RAM Speed for Gaming?

[BigBig5]

What is a good RAM speed for gaming that is not overkill or under?

[kuzimins]

1600mhz cl9

[Fred Castellum]

1600Mhz or 1866Mhz should be fine. Ram speed hasn't played a large factor in gaming for a while. However I did read a article about how devs are taking ram speed into consideration for gaming more now. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

1600MHz, unless you're using an APU. If you are using an APU, faster memory should benefit you.

[BrightCandle]

At least 1600, depending on the game diminishing returns seem to occur anywhere from 1866 to 2133 although some games I have seen gain performance up to 2400 at least. I don't think its worth paying much extra for faster if on a budget but in a few particular games it matters a surprising amount (Arma 3 is one such example).

[Oshino Shinobu]

1600Mhz or 1866Mhz should be fine. Ram speed hasn't played a large factor in gaming for a while. However I did read a article about how devs are taking ram speed into consideration for gaming more now. 

BF4 did, but right now it makes very little difference. Between 1600MHz and 2400MHz, there was like 2-3FPS increase or something

[madscientist56]

if you're using an apu the higher the ram speed the better but, if you're not then 1600 is fine it dose'nt really make much of a diffrence

[A10-FTW]

the 2133 mhz line have great prices now

 

but the 2400 is still expensive

 

1600 and 1866 are the best

 

1333 is trash

[Priller]

BF4 did, but right now it makes very little difference. Between 1600MHz and 2400MHz, there was like 2-3FPS increase or something

 

I went from 1600 to 1866 and picked up 5 FPS in BF4 before Mantle at 5760x1080.

 

I would get 1866 CL9 or CL10. The only way to mathematically be faster at CL11 would be over 2200mhz which a number of 1866 CL10 will actually do.

[theawesomejman]

3000 mhz is best, 1600 sucks

 

jkjk, 1600 is best bang for your buck

[Opcode]

Simple, run whatever your CPU's memory controller supports native. Which is 1600 for Intel and 1866 for AMD. Tho faster memory never hurts if it costs generally the same. Intel chips like high frequencies, and AMD chips like tight timings. If your board supports 2133 don't be afraid of buying a kit of that speed. Tho there is less than 1 FPS difference moving from 1333 MHz to 3000 MHz. That is how much ram impacts game performance.

[MasterJV]

1886 MHz is the sweet spot. Anandtech had an interesting article on this stating 1886 is the sweet spot, not 1600.