Hey guys. I'm running an E770 Classified with 12gb 2000mhz Corsair RAM and a i7 970. This set: http://www.corsair.com/en-us/cmt12gx3m3a2000c9
 
It's great RAM but I'm at 11gb usage when playing most games. The day has come where 12gb seems to be the wall.
 
I have a few questions.
 
1. If I wanted to buy another 12gb kit of this great RAM where should I start. Ebay doesn't turn up anything and since it's an old kit no online shops have it in stock.
 
2. Can I run a modern DDR3 Dual channel kit in this board? What would be the maximum the 970's controller could handle? Will I see a performance hit going to dual channel instead of triple?
 
3. If I grabbed a X56xx Xeon would that enable me to run more RAM? I'd be happy with 32gb but I understand if that would not be possible.
 
4. If I went to a dual channel kit what is the maximum speed this board would accept?
 
5. Should I just go the cheap and easy route? Slap a kit like this in there and manually set all the RAM to 1600mhz at the same timings. I know it's a bad idea to mix and max RAM but if I set the speed and timings manually I should be ok.
 
 

Sajin! Once again MVP.
 
Looks like I'll just have to sacrifice a tiny but of speed for capacity. $180 is a bit steep, but I'll use that as a template to shop around. 
 
Thanks again!

I'd look into why you're using 11 GB for most games, that is way over the usage most people see.

I wonder if ME:A has a memory leak or two, reviews show 8.5 GB usage or so for system total: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/mass-effect-andromeda-performance-review,review-33848-4.html
 
Personally I wouldn't worry too much, I doubt you will see games consume much more RAM in the near future due to consoles limiting at 8 GB (not enough true PC games anymore ). Plus if you are only seeing 11 GB total that means you really have about 3-4 GB to spare as Windows can page out 2-3 GB of RAM the OS is using pretty easy if needed. More RAM is always nice I spose, but since you don't need it now I'd bank the $180 for a full system update down the way, IMHO the i7-970 is getting a little long in the tooth at this point. Or bank it and keep searching for a really good deal on some RAM. I do disagree with Sajin on #5, running kits with different timings is fine as long as you use the slower timings.

By the way, I was able to find another 12gb Corsair kit on ebay for $100. It should arrive tomorrow. Then the battle begins to see if I can get my memory controller stable with 24gb at 2000mhz.
 

rjohnson11

bg8780
By the way, I was able to find another 12gb Corsair kit on ebay for $100. It should arrive tomorrow. Then the battle begins to see if I can get my memory controller stable with 24gb at 2000mhz.
 

If not try a little looser memory timings

Will do. I'm ok with running at 1866mhz if need be. I'll just have to tinker and see what happens. Thanks for the advice.

somethingc00l

bg8780
Just using Firestrike as an example. Looks like my 970 far exceeds Sandy Bridge despite the large difference in architecture.
 

Trying to judge real world game performance based on 3dMark is a fools errand, especially for the CPU. If you won't believe a well written review with benchmarks of actual games, how about a proper CPU benchmark: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-970-vs-Intel-Core-i5-2500K/m8374vs619
 
2500k is faster in both single core and 4 core performance which is what matters for almost every game. No skin off my back, but like I said, you are limiting your GPU with that CPU, for sure.

I can agree with you. I'd be an idiot to think a CPU from 2010 will keep up with modern tech. I'm just saying I don't think it's worth the money to upgrade yet. I am over 100fps in ALL games at 1440p. I'd end up spending over a grand to hit 120fps. I'll have my eyes on the upcoming X299 architecture as I believe this would be the best time to upgrade. If X299 fails to impress I'd be willing to jump over to AMD as well. Ryzen is looking pretty impressive for the money.

Thanks man. I plan to go all out with proper water cooling on the next build.