Difference in ram speed/Cl rating

[Gohardgrandpa]

I'm the first to admit I don't know jack about ram, my buddy asked me some questions and here I am trying to get him some answers.

He bought ram from someone on offer up, some green stick SK Hynix ram. 2 8gb sticks of ddr4 3200mhz CL22 for $40  How big of a difference would it be if he went with ddr4 3200mhz cl16 or cl14?  The timings are really bad looking it is 22-22-22-52

 

I don't know much about ram so maybe someone here can help out. He was already well over budget, I think this is the only reason he got this ram

 

[Jurrunio]

It's hard to tell the difference, but adding a bit more voltage to tune down the timings is definitely an option. Most likely can't go as far but it's open for trying.

[YoungBlade]

RAM speeds can only make noticeable differences in CPU limited scenarios. So the specifics matter.

 

For example, if your friend is playing AAA games at 1440p high settings with an RTX 2060, RAM timings probably don't matter at all - you're GPU bound. But if your friend plays FPS games at 1080p competitive settings with an RTX 3080, then the RAM speeds could make a difference, especially in 1% lows.

[Gohardgrandpa]

@YoungBlade

His set up is 10700k at 1440p 144hz with a 3070ti 

[YoungBlade]

Just now, Gohardgrandpa said:

@YoungBlade

His set up is 10700k at 1440p 144hz with a 3070ti 

Then he's likely not going to be CPU limited most of the time, so wouldn't notice, unless he plays at 1440p competitive settings, in which case the system might become CPU bound and then RAM matters again. At High/Ultra settings, though, it'll make little difference. Even though CL22 is pretty slow, it doesn't matter much when the GPU is the limiting factor. If he's already over budget, I think the upgrade can wait.

 

Hardware Unboxed found that, once you go up to 1440p Ultra, even for CPU demanding titles like SotTR, RAM speeds and timings don't really matter anymore with even the mighty RTX 3090. Only Hitman 2 had a noticeable difference of 14% between the fastest and slowest configurations, but again, that's with a 3090. The 3070 Ti is a powerful card, but the 3090 is about 30% faster at 1440p. So even in an example of a game that can become memory limited, the margin won't be much in your friend's case.

 

You can give the video a watch; it's an interesting look at how RAM can impact gaming performance. While the video is about Ryzen 5000 series, it starts by showing that these things apply equally to 10th gen Intel. You can use the slowest configuration (DDR4-3000 CL16) as a rough stand-in for your friend's memory, because while the CL22 latency on his kit is worse, the 3200 bandwidth is better.