Memory - CL and Mhz

[Titanicium]

Hi everyone

 

As mentioned in another post I am now building a new Pc and because of that I got a question about Memory. What does CL stand for and in which way does it separate itself from MHz? And is it better to have high/low Cl rating or High/low Memory MHz?

 

I appreciate any answer and thank you for all replies

 

[Samdb]

CL is Cas Latency and it's basically the time that it takes to respond, the lower the better and CL9 is fine for gaming. MHz is the frequency of the RAM, the faster is usually better but you won't really notice it over 1600Mhz.

[Titanicium]

Thank you for a informative and quick introduction Samdb. But here is another thing: What is best to have? Low latency or High frequency?

[Guest GRRigger]

Linus is making video ( or allready made ) about this topic- how it affects gameplay.

But if you get 1600 CL9 you will be fine. For gaming. Even 1333 is fine. More is overkill.

You need faster transfer speed for APU tho.

[Dr3nz4r]

 

Linus is talking a bit bout Shopping guide of RAM

[Titanicium]

Was looking for it but could not find yesterday but thanks I will be checking it out  

[KaareKanin]

I think "they" say that frequencies are better than CL for most things like gaming, if you have the choice between one step up in speed that'll help more than one step down in CL. "they" also say that for productivity, CL might come more into play.

 

However, "they" say a lot of things, so don't take my word for it

[Titanicium]

Okay last question. When you have four slots for Ram on your Motherboard is it then best to fill up all the slots with ram modules or does it make a difference? Thinking about the Asus Maximus V1 Formula

[pjm0925]

That mobo uses dual channel so get your ram in sets of 2, either 2 or 4 sticks.  Read the manual which slots to put them in, this does matter if you only get 2 sticks.

[kaneandtaker]

I've always wondered about this myself. Looking forward to Linus' video.

[Titanicium]

That mobo uses dual channel so get your ram in sets of 2, either 2 or 4 sticks.  Read the manual which slots to put them in, this does matter if you only get 2 sticks.

Thank you for the info But does it have any advantages to have 4 sticks or is there no difference at all?

[LogicalDrm]

In dual channel mobo having ie. 8gb as 2*4 or 4*2 , two sticks are bit better. But you won't be able to tell difference. To answer your earlier question about which latency and frequency, think about how much you want to spend on ram, what design on heat spreaders you prefer first. If you want to spend bit more, there are kits that have cl9 and 2133mhz. They are usually 30$ more expensive than 160mhz kits.

[WoodenMarker]

Thank you for a informative and quick introduction Samdb. But here is another thing: What is best to have? Low latency or High frequency?

It balances out overall but it depends what you're doing. Somethings like lower latency and don't care for high frequency and vice versa. Something like heavy rendering would benefit from higher frequency over lower latency.