How big of a difference between CAS2 & 3?

[bluemax]

I'm not sure what class of RAM I have in my Dell (probably CAS-2 since they charge so much...)
If I added a stick of CAS3, how bad would my performance drop? Or would it drop at all?
Adding 256MB to 128MB might benefit WinME more than the 1% speed drop from using CAS-3...

What do you guys think?

 

[tomstevens26]

I'm not surewhat the performance difference is, however, you might be able to run that new RAM at CAS2. I've bought RAM before rated at CAS3 (from both Kingston and Samsung) and have ran them fine at CAS2.

 

[MCS]

Yes, it might even run at CAS 2, I have run plenty of CAS 3 memory at CAS 2 with no problems. The performance difference is around the 3-5% mark, depending on the software.

 

[GreenGecko]

You shouldn't notice a performance difference at all.

There will be a difference to some degree, but when I upgraded my PC, I asked AMD Tech Support about CAS2 vs. CAS3.
Their response was that CAS2 is about 3% faster than CAS3. They also told me that I wouldn't be able to tell a difference.

I do agree with Tom's response about running you new stick at CAS2. Many of the memory sticks that are rated for CAS3 will run just fine at CAS2.

Just remember that although you might lose a little speed with CAS3 memory sticks, you will also gain some performance in Windows because of the additional memory.

 

[SeventySeven]

Changing from CAS3 to CAS2 wouldn't really provide any noticable benefits in everyday desktop apps, but intensive programs and games would benefit slightly. The numbers represent the number of cycles between a request for data and the fulfillment of that request, and the units of measurement are in milliseconds.

If you're buying new memory, might as well get CAS2, at Crucial.com, for example, it costs the same amount as the CAS3 stuff.