Timing, speed, dual channel, and their affect on performance.

Chihlidog · Apr 11, 2011

Hey guys,

I keep asking tons of questions all over the forums, most of the probably pretty n00bish. I'm sorry. But this place is a great resource, I'm used to TH, been there for years, but Im a bit more comfortable here so please forgive me for all the inquiries.

Here's the question. How much does timing really affect gaming performance? And the same for speed, and dual channel. I'm getting ready to order a new build, I just picked out some decent DDR3 and thought "good enough". However, I'd like to know what affect on performance a faster memory or different configuration might have, and there dont seem to be a ton of articles on this stuff. Are we talking a 1-2 fps difference (which is what Ive heard elsewhere) or can getting it all right really significantly increase a PCs performance?

Thanks!

RollingThunder · Apr 11, 2011

Chihlidog said:
Hey guys,

I keep asking tons of questions all over the forums, most of the probably pretty n00bish. I'm sorry. But this place is a great resource, I'm used to TH, been there for years, but Im a bit more comfortable here so please forgive me for all the inquiries.

Here's the question. How much does timing really affect gaming performance? And the same for speed, and dual channel. I'm getting ready to order a new build, I just picked out some decent DDR3 and thought "good enough". However, I'd like to know what affect on performance a faster memory or different configuration might have, and there dont seem to be a ton of articles on this stuff. Are we talking a 1-2 fps difference (which is what Ive heard elsewhere) or can getting it all right really significantly increase a PCs performance?

Thanks!

Don't be concerned with your questions, we all asked the same questions too.

Unless you're an avid bench marker looking for the absolute, you wont know the difference. CPU speed will rule in the end. If you plan to overclock, a few more Mhz will over-rule slower memory timings and speeds. It's just not significant enough to fret over. I asked the same and always bought more RAM speed than I needed or would ever use.

Chihlidog · Apr 11, 2011

I appreciate your patience with me. Thanks for the answers - I'm not a benchmarker, just an avid user. Sounds like I'm good with my attitude of "buy decent ram and dont worry too much about it" lol.

Kowalski3500 · Apr 11, 2011

Back in the day RAM speed (as a resultant of FSB/divider) was a limiting factor of your overclock. Either you bought the next step of speed up, loosened the timings, or ran the RAM on a divider. (Or a combo of those). Now, overclocks aren't limited by RAM, and RAM speed and timings don't have the impact they did on older architectures. That said, I have a habit of buying one speed step (533 over 400) over what I intend to use, that way I can OC the ram if I want to.

It won't be a limiting factor, nor will the 'lost performance' of choosing not to go with the cutting edge ram, be significant. You'd make up the difference with a few tens of MHz of CPU OC.

GFORCE100 · Apr 12, 2011

Generally speaking timings play a minor role these days. They do influence memory bandwidth/latency but you're not likely to feel it in real-world use, only benchmarks will reveal otherwise.

When it comes to memory frequency and capacity is king, and making use of dual and tripple channel options where supported. Timings are merely the icing on the cake if you will, something you'll want to have if you're a computer addict/fan but not necessary if you're just a normal PC user.

Timing, speed, dual channel, and their affect on performance.

Chihlidog

Member

RollingThunder

Destroyer of Trolls & Spammers

Chihlidog

Member

Kowalski3500

Member

GFORCE100

Member

Similar threads