what is important in ram oc

[polacos]

I have a patriot gamer 2 2 sticks 4gb each at 1600mhz in dual. North bridge 2200 mhz.
I was stock 9-9-9-25 and i change it to 10-10-10-28
Are the numbers supposed to go up or down??
---------------
Forgot to add it is stable

 

[hokiealumnus]

Down is better. Those numbers are latencies. CAS latency (CL) is "the delay time between the moment a memory controller tells the memory module to access a particular memory column on a RAM memory module, and the moment the data from given array location is available on the module's output pins." Thank you wikipedia. The lower those numbers (assuming they're stable), the better.

 

[Humanoid1]

I found the explanation I linked to below very helpful the other day

Memory Timings Explained

I am not sure of the original source, as I found it elsewhere last time. This example seems more complete though

In my limited memory overclocking experience I then to find the 9-10-9-25 tRCD (in red here) timing likes to lag behind its neighbours by 1 sometimes.

Beyond that, you need to see how far you want to go with your OCing, testing and what Your set of RAM likes

 

[Brando]

I think higher speed trumps tight timings. Every chart I see shows higher mhz having higher bandwidth but if you can have both that's always good. Pretty sure there's an optimal balance somewhere. Cas10 at 2200mhz is giving me over 23.5gb/s read bandwidth. I think you need the right mix. Whatever makes bandwidth go up.

 

[Humanoid1]

Pretty much.

But it is also a balancing act.

I have seen reviews where 1600 1866 2000 2133 (same RAM in different configurations) etc all give Very much the same performance in both bandwidth and latency
where the loosening of the timings kept the increased speed from pulling away like it usually does.

But most of the time as long as the timings do not get too loose the extra MHz does pay off. With good timings and MHz the difference gets pretty advantageous

If going for lower MHz and tighter timings you can run lower voltages and keep temps down a tiny bit more + save a tiny bit power , but for a home user this would have little impact

Next time I have a little spare time I am going to finish stability tweak testing for mine at
2,000MHz 9-10-9-27

Not quite Prime95 stable for me yet, just gotta figure out which part needs loosening up

Enjoy your tweaking

 

[polacos]

any software to test ram stability and speeds.
I set mine now to 8-9-8-24 at 1640mhz, NB 2255 Mhz, it turns on but I dont know if it is stable

 

[Efonzerellie]

try to get tightest timings, then try highest frequency and see which performs better. For me High frequency seems to outperform low timing

 

[polacos]

but now back to post #6, any software to check for performance in ram??

 

[polacos]

Any of this good?
Raodkil RAM
FunMark PerformanceTest

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I'd use Prime95, blend test. There are various benchmark options, blend stresses the CPU and Memory, which ensures things heat up inside your case and give you an idea about memory stability.

 

[Brando]

Yep prime 95 custom blend with maximum memory usage, 4 instances of hci memory test, or goldmemory.