Do higher memory speeds really make a difference?

DarkDubzs · May 28, 2014

I would usually choose 1600 ram for most builds, its just standard for me, but i also feel like i should just spend a bit more and go for 1866. Although, is there really any or a noticeable difference between using 1866 or higher speed ram than normal 1600? In terms of mainly a mid-high end gaming rig. Is it worth the price, its only about $10-20 more for 1866 instead of 1600. So whats your thoughts? Thanks in advance!

P.S. what about for a workstation using mostly Photoshop, After Effects, and other rendering programs?

Eduello · May 28, 2014

For gaming, the difference is negligible, a few fps at most.

Faster RAM really shines in rendering, so it would be ideal for workstation builds.

damric · May 28, 2014

For your processor, yes it does. Richland has an improved memory controller, even better than Vishera. Take advantage of it.

Even a few FPS is meaningful when it is on the bottom end. 3-5FPS is a big deal when you add it to your minimum FPS, the areas where the game code gets choked up. If you were playing an online game and get into a bottleneck area where you are stuck at ~25FPS, adding another 3-5FPS is pretty noticeable. Add in some driver tweaks and perhaps some CPU overclock, and you might have dug yourself out of the hole and be back up to 40FPS. Every little bit helps in situations like that.

Granted, when you are not in a bottleneck situation, and things are fluid as your GPU can push 60FPS, you won't notice. But in the real gameplay things are never so perfect. Even when benching something very GPU bound like Unigine, there are little choke points here and there, and memory overclock helps alleviate some of the FPS dips.

The popular saying that you would never notice is a common misconception here at Tom's, even by the review staff.

Particularly, recent AMD processors are more sensitive to RAM speed and timings, as they have slower memory controllers and horrible cache performance compared to Intel processors.

Example:

skit75 · May 28, 2014

Not a meaningful real-world way that you would be able to "see". APUs can see a performance difference in faster RAM. Other than that, you would never know unless you ran a benchmark utility.

DarkDubzs · May 28, 2014

Sorry, it wouldnt be with my current rig or cpu. It would be for a future ITX build, and the cpu would be an i5 4670k
Here is the full ITX build im planning if you guys care to see, i kinda perfected it so far, took me a long time to get it all right then i kinda abandoned it for a few months as im a teen with no job yet...: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JbVzkL

skit75 · May 28, 2014

It isn't going to make a huge difference in that rig but if the price is right, why not?

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Do higher memory speeds really make a difference?

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