MEMORY - how much difference does it make?

Krisali · 8 Jul 2013 at 11:06

Hello,

As per title I am wondering how much difference ram speed and latency actually make to the average gaming system. I have read conflicting advice and am not sure what to believe.

I currently have basic 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance and am kind of wishing I had plumbed for something a bit faster. Can't even remember what the timings are but I think it is quite sluggish.

For reference I have 3570k @ 4.2, Samsung Pro SSD 256GB, 16GB RAM, and have just ordered a GTX 780.

Would buying say some Samsung Green offer appreciable gains?

Thanks

panyan · 8 Jul 2013 at 11:42

Krisali said:
am kind of wishing I had plumbed for something a bit faster. Can't even remember what the timings are but I think it is quite sluggish.

why do you think it is your ram holding you back?

Krisali · 8 Jul 2013 at 11:52

No not really I just didn't put much thought into buying the ram whereas I did with other bits. My system is fine, it isn't the fastest but it does everything I need and is fine for playing games.

I am only asking what people on here who know more than me think. If I upgrade a CPU or a SSD or a Gfx card I know roughly what to expect in terms of performance but I can't say the same about memory.

Doco · 8 Jul 2013 at 11:58

Are you doing a lot of benchmarks? Thats really one of the only things I'd say that would allow you to see direct performance gains, I've only got 8gb of Vengeance HP at somthing like 9-9-9-24 (I think) so not overly speedy, and in games everything is grand - never had anything that would suggest my ram is slowing me down and most reading when I thinking of getting my system last year said that you'll really not notice the difference the main brunt of the work is done cpu/gpu side and ram will basically come into play mainly with the amount of it (ie you'd see a performance drop say with 2gb of ram - esp with high-res texture packs - and an increase if you go to say 8gb)

panyan · 8 Jul 2013 at 12:00

Krisali said:
No not really I just didn't put much thought into buying the ram whereas I did with other bits.

That ram is decent - dont worry about it.

That ram shouldnt be slowing down your system and better stuff wont make any difference in real-world performance.

Krisali · 8 Jul 2013 at 13:10

Nope couldnt give a flying monkeys about benchmarks. I just use them to make sure my system is running as it should.

So yeah faster ram won't offer much real world performance. I will stick with what I have then

Kaapstad · 8 Jul 2013 at 16:26

This might help a bit

Just ran the Tomb Raider bench @1080p maxed out on everything

2 x GTX 690s @stock
3960X @4.9ghz

Ram @1600mhz

Ram @2400mhz

The benchmark actually ran slightly better with the Ram at 1600mhz with higher minimum, average and maximums than it did at 2400mhz.

So in answer to the OP, Ram speed makes very little difference in games.

Krisali · 8 Jul 2013 at 17:06

Nice one Kaapstad. Strange though that it would give less fps with faster ram clock

Orcvader · 8 Jul 2013 at 17:21

Possibly due to the tighter timings helping it. It's all about the correct balance between speed and timings to be honest.

Either way though, you can see it only makes ~1% difference

.

Kaapstad · 8 Jul 2013 at 17:26

Krisali said:
Nice one Kaapstad. Strange though that it would give less fps with faster ram clock

1fps is well within the margin of error. I would probably get the same if I did two runs at 1600mhz or two runs at 2400mhz, the difference would be about a single frame.

The other thing to remember is running the Ram faster causes the CPU to produce more heat/stress which in turn can slightly effect how efficiently the CPU is running. If using faster ram does nothing for running a game, the extra heat/stress will have a negative effect on the CPU and results. Well that's my theory anyway.

Kaapstad · 8 Jul 2013 at 17:29

Orcvader said:
Possibly due to the tighter timings helping it. It's all about the correct balance between speed and timings to be honest.

Either way though, you can see it only makes ~1% difference .

The timings I used at both 1600mhz and 2400mhz were the same 9-11-11-25 1T 96. I just wanted to show the difference changing the Ram speed made.

teppic · 8 Jul 2013 at 18:31

For budget gaming systems with an AMD APU it makes a big difference with the graphics, 2400MHz gives something like 20% performance boost over 1600MHz.

Since 2133MHz RAM is now barely any more expensive than 1600MHz I'd go for that with any new stuff I bought.

Krisali · 8 Jul 2013 at 20:08

teppic said:
For budget gaming systems with an AMD APU it makes a big difference with the graphics, 2400MHz gives something like 20% performance boost over 1600MHz.

Since 2133MHz RAM is now barely any more expensive than 1600MHz I'd go for that with any new stuff I bought.

This is because the APU uses system memory yes?

But I just checked memory prices and **** me they have gone up! I will stick with my current RAM..

teppic · 8 Jul 2013 at 20:42

Yup, the APU has no dedicated memory. But as it performs as well as a budget discrete card, the increase in RAM speed gives genuinely useful results.

e.g. the stock A10 68K with 1600MHz RAM gives 61fps in Left for Dead 2 (1080, high settings), while with 2133MHz RAM it goes to 72fps. Overclocked and with 2400MHz RAM, that'd get to around 90fps.