What differentiates good RAM from bad RAM?

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Masonisbetter

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Jun 5, 2013
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What specs of a ram stick defines good ram? What aspects of computing do the different specs affect? More specifically cas latency and timing and the frequency that usually is in the title on newegg. And finally what would the noticeable changes be when running demanding games and such between these ram sticks? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231679 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231666 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231423
 
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dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

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May 24, 2013
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Higher MHz is generally better, although past 1600 is unnecessary. Lower Cas Latency is always better (preferable 9). Also, lower timing is better. Generally in gaming, the differences that you would see in similarly-priced RAM would be almost nothing.
In terms of RAM, don't get any of these; get Corsair Vengeance LP RAM, as it has much better reliability than the RAM that you have stated. :)
 
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Masonisbetter

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What about the difference between not so similarly priced ram? Is there anything at all to justify going for a $200 over $65 assuming budget is not a problem? And what does the cas latency and timing actually mean?
 
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dannyboy2233

dannyboy2233

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Cas latency is the delay between when the RAM is told to do something, and when it actually does that. The numbers on the timing measure that in milliseconds, to my understanding.
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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You want to determine how much DRAM you want, then determine a budget, also what are you going to do besides gaming....if gaming is about it, unless you play specific memory centric games then 1600 is generally fine and 1866 is becoming entry level. Even for a gaming system I'd suggest 8GB, a few games benefit from that much and more and more will. Once you've determined the above you'll want the best combo of high freq and low latency that falls into your parameters i.e if seeing 1600/7 1866/8 2133/9 then other than bandwidth the performance of these 3 increases slightly with each step up in the freq. In another scenario, if you follow the earlier advive of preferably a 9 CL and you look and find that as an entry of 1600/9 1866/10 and 2133/11 (one step up on both freq and CL then again those three are the same as the other sets each 1 going up slightly better than the previous, so if 1866/10 falls into your staircase and you can find 1866/9 or 1866/8 then much, much better...when I get with clients I use the steps I first listed. From the 2133/9 it continues with 2400/10, 2666/11, and at 2800-3000 CL12....these steps are also appropriate as a basic OC guide for DRAM if you think you might want to OC in the future.

If you multi-task (run multiple apps/windows at the same time or work with video, images, CAD< GIS< anything with big data sets the faster the DRAM the more performance you will see

 
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endeavour37a

endeavour37a

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Yes, 1600 is fine, 1866 is better, going higher is not worth the cost/performance and little benefit felt. The CL has less meaning in higher clock rates of today, not like it used to. 16GB is a good move, it's pretty cheap and comes in handy if doing other than gaming, like photo editing or video work. G.Skill, Corsair and Crucial are top quality.
16GB of 1866 in CL 8 would serve well in gaming I feel.
 
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toarranre

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Only time to go above 1600 in a gaming environment is if you are using integrated AMD graphics. If you need to shave to fit a budget and asthetics aren't an issue then value RAM will do it's job just fine, Gskill and Corsair are generally considered the most reliable brands.
 
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