So my cousin is building a beast desktop.

[disolitude]

NJ5 said:

 

Even if they do, how can you take advantage of triple channel with 2x 4GB sticks? Wouldn't you need 3 of them?

Yeah, good point...I would buy 2 now, and then in a year or two I'd buy another 4GB tripple channel? 12 GB is just overkill today.

As far as your earlier post about CPU benchmarks, I agree. Those bemcharks are done to measure CPU contributions to gaming frame rate and are usually done at very low visual settings so the graphics card isn't a bottleneck. An average gamer could run a game on high settings using a gTX560Ti and a  Phenom II and i7 should give similar framerate.

However if a game is older and is only able to utilize a single core, or someone running 120hz 3D and needs 120 frames per second...CPU does become a bottleneck. My Phenom II and DDR2 memory architecture are screwing me right now... Can't get 60 frames per eye per sec in Crysis 2 in 3D. Its at a constant 53-54 fps... Its fine as Crysis 2 3D is kinda lame and all other games I play are doing ok. Duke Nukem should be blazing fast and good in 3D...