DDR DRAM FAQs And Troubleshooting Guide

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DRAM is probably one of least understood components in a computer. Here are answers to our readers’ most common questions about memory.

What Is CAS Latency?

This is the number of clock cycles that go by, starting from when an instruction is given and ending when the data is available. In general, the lower the CL, the better, within a given data rate of DRAM. If you have DRAM running at a data rate of 2133 MT/s, you will typically see a CL of 9, 10 or 11. The CL9 DRAM typically performs more quickly.

Latency is also the inverse of frequency. The faster something cycles, the less time a single cycle takes. That means that, every time a new memory technology doubles the number of clock cycles, the amount of time it takes each cycle to complete is cut in half. Because of that, six cycles at DDR3-1066 happen in the same amount of time as 12 cycles at DDR3-2133. Lower latency numbers do mean that the memory responds more quickly, but the amount the speed is increased depends entirely on the memory’s frequency.

Jim Reece
47 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Nuckles_56
    Thank you for this useful and informative article
    Reply
  • das_stig
    With AMD motherboards, you should set the memory to unganged mode for a tiny performance improvement unless you're running a webserver.
    Reply
  • vicstead
    Thank you Jim for this very informative article, an enjoyable read.
    Reply
  • Mahruay
    Nice read although could you explain what real world improvements can be seen in faster RAM.
    Reply
  • boju
    Nice article, answers a lot for people and definitely will link for future references. I need to ask though, is there any reason to discriminate DDR3 as per title?
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Wow this is very informative thank you for this!!
    Reply
  • MPA2000
    Lost me after Virtual v Physical.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    I hope the next part covers performance when using say 3 sticks, where 2 are dual channel, 1 is single channel. Some real world results would be stellar (maybe as a follow-up?)

    I'd also like to see RAM drives covered. Suppose you allocate 4GB out of 16 for a RAM drive. How does the software create the 4GB? Is it using a single chunk of memory, is it taking 1GB from each of the 4 sticks? Is it from the beginning, middle or end of the 16GB of memory?

    Covering how to identify true "memory leaks" versus a more common scenario where RAM usage grows intentionally from the caching of more and more assets.
    Reply
  • damric
    Great article, Tradesman! I give it Two thumbs up and two big toes up too!

    Only 1 issue:

    Ganged vs Unganged: that actually doesn't have to do with single or dual channel.

    Quote AMD:
    Ganged mode means that there is a single 128bit wide dual-channel DRAM Controller (DCT)
    enabled. Unganged mode enables two 64bit wide DRAM Controllers (DCT0 and DCT1).
    The recommended setting in most cases is the Unganged memory mode. Ganged mode may allow slightly
    higher Memory performance tuning and performs well in single-threaded benchmarks.
    Depending on the motherboard and BIOS, it may be required manually setting the timing parameters for each
    DCT (in Unganged mode) when performance tuning the memory or fine tuning the timings. Some BIOS
    versions apply the same timings automatically for both DCTs in an Unganged mode.
    Unganged is like a normal divided highway with two directions. Ganged let's traffic use all of the lanes in one direction at a time. Unganged is said to be more efficient but no one really ever tested this thoroughly to see if any applications would be better served in ganged instead. You could still have unganged single channel or dual channel, and ganged single channel or dual channel. If that's confusing I'll try to explain with more complicated interstate highway anecdote.

    Lastly, I see you have a new AMD rig. Did your head explode when you saw how much more difficult it is to tune memory on that platform than on your past intel rigs?


    Reply
  • Shankovich
    Awesome article! These kinds of articles is what brought me to Tom's in the first place years ago!
    Reply