RAM upgrade XPS 8700

Not mixing memory...replacing.

The Crucial RAM is overpriced at Dell. And on other sites the G.Skill is rated better. The G.Skill RAM has better latency numbers and seems to be reviewed as more solid and dependable than the Crucial.

Just wanted to ask if anyone could point out if and why  the G.Skill would not be compatable.

If you are planning on just adding another 16GB be advised mixing brands/types does not work many times.  I tried that on my home built desktop and with ASUS motherboard and an i7 6700K CPU.  I had some G Skill Ripsaws and some Corsair Dominator.  They wouldn't work together, either the G Skill only or the Corsair only worked OK.

FWIW, here is the Crucial listing of memory for the XPS 8700.  Crucial is guaranteed to work in Dell's but again I would advise against mixing memory, keep it all the same brand/type.

www.crucial.com/.../xps-8700

It might work. It might even work at 1600 Mhz, but it also might hiccup and downclock to 1333 Mhz.

The Dell BIOS is a little fussy with memory, and it may work just fine. The issue is the BIOS is expecting RAM timings of 11-11-11-28 for DDR3/1600 and if during POST the memory does not sync up then it will fallback to 1333 Mhz.

Another option is this memory. G.SKILL AEGIS 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-16GIS

www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx

It has the same timings as the OEM Dell Memory.

If you have the original 2x4GB sticks, this should work in addition to that to give you 24GB of memory.

Also, make sure you are ordering from NewEgg, not one of their partners, and check the return policy in case it doesn't work.

good luck !

The G. Skill memory you picked is 1.5 volt, the recommended Crucial memory is 1.35 V. Do you know what voltage your current memory is running at?

The 8700 OEM memory is 1.5V ( at least in the six systems I've touched )

Crucial memory that runs at 1.35V is actually better memory, however there is no way in the Dell 8700 BIOS to change memory voltage so the memory that is spec'd to run at 1.35V will run fine at 1.5V

The crucial kit you want is:

I posted a reply that had a link to the kit in crucial and it got moderated.

XPS 8700 RAM voltage is 1.5V, and it cannot be changed in BIOS.

1.35V DDR3 will run at 1.5V without issues.

a downside is the crucial 16GB kit is about $20 more than the G.Skill kit posted above.

I posted a link to Crucial in my response and it was not "moderated".???

We have been doing that for years, recommending Crucial for non Dell branded memory.

Let me weigh in with the Dell perspective. Crucial does offer a "100% compatibility" contract which is good. But I have my doubts that they actually have all of our systems at their site to actually test. The only way to be 100% is to buy our OEM memory using the Dell 5 digit part numbers =

Four slots Black 3, White 1, Black 4, White 2
DDR3L, unbuffered, Non-ECC, quad-channel, 1.5v
32GB max (8GB per slot)
66GKY 8GB, 1600MHz, 512X64, 8, 240, 2RX8, PC3-12800U

The G.Skill sticks did work but downclocked to 1333 as Dan-H predicted.I will return them for a full refund.

Not sure if I will now pick up  different RAM from G.Skill or Crucial. A G.Skill rep steered me to a different, compatible line.

My son uses the XPS 8700 for gaming on Steam (Overwatch etc)

He gets very poor FPS even at minimal settings. Much worse than should be expected.

The video card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960)  is capable, and tests show it is working fine.

So I thought I would double the RAM and take out the old, in case that is the problem.

Thanks to all who have responded!

My son uses the XPS 8700 for gaming on Steam (Overwatch etc) He gets very poor FPS even at minimal settings. Much worse than should be expected. The video card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960)  is capable, and tests show it is working fine.

Most games really don't need more than 8GB of RAM in a system to perform well.

Maybe memory isn't the issue. Maybe there is something else going on. the GTX 960 is a solid graphics card.

What CPU do you have? and which brand of GTX 960 ? What resolution monitor do yo have?

we have two XPS 8700 core i7 4770 systems that are used for gaming. One has had a GTX 970, and the other has a GTX 770, which is close to a GTX 960 in performance and it plays starwars battlefront with ease. edit: both systems have only 8GB, the original memory from the systems when bought in 2014.

Have you run any gaming benchmarks like unigine heaven or valley? You can then compare your results with others having similar hardware. 

checkout the website "benchmark DOT unigine.com"

Is there any bloatware running or heavy antivirus like McAfee bogging the system down?

Is it on wired or wireless network?

What nVidia software is installed? Have you tried un-installing all of the nVidia software and then only re-installing the drivers?

Lots of questions I know but the system should not be a poor performer.

Now to choose between these two:

Crucial

www.crucial.com/.../CT7350422

Or

G.Skill

www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx

The above G.Skill was suggested by a G.Skill tech who was quite familiar with the Dell motherboard

downclocking CL9 to 1333.

Intel Core i7 4770 @ 3.40GHz

MSI VIDIA GeForce GTX 960

ASUS VX238H Black 23" 1ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 80,000,000:1

We do have Norton antivirus (Comcast provided) and Net Nanny filtering software (I have Steam on the excluded list-do not filter) . I have tried shutting them off with no affect on game play.

Ram was an easier fix than getting a SSD. Computer is actually pretty fast other than gaming. Current RAM utilization is 48% of the 8GB

On MSI Kombustor (Lakes of Titan) it scored 14067 (234 FPS) which is quite good.

Wired Ethernet network CAT5 cables. 130 Mbps download 8.7 upload.

Have not tried un-installing the nVidia. nVidia control panel version 8.1950.0

Thanks for the suggestions.