Is ram speed better than capacity?

[murph0981]

I currently have 64 GB of DDR4 RAM clocked at 2666mhz. Unfortunately, that is the fastest my CPU can handle (according to intel) and 64 GB is the maximum amount of memory the CPU can handle. 
 

For Christmas, I figured it makes more sense to upgrade capacity over speeds (seeing as my original set was 16 GB 2400mhz) without really considering or looking into it. So far it’s awesome, and I can compact files drastically smaller then before, and editing videos is a faster process, but I still think about speed.

 

Rather than google it, I would rather ask people who have experience and knowledge of the subject; Is capacity better than speed?

[keik]

You really fill-up 64 GB of RAM?

I'd almost always would go for faster operations (MHz) then capacity, especially beyond 32GB.

2 minutes ago, yaboistar said:

 

by the way, 2666 is only the end of the official tested spec. it will go higher.

^even without XMP, you should be able to get at least 2800.

[GoodEnough]

3200mhz is the optimal ram speed without spending an outrageous amount of money, anything higher than 3200mhz and your not really going to see much of a performance boost (at least thats how it is in games and depending on the game, some games couldnt care less how fast your ram is)

[ubuntu-guru]

Jeeze, the hell do you do to require 64GB ram. My PC is a ram-aholic and 32GB does me fine with having like 8GB free when I'm even going beyond what I normally do. 16GB made me sit at 96% most of the time, and 32GB was the sweet spot with having some free.

[WereCatf]

28 minutes ago, murph0981 said:

Is capacity better than speed?

A question like that just shows you don't understand RAM. Capacity is the most important thing until you reach the point where you're not using all the RAM anymore, after that more capacity is entirely irrelevant. Once you have as much RAM as you are actually using, speed is the important thing. In short, both are important.

[Bombastinator]

This is one reason every time i see the word “good” or “better” or “worth it” I know the person asking the question is lacking critical conceptual information

Basically it depends on what you are doing.

 

fast is generally better than slow (with certain specific and small exceptions) but not having enough ram is much worse than having slow ram.  You only need as much ram as you need though. 

enough ram to not hit swap is better than not enough faster ram.   If you’re going to hit swap no matter what you do, a lot more slower ram is still better than a much smaller amount of faster ram for most but not all things.