RAM timings/CAS

[Scase]

Ultimately how important (gaming) performance wise, are the timings really? 

 

Last I remember hearing is that with DDR4 and the speeds in general they are pretty irrelevant now, is this accurate or am I wrong?

[Mira Yurizaki]

RAM performance has almost zero impact on game performance.

[Jack Dvorak]

Only if you have a potato processor. Anything i5 6400 and up will be the same no matter the ram timings or speed.

[Nena Trinity]

If the CPU is the bottleneck then faster RAM will help, but I would not blow the entire budget in high grade gamer RAM. My advice is stick to DDR3-1866MHz/CL9 or DDR4-2666MHz/CL15 that seems to be the sweet spot in most gaming rigs these days!

[Scase]

1 minute ago, Nena360 said:

If the CPU is the bottleneck then faster RAM will help, but I would not blow the entire budget in high grade gamer RAM. My advice is stick to DDR3-1866MHz/CL9 or DDR4-2666MHz/CL15 that seems to be the sweet spot in most gaming rigs these days!

I was looking at http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232174&ignorebbr=1 and pairing it with a 6700k

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, Scase said:

I was looking at http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232174&ignorebbr=1 and pairing it with a 6700k

Yeah that should be good!

[MageTank]

26 minutes ago, Scase said:

Ultimately how important (gaming) performance wise, are the timings really? 

 

Last I remember hearing is that with DDR4 and the speeds in general they are pretty irrelevant now, is this accurate or am I wrong?

Ignore the people that do not know what they are talking about. Ram speed matters, but its impact is only really noticed in situations with high CPU overhead. This can happen even with the best CPU's. Depends on your hardware configuration AND the game itself. Playing with a very powerful GPU at a lower resolution requires the CPU to process more frames for the GPU, which ultimately causes the CPU to end up being the bottleneck. Faster memory has been proven to aid with this, with gains up to 20%. This kind of bottleneck can also be relieved by simply shifting the bottleneck from the CPU, to the GPU, by increasing the resolution or adding copious amounts of AA.

 

However, even with higher resolutions and AA being paired with your high end GPU, sometimes the CPU can still be the bottleneck, even with fewer frames to process. Some games just have specific parts that lag even the best CPU's, or perhaps had an area or specific code that could not be utilized by more cores (Amdahl's Law) and ultimately, it caused a dip in FPS. Faster memory also helps in this regard. No matter what, your frame rate will dip in situations like these, but faster ram will determine exactly how low it will dip. Going from 2133 to 2800 in DDR4 has improved minimum FPS dips by 15% in certain titles for me. Beyond that, I saw heavy diminishing returns (I still run my ram at 3600 C14-14-14-28-CR2). For DDR3, most people see deminishing returns at around 2133. 

 

Ultimately, you need not worry about paying for faster ram. Memory overclocking is pretty easy if you are not aiming for very high overclocks (the ones beyond the diminishing returns i spoke of earlier) and every DDR4 kit I have ever seen is perfectly capable of hitting 3000mhz, even the weakest Micron IC's. If you have a Z platform, you can either save yourself the time and buy an XMP kit, or save yourself the money and buy a normal kit to OC. I'll gladly help you OC if you need it.

[Scase]

1 minute ago, MageTank said:

Ignore the people that do not know what they are talking about. Ram speed matters, but its impact is only really noticed in situations with high CPU overhead. This can happen even with the best CPU's. Depends on your hardware configuration AND the game itself. Playing with a very powerful GPU at a lower resolution requires the CPU to process more frames for the GPU, which ultimately causes the CPU to end up being the bottleneck. Faster memory has been proven to aid with this, with gains up to 20%. This kind of bottleneck can also be relieved by simply shifting the bottleneck from the CPU, to the GPU, but increasing the resolution or adding copious amounts of AA.

 

However, even with higher resolutions and AA being paired with your high end GPU, sometimes the CPU can still be the bottleneck, even with fewer frames to process. Some games just have specific parts that lag even the best CPU's, or perhaps had an area or specific code that could not be utilized by more cores (Amdahl's Law) and ultimately, it caused a dip in FPS. Faster memory also helps in this regard. No matter what, your frame rate will dip in situations like these, but faster ram will determine exactly how low it will dip. Going from 2133 to 2800 in DDR4 has improved minimum FPS dips by 15% in certain titles for me. Beyond that, I saw heavy diminishing returns (I still run my ram at 3600 C14-14-14-28-CR2). For DDR3, most people see deminishing returns at around 2133. 

 

Ultimately, you need not worry about paying for faster ram. Memory overclocking is pretty easy if you are not aiming for very high overclocks (the ones beyond the diminishing returns i spoke of earlier) and every DDR4 kit I have ever seen is perfectly capable of hitting 3000mhz, even the weakest Micron IC's. If you have a Z platform, you can either save yourself the time and buy an XMP kit, or save yourself the money and buy a normal kit to OC. I'll gladly help you OC if you need it.

Awesome! Thanks for the reply man. I planned on getting http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132566 as the mobo and the gskill linked above which are both XMP ready. Thoughts?

[MageTank]

Just now, Scase said:

Awesome! Thanks for the reply man. I planned on getting http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132566 as the mobo and the gskill linked above which are both XMP ready. Thoughts?

Aesthetically, that is going to look amazing. As for performance, they have plenty of overclocking headroom in them. I bet you could dial the voltage to 1.35, set the memory clock speed to 2800, and keep primary timings exactly the same, and it should work perfectly. Might even get 3000mhz on that kit with the same timings. Would be very wary of the VCCIO/VCCSA voltage that the board might automatically set. If it goes beyond 1.2v on either value, make sure you manually set them yourself. 1.15v would honestly be enough, but 1.2v would work as well. 

[Scase]

Just now, MageTank said:

Aesthetically, that is going to look amazing. As for performance, they have plenty of overclocking headroom in them. I bet you could dial the voltage to 1.35, set the memory clock speed to 2800, and keep primary timings exactly the same, and it should work perfectly. Might even get 3000mhz on that kit with the same timings. Would be very wary of the VCCIO/VCCSA voltage that the board might automatically set. If it goes beyond 1.2v on either value, make sure you manually set them yourself. 1.15v would honestly be enough, but 1.2v would work as well. 

Honestly the aesthetics were the primary reason I chose the g skill set (also I have used G skill for years with zero issues), white RAM is a pain in the ass to find haha.

 

As for the voltage settings, at stock settings will it still set it to be an issue or is this only in regards to OCing aggressively?

[MageTank]

Just now, Scase said:

Honestly the aesthetics were the primary reason I chose the g skill set (also I have used G skill for years with zero issues), white RAM is a pain in the ass to find haha.

 

As for the voltage settings, at stock settings will it still set it to be an issue or is this only in regards to OCing aggressively?

At stock, it won't be an issue at all. Only once you start manually changing the clock speed, that you will have to also start manually adjusting the voltage values. 

 

If you are wanting black/white ram, you can get something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=Homepage_SS-_-P1_20-232-391-_-09092016&Index=1

 

Black brushed aluminum with a white plastic piece (the white plastic piece can be removed and swapped out to different colors, G Skill will be selling a kit soon to do that). It's priced similarly to your kit, but it comes with a 3200mhz overclock. You simply load its XMP profile, and you are good to go. 

[Scase]

9 minutes ago, MageTank said:

At stock, it won't be an issue at all. Only once you start manually changing the clock speed, that you will have to also start manually adjusting the voltage values. 

 

If you are wanting black/white ram, you can get something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=Homepage_SS-_-P1_20-232-391-_-09092016&Index=1

 

Black brushed aluminum with a white plastic piece (the white plastic piece can be removed and swapped out to different colors, G Skill will be selling a kit soon to do that). It's priced similarly to your kit, but it comes with a 3200mhz overclock. You simply load its XMP profile, and you are good to go. 

Sadly the difference in price is 142.99$ vs 86.99$  

[MageTank]

Just now, Scase said:

Sadly the difference in price is 142.99$ vs 86.99$  

Ah, this deal does not work in Canada? That's a shame. It's $83 in the US ATM. Can't believe the prices are that far apart. 

 

The kit you picked out will work perfectly fine, and I think it will still look just as great. The heatsinks on that board are silver, so the silver RAM should look fine on it. Besides, the white plastic on that board is easy to remove, so you could always plastidip it silver to match the ram and heatsink if it bothers you. 

[Scase]

Just now, MageTank said:

Ah, this deal does not work in Canada? That's a shame. It's $83 in the US ATM. Can't believe the prices are that far apart. 

 

The kit you picked out will work perfectly fine, and I think it will still look just as great. The heatsinks on that board are silver, so the silver RAM should look fine on it. Besides, the white plastic on that board is easy to remove, so you could always plastidip it silver to match the ram and heatsink if it bothers you. 

Yeah PC hardware pricing in Canada is reaaaaally bad. in general prices are higher and when it comes to discounts/deals they aren't nearly as lucrative.