RAM Timings

[40sTheme]

Subject somewhat says it all.
How much of a difference in performance do RAM timings make? Can there be that much of a difference between 4ms and 5ms? Just wondering; a general question.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Find out for yourself! Go into to your bios and increase the ram timings step by step. I notice a very significant decrease in performance/snappiness/responsiveness by going from 2-3-3-6 to 3-3-3-7.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Honestly, I notice zero difference in OS responsiveness or frames/sec when I increase the timings. I guess I just put 'em as low as possible because the benchmarks look better. lol.

Another thought, would my cas 2 ddr even work if I put it at 4? I wonder if 4 is even an option...

 

[40sTheme]

Hmm, i'll mess with the timings and see. Many people see it from Zaitsev's point of view, which is why I was wondering. I shall return after some testing.

 

[Bill Kunert]

You can change memory timings in memtest and see how it affects memory throughput. It's shown on the memtest screen.

 

[caberguy]

General consensus seems to be that RAM speed is more important with the Intel chips b/c of the off die controller. So you should see more performance gains/losses related to timing on an AMD system than on an Intel, and more gains/losses related to RAM speed in Intel systems.

 

[40sTheme]

Wow, I messed around with the timings and dropped my current of 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15. Appreciable difference; Windows took a bit longer to load, but not much. The real difference I noticed was when I tested Firefox. It ran pretty slow compared to it's usual speed. Game hitching was also alot more of a problem. I wasn't aware you could change RAM timings in the BIOS; only thought you could change the speed along with the FSB. That's why I had never tested. I feel kind of stupid now. Thanks for letting me know! There is definitely a difference.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: 40sTheme
Wow, I messed around with the timings and dropped my current of 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15. Appreciable difference; Windows took a bit longer to load, but not much. There is definitely a difference.

You didn't drop your timings, you raised them. Higher timings run slower.