Is fast ram beneficial for computing (science, math work)?

[commandosupremo]

So basically I'm curious if anyone has any good benchmarks that show if RAM frequency makes a difference for non-gaming, non-productivity work such as a very memory intensive C/C++ program or a Perl / Python script doing some heavy memory IO. I ask because I hear continuously and probably correctly that memory frequency above 1600MHz for DDR3 is not very beneficial for gaming, but I imagine that's because memory IO simply isn't the limiting factor for games.

In my lab at work we have nearly identical machines but some have 1866MHz CL9, others with 1600MHz CL9 but the i7s in the 1866 machines are a generation newer, so although the code performs better it's hard to attribute that solely to RAM frequency differences.

Anyone have any experience with this situation? I would just swap the RAM in the machines one day but that is a pain since there is a 'don't touch the machines' rule when they are working well.

 

[commandosupremo]

Allow me to clarify, I realize it is a strange question.

Basically for non-gaming tasks, math intensive tasks (not as extreme as prime95 but still scientific computing) does RAM frequency make any difference? I have a new system at home to test this hypothesis, but if anyone has any expertise in the matter I would love to hear it. My guess is yes it does, but not as great of an increase as improvements in the CPU (clock, architecture, cache access, etc. ) would make.

 

[Pinhedd]

Allow me to clarify, I realize it is a strange question.

Basically for non-gaming tasks, math intensive tasks (not as extreme as prime95 but still scientific computing) does RAM frequency make any difference? I have a new system at home to test this hypothesis, but if anyone has any expertise in the matter I would love to hear it. My guess is yes it does, but not as great of an increase as improvements in the CPU (clock, architecture, cache access, etc. ) would make.

Yes it absolutely does.

Take a look at some data compression algorithms and see how they perform with respect to various memory data rates.