Upgrade Ram or processor for biggest improvement

[dwjs]

I have an Phenom 9850 with 8GB of DDR2 3200 Ram in it right now.

What would give me the biggest improvement?

the extra 100mhz of a 9950 or upgrading the RAM to 8GB of DDR2 8500?

I originally went with the 3200 to save some money..........it was a lot more expensive 7 months ago and it had a nice rebate.

Here's a link to it : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176 It's 5-5-5-18

I was considering this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145197 it's 5-5-5-15.

So would the extra memory speed and better timing make for a faster computer then just swapping out the processor from a 2.5Ghz to a 2.6Ghz?

I'm not sure if I'll do this, but I'm curious if it would be a noticeable change. I mainly do Photoshop and lightroom on that computer. I was originally thinking about just holding off for the new processors in January, which some speculate might run upto 3.00Ghz stock.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions

[Karamiekos]

I would definitely go with the Memory. I don't have anything really empirical to back that up with, but you can easily crank out an extra 100Mhz outta that CPU.

As far as performance difference. Even changing Both would not make a night or day difference, but it will definitely improve, since you seem to do a lot of memory intensive stuff.

[Boundless]

dwjs: > I have an Phenom 9850 with 8GB of DDR2 3200 Ram in it right now.

What mobo and graphics?

> the extra 100mhz of a 9950 or upgrading the RAM to 8GB of DDR2 8500?

Before going above PC6400, be sure to see:
The Case of the Counterfeit CAS
PC8500 may not be economically faster than PC6400,
if it even works at its advertised CAS.

My inclination would be to go with DDR2/800 (PC6400),
and skip the CPU upgrade until January.
________
Upgrading a CPU to get a mere +100MHz hasn't been worthwhile
since sometime prior to Y2K, and, as another response has
pointed out, you can probably get that +100 right now with
a simple BIOS tweak.