no more speed than that which the laptop specs say.

Let me put a bug in your ear. Since you have a laptop and I have a desktop, whether it will apply to you or not I can not say, especially since Dell used mixed brand ram in your laptop in the first place.

I bought a new 10th generation Dell PC. It has 4 ram slots, factory equipped with 2 x 8gb sticks of Micron ram running at 2933 Mhz. About 6 months later, I decided to upgrade to 32 gb so I ran Crucial's test and ordered 2 more 8 gb sticks that Crucial said was compatible, same timings, same everything.

The ram installed and ran fine, but would no longer run at 2933. Long, long, long story short, Working through Dell, it was discovered for me to get full ram speed, I had to have all identical Micron sticks, same SKU#.
We changed the motherboard 3 times, Dell kept shipping me other ram with different SKU numbers both Micron and Samsung, even different capacity ram. But for me to use the ram I already had the sticks had to be the same. Turns out, it had something to do with Dell's damned proprietary motherboard did not like the Crucial ram. It made no sense to me since Crucial ram uses Micron chips.

Now I'm stuck with 2 sticks of Crucial I can't use. They wouldn't take it back as all the troubleshooting put me out of their 30 day return window.

I've added and replaced ram many times before in older Dell systems and never run into that situation before. Wanted to throw that at you in case your Crucial sticks drop your ram speed.

Thanks for everyones replies.

Glasskuter - I did find it odd when i found that Dell had mixed 2 brands for dual channel, although CPU-Z does show that it's active as shown below:



I am not sure if it would work any better if it was 16gb with the exact same modules, but i guessed if i was going to look at getting 32gb, that could be sorted in the one buy anyway.

I am sure they must have been fully compatible though if they used 1 sk hynix and 1 micron

James

As far as I know, the RAM speed is an integer multiple of the FSB frequency. This means that in order to get the 3200MHz speed, the FSB must be 200MHz (I hope I get this right, my apologies if it is another figure). If it is 166MHz (again I hope I get this right), then you can set the RAM speed to a suitable multiple such as 2933MHz, you cannot set it to 3200MHz because it is not an integer multiple of the FSB. I hope you get the idea, even if I used the wrong FSB values.

Don't just buy two identical sticks of RAM. You need to buy a kit that includes two sticks of RAM. That way you know the two sticks were tested and verified to work together. That is because even if the two sticks have the same part number you have no way of knowing if they will work together reliably.

james_uk said:

Glasskuter - I did find it odd when i found that Dell had mixed 2 brands for dual channel

Click to expand...

What speed does task manager indicate for the ram under "Performance'. You want to make sure you know that before you go into changing ram so you can compare where you start with where you end up.

Correction-DUH-not control panel. I meant task manager. I corrected it.

Oh yeh it is 2933, i have never actually noticed that and thought i was running at 3200..

So if thats the case, might i get a better CL timing from a crucial dual kit, or would it be the same still as what i have.

James

MisterEd said:

Don't just buy two identical sticks of RAM. You need to buy a kit that includes two sticks of RAM. That way you know the two sticks were tested and verified to work together. That is because even if the two sticks have the same part number you have no way of knowing if they will work together reliably.

Click to expand...

In my main system (2nd system specs) I use two separate same model Kingston modules in dual-channel mode without any issues. I didn't buy a kit. It is rather rare that dual-channel will not work if you use two identical modules. The kit has the advantage of being cheaper than buying two separate modules plus if you have any issues you can return the kit for a replacement under Warranty. If however you cannot afford to buy a kit, you can buy one module now and later the other. For example if you cannot afford a 32GB kit you can buy a 16GB module now and buy the second 16GB module later to do dual-channel. Just make sure you buy the same model to maximize performance and compatibility. If you use two separate modules and you have any issues you must do some testing to identify which one is the faulty one and return it. It is also possible to do dual-channel with same capacity and same frequency modules of different manufacturers but it is not advised. If they don't have the same timings they will be synchronised with the slower module. I have done it.

PS: According to Intel your CPU supports up to 2933MHz DDR4 RAM. There is nothing you can do to surpass that. Intel® Core™ i7-10750H Processor (12M Cache, up to 5.00 GHz) Product Specifications

james_uk said:

might i get a better CL timing from a crucial dual kit,

Click to expand...

You can get no more than 2933 no matter what the speed or brand of your ram is because that is the max your cpu supports.. You can't overclock the 10750H. It's a locked chip. Specs here Intel® Core™ i7-10750H Processor (12M Cache, up to 5.00 GHz) Product Specifications

The only mobile cpu tof 10th generation cpu that can be overclocked is the is the 10980hk.

glasskuter said:

You can get no more than 2933 no matter what the speed or brand of your ram is because that is the max your cpu supports.. You can't overclock the 10750H. It's a locked chip. Specs here Intel® Core™ i7-10750H Processor (12M Cache, up to 5.00 GHz) Product Specifications

The only mobile cpu tof 10th generation cpu that can be overclocked is the is the 10980hk.

Click to expand...

Oops, you beat me...

Ah, i just thought when a ram module is running slower than it's advertised speed, sometimes you get a better cl speed, so i just wondered with it being a 3200 module running at 2933.

Hmm I dunno now weather to get 32gb or just leave things, i guess it's prob fine as it is, im no big gamer etc..

I recommend doing some test. Launch Task Manager and go to the Performance section. Now run some applications, play some games and see the Memory part. What is the highest usage you can achieve doing whatever you do on your system? I can hardly go over 10GB, so I would not upgrade from 16GB to 32GB, even if I had available slots or there were 16GB DDR3 modules. If you see that the usage is too high, then you would be better with 32GB. Otherwise it is not worth the cost. You can postpone the upgrade for later and you might get better price by then.

Cheers for everyones input, I think there isn't a rush and will wait it out.
From what I have seen on task manager, I haven't seen it go into 11GB usage yet.
I think i was hoping by getting more ram i'd also achieve it being faster as well, but it seems it's not going to be faster or get the use if i bought more.

Probably wise.

The main point to more RAM is to avoid invoking virtual memory. That may be less painful if it's done on (say) a fast NVME drive, rather than an HDD, but I presume that it's still a lot slower than actual RAM. (I don't know the numbers.)