What does faster RAM do?

[Anthony10]

I think I've made a topic like this before but no one has explained it correctly to me yet, so in what applications can I see a speed improvement with faster RAM and why?

 

P.S. do not comment anything about you don't need more than 1600mhz or anything along that line, because that is not what I am asking.

[madscientist56]

There aren't really many apps out there that optimize faster ram usually people only get faster Ram if they're using an apu or doing some heavy CPU overclocking

[Ryan Leech]

It increases bandwidth...which current-gen software really can't utilize

[Heisenbleurgh]

Right now? Take a couple extra $$s off you.

[Glenwing]

Applications that are heavy in RAM I/O.  Examples are mostly workstation/server applications.  CAD, video editing/rendering, 3D modeling, large photoshop projects, and server.

[jscho]

Video rendering, 3D work, and lots of other RAM intensive applications can benefit from faster RAM, though how much performance is improved is a little vague.

At this point in time, you can't go wrong with a solid 1600Mhz kit.

[Zeal]

To a certain extent, it reduces the time required to perform calculations when trying to achieve world records on Super Pi and programs alike. High frequency RAM usually result in looser timings though, and there's a tip off point where your RAM will actually slow down calculations.

[VulsaviiK]

Linus did a video on this which I highly recommend checking out. The difference was marginal, and it did get to a point where spending more on RAM, means spending more for a slight performance decrease due to an increase in latency, however all ram kits performed within a few frames a second of each other.

 

Basically it boils down to this - Given the extra cost involved, there are two reasons to spend that much on ram. Either A) You like the aesthetics of it (it's a valid reason, right?), or B) you already have multiple GTX 780 Tis, and are still looking to squeeze that extra couple of frames.

 

He did also mention that 1866MHz seems to be the sweet spot since it won't generally cost you too much more over a 1600MHz kit. That being said, 1600MHz will perform just fine

[dragosudeki]

Faster ram means they can compete with other rams by pushing them out. Joking. It doesn't make any impact on everyday use unless you do video editing or have an APU (not sure about APU).

[Probenja]

It helps on APU's because they use your ram as video memory as i understand. Other than that it might help on some programs but not much on other things.

[pmarion427]

I've read somewhere on the forum that it helps with virtuals machines (like emulators)

[deathjester]

I think I've made a topic like this before but no one has explained it correctly to me yet, so in what applications can I see a speed improvement with faster RAM and why?

 

P.S. do not comment anything about you don't need more than 1600mhz or anything along that line, because that is not what I am asking.

 

Anandtech did a good set of benchmarks on it (linked), that was very exhaustive, with integrated graphics, single card, SLI/Xfire, gaming, non gaming.

 

Most people roll with one non integrated GPU in which case it does jack for you in gaming. The money is simply better spent elsewhere most of the time. Add to that? Past 2400 is hard to get AND keep the CPU overclock, even on Haswell which has the best memory controller of the cpu's. CPU OC > RAM OC.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

[Faceman]

I think I've made a topic like this before but no one has explained it correctly to me yet, so in what applications can I see a speed improvement with faster RAM and why?

 

P.S. do not comment anything about you don't need more than 1600mhz or anything along that line, because that is not what I am asking.

 

Here is a nice video by Linus that explains it.  Basically, there is almost no difference, and the difference that there is could even be chalked up to test variance.

 

You want high frequency and low latency(CAS or CL) but at a certain point, they cancel each other out.

Here is a formula that you can use to compare RAMs(lower is better/faster).

(CL / frequency) * 2000 = X

(9 / 1600) * 2000 = 11.25

(9 / 1866) * 2000 = 9.65

 

The 1866mhz and CL 9 RAM is superior to the 1600mhz and CL9 by 15%, but this is for task related applications(Video editing/rendering, CAD, 3D Work, etc...)  In games, as charted by the graphs in the video it is less than a full fps.

 

 

When looking for RAM, you want the least expensive 8GB(4GBx2) 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24 1.5v that you can find.  You will be fine with 4GB if you are on a budget, but if you play heavily modded Skyrim, then you need 16GB.

 

     I recommend starting with 8GB, if you need more, then buy more.  But going for 16GB from the start to "future proof" is a bad argument in my opinion.  The additional RAM will not be utilized, and you won't notice a difference in performance at all.  Start with 8GB, and in the future when you actually need more, that is when you buy more.  It will help you more in the future, when it is needed, and it will cost a lot less than going for 16GB now. 

[Anthony10]

Here is a nice video by Linus that explains it.  Basically, there is almost no difference, and the difference that there is could even be chalked up to test variance.

 

You want high frequency and low latency(CAS or CL) but at a certain point, they cancel each other out.

Here is a formula that you can use to compare RAMs(lower is better/faster).

(CL / frequency) * 2000 = X

(9 / 1600) * 2000 = 11.25

(9 / 1866) * 2000 = 9.65

 

The 1866mhz and CL 9 RAM is superior to the 1600mhz and CL9 by 15%, but this is for task related applications(Video editing/rendering, CAD, 3D Work, etc...)  In games, as charted by the graphs in the video it is less than a full fps.

 

 

When looking for RAM, you want the least expensive 8GB(4GBx2) 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24 1.5v that you can find.  You will be fine with 4GB if you are on a budget, but if you play heavily modded Skyrim, then you need 16GB.

 

     I recommend starting with 8GB, if you need more, then buy more.  But going for 16GB from the start to "future proof" is a bad argument in my opinion.  The additional RAM will not be utilized, and you won't notice a difference in performance at all.  Start with 8GB, and in the future when you actually need more, that is when you buy more.  It will help you more in the future, when it is needed, and it will cost a lot less than going for 16GB now. 

Face why do you spam this in every thread about ram? It gets annoying after 3 times.

[Faceman]

Face why do you spam this in every thread about ram? It gets annoying after 3 times.

Because the answer is the same, yet you continue asking it.  What are you hoping for, someone to tell you otherwise?

 

For gaming, get 8GB(4GBx2) of the least expensive 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 1.5v RAM you can find. period.  End of discussion.  Move on to the next component.

[Anthony10]

Because the answer is the same, yet you continue asking it.  What are you hoping for, someone to tell you otherwise?

 

For gaming, get 8GB(4GBx2) of the least expensive 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 1.5v RAM you can find. period.  End of discussion.  Move on to the next component.

Except if you would read the text of the post you would see I am not asking that question.

[SkilledRebuilds]

APU's scale a lot better with faster ram, this no doubt you'd have seen/heard if you had been looking around...

 

 

Another good article Im reading now is Sandy Bridge scaling.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/3

Memory Scaling with CPU overclocking

What happens when we increase the CPU clock speed on our Core i7-2600K from the default 3.5GHz to 4.8GHz

 

Going from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-1600 showed a 14% boost on our stock CPU while showing a 16% boost on our overclocked CPU.

Stepping up from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-2133 saw a 33% increase on the stock CPU and a 43% increase on our overclocked CPU.

The copy and latency tests showed similar results.

What's more impressive is that the write test showed a much larger 15% increase from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-1600 on the overclocked CPU compared to 3% on the stock CPU. Going from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-2133 increased write performance by 22% when overclocked compared to 7% when stock. While it's interesting to see how an overclocked CPU affects raw memory bandwidth, I'm much more interested to see how it affects our real-world benchmarks.

 

The compression and video encoding tests benefited the most from the increased memory bandwidth while the overall synthetic benchmark and 3D rendering test did not.

 

If your primary concern is gaming, you’ll want to consider investing in more GPU power instead of a faster system memory; likewise, a faster CPU will be far more useful than more memory performance for most applications. Outside of chasing ORB chart placement, memory is one of the components least likely to play a significant role in performance.

 

We also found that memory bandwidth does scale with CPU clock speed; however, it still doesn't translate into any meaningful real-world performance. The sweet spot still appears to be DDR3-1600. All of the extra performance gained by overclocking almost certainly comes from the CPU overclock itself and not from the extra memory bandwidth.

 

Finally, although the effects of low latency memory can be seen in our bandwidth tests, they don't show any real world advantage over their higher latency (ahem, cheaper) counterparts. None of the real-world tests performed showed any reason to prefer low latency over raw speed.

 

Source : http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

I recommend you read the above article, I believe its the information you are after, and I have not shown the entire article info/conclusions in this post.