Does faster RAM improve minimal frame rates?

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Tom O Bedlam

Tom O Bedlam

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Feb 13, 2015
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Hello Tom's people,

Recently I upgraded from 16gb of 1333 cl 9 DDR3 RAM to 32gb of 2666 cl12 DDR3 Ram. The upgrade was to accommodate some heavy Photoshop use and I'm pleased with the results there.
But after reading many sites about how RAM doesn't affect gaming, I must say that, with faster RAM speeds, games do appear to be running smoother, if not faster. Seems like the maximum frame rate hasn't been so much affected but that the minimum rate has been improved to a noticeable real life difference.

Does anyone have any opinion or information on this, as it has been a positive and surprising benefit of the upgrade - or am I just completely duping myself into a confirmation bias?

For what it's worth, Divinity Original Sin 2 is no longer hanging from DirectX issues as it did before the upgrade.
 
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Barty1884
There's other factors at play (architecture etc), which can certainly show gains, yes.

Typically the "RAM speed doesn't affect gaming" comments relates more to averages opposed to minimums etc.

The argument against faster RAM, would be when you're exclusively buying it to impact your gaming performance.
The additional cost of higher speed memory vs the actual gains are usually completely disproportionate.
Because the upgrade benefits you in other tasks anyway, the added speed (in gaming) is an additional bonus.

Had you just been asking "should I upgrade from 16GB DDR3 1333MHz to 16GB DDR3 >2400MHz, strictly for gaming", the outlay vs potential gains would've been extremely tough to justify for most people.
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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There's other factors at play (architecture etc), which can certainly show gains, yes.

Typically the "RAM speed doesn't affect gaming" comments relates more to averages opposed to minimums etc.

The argument against faster RAM, would be when you're exclusively buying it to impact your gaming performance.
The additional cost of higher speed memory vs the actual gains are usually completely disproportionate.
Because the upgrade benefits you in other tasks anyway, the added speed (in gaming) is an additional bonus.

Had you just been asking "should I upgrade from 16GB DDR3 1333MHz to 16GB DDR3 >2400MHz, strictly for gaming", the outlay vs potential gains would've been extremely tough to justify for most people.
 
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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Barty is right on the money with his explanation. The move to faster RAM would help your CPU out, and in some tasks that could be a very substantial difference. Like you noticed with your photoshop. Moving to faster RAM could possibly improve FPS by a small amount by itself, but it wouldn't be anything substantial, but the add performance you get out of your other hardware like the CPU because of the RAM upgrade should help boost gaming performance some.
 
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Tom O Bedlam

Tom O Bedlam

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Thanks for the responses, and they do make sense. I viewed the upgrade as one of if not the last substantial upgrades to my platform until I go with a new build. I'm on a 4790k and have been so happy with it - a real little powerhouse.

When I installed the RAM my ASUS BIOS popped up an option to automatically overclock the system when enabling the XMP profile. I instead chose to go with Intel's base settings as I've found ASUS' automatic overclocks a bit rough with voltages. What are your thoughts there? At the moment I'm running the RAM at box settings of 2666mhx cl12 (1.65v), my 4790k is overclocks to 4.7ghz at 1.25v) Should I allow ASUS' program to do its own overclock? My thought is that it's not really worth the extra heat in my case.
 
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