RAM: is it worth paying any more for faster latency, timings or speed?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I'm trying to decide between:

Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (Yellow Heat Spreader) Model TLYD38G1600HC9DC01 $60
CAS 9 Timing: 9-9-9-24 DDR3 1600


or

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model $71
CAS 7 Timing: 7-7-7-18 DDR3 1066

Usually I just go with whatever is on sale. I know that 1600 is ever so slightly better than 1066, but not enough to really pay more for, I suppose. I'm just not sure if the CAS 7 vs CAS9, coupled with lower timings overall is worth the extra $11.

I have an AMD A10-7800 cpu with integrated Radeon HD 7540D, and I have heard that the built in video benefits from faster RAM. Thanks in advance!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Unless you are benchmarking, it matters not.

 

[CakeMonster]

In general, no, not above 1600.

Arguments can be made that there is a measurable difference when it comes to integrated graphics. But if that's what you want to improve by buying RAM, you're better off with a discrete graphics card anyway.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

>CakeMonster;36989338]In general, no, not above 1600.

So there really isn't much difference between 1066 MHz RAM and 1600 MHz RAM?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

>CakeMonster;36989338]In general, no, not above 1600.

So there really isn't much difference between 1066 MHz RAM and 1600 MHz RAM?

If you're not benchmarking, there is no real world noticeable difference.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I'm trying to decide between:

Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (Yellow Heat Spreader) Model TLYD38G1600HC9DC01 $60
CAS 9 Timing: 9-9-9-24 DDR3 1600


or

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model $71
CAS 7 Timing: 7-7-7-18 DDR3 1066

Usually I just go with whatever is on sale. I know that 1600 is ever so slightly better than 1066, but not enough to really pay more for, I suppose. I'm just not sure if the CAS 7 vs CAS9, coupled with lower timings overall is worth the extra $11.

I have an AMD A10-7800 cpu with integrated Radeon HD 7540D, and I have heard that the built in video benefits from faster RAM. Thanks in advance!

RAM speed is very important for gaming on an APU. I'd opt for DDR3 1866 if you play games on your system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv57qDXpEPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Z7H1PYUkk

Now for a system with a discrete graphics card there is no meaningful difference, but on integrated graphics that's a whole different story.

 

[Blain]

If I were shopping for high quality (DDR3) memory, I would use the following parameters as a guide...

* DDR3 rated at 1.5v or lower
* DDR3 rated at the lowest CAS I could afford
* DDR3 rated at the highest clock speed I could afford
* Limit the scope of my purchase to G.Skill, Mushkin, Corsair XMS or Crucial (non-Ballistix)

While not wavering on the voltage point, I would balance the other issues with my budget.

Remember, my goal is not pure "benchmarking" performance, but simply finding the highest quality memory I can afford. ^_^

The only reason I pay a premium for low latency, high speed, low voltage memory is...
Quality and quality alone.

1.5v is the JEDEC DDR3 voltage standard.
Stay with 1.5v or less if you can afford it..

What he said

 

[Dasa2]

if you are buying ram and faster ram is much the same price then go for it as it can make a fairly big difference especially with a igp

with a 2600k & 7970 i have found going from 1600 to 2133 at the same timings to be equivalent to ~400mhz higher oc on the cpu in cpu limited games
timings are also important with 1333c9= to 1600c11 in performance
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/dasa09/ThiefAverageFPS_zps766cfe5a.png

but you are running some very cheap slow gear so spending a heap on ram is not a good value way to spend it unless the price difference is very small

i dont think 1333c7 is worth paying more for than 1600c9
but if you can get 1600c8 or 1866c9 for a similar price then go for it

here is a review showing the performance difference ram makes with that cpu
http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/highlights2/leo-waldock/amd-a10-7800-review/8/
its ~13% faster just going from 1866 to 2133

not sure where your buying but out of what newegg has i think this would be a decent buy
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 8-9-9-24 1.6v $68

 

[bryanl]

I wouldn't pay a premium for 1600 11-11-11 memory rated faster than that.

 

[tweakboy]

Well 8 to 16GB should quench your thirst. But your fine with 8GB. I doubt you will use it all except for video and audio editing ...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

if you are buying ram and faster ram is much the same price then go for it as it can make a fairly big difference especially with a igp

with a 2600k & 7970 i have found going from 1600 to 2133 at the same timings to be equivalent to ~400mhz higher oc on the cpu in cpu limited games
timings are also important with 1333c9= to 1600c11 in performance
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/dasa09/ThiefAverageFPS_zps766cfe5a.png

but you are running some very cheap slow gear so spending a heap on ram is not a good value way to spend it unless the price difference is very small

i dont think 1333c7 is worth paying more for than 1600c9
but if you can get 1600c8 or 1866c9 for a similar price then go for it

here is a review showing the performance difference ram makes with that cpu
http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/highlights2/leo-waldock/amd-a10-7800-review/8/
its ~13% faster just going from 1866 to 2133

not sure where your buying but out of what newegg has i think this would be a decent buy
Mushkin Enhanced Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 8-9-9-24 1.6v $68

I'd think the Ripjaws Z DDR3-1866 9-9-9-24-2N kit -- if they have one in a 2x4GB flavor -- would be better than that for the spec voltage of 1.5V. But then again, you'd have to check the G.SKILL RAM configurator link for the AMD motherboard.

I can't speak for the Mushkins -- which are nevertheless good RAM kits -- but G.SKILL advises that you can run the Ripjaws at command-rate=1, and the XMP profile for them may automatically choose that command-rate. That's still a nice little bump in performance -- for the benchies or what you can barely notice.

Anyway, I wouldn't fret much about a $10+ price-differential. As with the voltage, timings -- speed -- there are other factors.

 

[Dasa2]

im no expert on fm2 but other than intel nuc that dont work with anything over 1.35v sodimm most ddr3 desktop systems are fine with 1.65v ram although it could be considered overclocking so anyone thats dead against overclocking for some reason may want to stick to 1.5v ram

GA-F2A88XM-D3H supports some high speed sticks that would be 1.65v despite specking 1.5v

within 1.5v spec there is also
Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model PVL38G213C1KR Timing: 11-11-11-27 $60 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220853
maybe a bit slower than 1866 8-9-9 in some things hard to say which would win in this system though but its cheaper and has lower v so maybe its a better buy

edit
seems frequency is far more important than latency for fm2 which is a very different result to my 2600k
http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/2014/february/understanding-kaveri

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-scaling-trinity,3419-6.html

 

[Anteaus]

At reference speeds its not worth it.....if you are doing serious overclocking it is practically mandatory. As your push your CPU higher, so goes your memory. I don't OC myself but I know some who do. Quality ram pays off as you start pushing everything harder.

 

[StrangerGuy]

At reference speeds its not worth it.....if you are doing serious overclocking it is practically mandatory. As your push your CPU higher, so goes your memory. I don't OC myself but I know some who do. Quality ram pays off as you start pushing everything harder.

Uh, we aren't living in Core 2/Nehalem days any longer.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I used to believe in differences in RAM timings years ago but I just tested my Kingston RAM by using 3DMark 11. One setting was 11-11-11-30 and the other 9-9-9-27. The difference in score was 4 points, not 100, 200 or 300 points but 4 points. That's not much of a difference.

(I was talking about Kingston KHX18C10K2/8. It's 1866 MHz RAM but I run it at 1600 MHz at 1.5V. The reason I bought them was because at the time, it was the only Kingston RAM I could quickly find that ran at 1.5V at 1600 MHz. The reason I chose Kingston is simply because I found fewer complaints against that brand with a quick search on the net.)

 

[Dasa2]

I used to believe in differences in RAM timings years ago but I just tested my Kingston RAM by using 3DMark 11. One setting was 11-11-11-30 and the other 9-9-9-27. The difference in score was 4 points, not 100, 200 or 300 points but 4 points. That's not much of a difference.

its primarily a gpu benchmark and faster ram only helps cpu performance and igp performance not dedicated gpu performance unless the cpu is the bottleneck

in 3dmark i compared my 2600k against a friends 3770k with both at 4.2ghz and with his ram at 1600mhz the performance was much the same as my 2600k at with ram at 2133mhz
but with his ram and cpu at the same speed his physics score jumped back in front by ~10% which is where it should be
a 10% jump in physics score only made ~1% difference to the total score though as the gpu is the main focus of the other tests at least until current gpu get eclipsed and it becomes a largly cpu botlnecked benchmark like 3dm11 now is with a top end gpu

we are also getting towards the end of ddr3 and 1150 systems are more starved for bandwidth than early ddr3 systems were

 

[fire400]

CPU/GPU/SSD are where it's really going to hurt.

seen and read enough benchmarks to conclude that I would go cheap and purchase someone's used heatsinked value RAM @ 16GB DDR-3, and just call it done, as of 2014, that is.

 

[VirtualLarry]

iwe are also getting towards the end of ddr3 and 1150 systems are more starved for bandwidth than early ddr3 systems were

I don't think that's true at all.

 

[Dasa2]

I don't think that's true at all.

well its just a guess based on my 2600k seeming to gain more from higher ram speed the higher i clock it and that intel recommend 1600mhz ram for best performance now where as they use to suggest 1333mhz
but i guess improvements made to cpu cache could be offsetting it
im afraid i dont have a i5 750 to test just a i3 540 and nothing newer than 2600k so no way to prove one way or the other
as for amd they could behave differently

 

[StrangerGuy]

well its just a guess based on my 2600k seeming to gain more from higher ram speed the higher i clock it and that intel recommend 1600mhz ram for best performance now where as they use to suggest 1333mhz
but i guess improvements made to cpu cache could be offsetting it
im afraid i dont have a i5 750 to test just a i3 540 and nothing newer than 2600k so no way to prove one way or the other
as for amd they could behave differently

Do you even English?

 

[Aristotelian]

On the chart quoted below, what would explain the fact that - most of the time - faster timings are faster at a given frequency, but at the top there:

The 2640 frequency RAM with slower timings is better than the 2640 frequency RAM with faster timings?

I'm researching a new DDR4 build, so this kind of thread is interesting to me. When I do builds, I tend to push a benchmarking extreme just to know that I've eked out every bit of theoretical and practical performance that I can muster. I remember the days when timings on RAM made a big deal, and RAM is generally a component that I tend to overlook.

For me, faster is always better. But if slower RAM timings can generate a slower FPS experience then, I've been missing something somewhere, and appeal to experienced posters here to provide a bit of guidance (and thanks, Blain - would your advice extend to DDR4 in some way?)

im no expert on fm2 but other than intel nuc that dont work with anything over 1.35v sodimm most ddr3 desktop systems are fine with 1.65v ram although it could be considered overclocking so anyone thats dead against overclocking for some reason may want to stick to 1.5v ram

GA-F2A88XM-D3H supports some high speed sticks that would be 1.65v despite specking 1.5v

within 1.5v spec there is also
Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model PVL38G213C1KR Timing: 11-11-11-27 $60 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220853
maybe a bit slower than 1866 8-9-9 in some things hard to say which would win in this system though but its cheaper and has lower v so maybe its a better buy

edit
seems frequency is far more important than latency for fm2 which is a very different result to my 2600k
http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/2014/february/understanding-kaveri

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-scaling-trinity,3419-6.html

 

[Dasa2]

On the chart quoted below, what would explain the fact that - most of the time - faster timings are faster at a given frequency, but at the top there:

i guess the difference becomes so small that it falls to margin of error in the test
no two runs are ever identical there is always a small variance
sometimes you get a stutter and thats all it takes

but i have seen results recently where higher ddr4 speeds were consistently slower cant remember where but i think they were looking into a bios bug

 

[Blain]

(and thanks, Blain - would your advice extend to DDR4 in some way?)

I'm not sure what the official JEDEC DDR4 standards are, but in general, I'd apply the same method with the goal of buying quality DDR4 memory...
* High clock rated
* Low latency
* JEDEC standard voltage (or less)
* Affordable price point
* Same major players... G.Skill, Corsair, Crucial (non-Ballistix)

"While not wavering on the voltage point, I would balance the other issues with my budget."

 

[Cerb]

The IGP can hog some bandwidth in those APUs.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/patriot-memory-pvl38g213c1kr
1.5V, 2133MHz, not expensive.