DDR2 vs. DDR3

[crazysteve240]

Is the speed difference between DDR2 RAM and DDR3 RAM major?

[Apollo Refugio]

Errr people ran 800 MHz RAM vs 3200 RAM and I can re-call it didn't make much of a difference. 

[MedievalMatt]

RAM Speed is negligible really.  IIRC DDR2 800 and DDR4 4000 have a like 5% performance gain with DDR4.  literally capacity is more important than RAM speed.  because honestly it makes fuck all of a difference.  5% performance boost is like 2 or 3 more FPS.  not really a game changer.

 

EDIT - LINUS DID A THING:

 

 

ALSO MORE THINGS:

 

 

[crazysteve240]

14 hours ago, MedievalMatt said:

RAM Speed is negligible really.  IIRC DDR2 800 and DDR4 4000 have a like 5% performance gain with DDR4.  literally capacity is more important than RAM speed.  because honestly it makes fuck all of a difference.  5% performance boost is like 2 or 3 more FPS.  not really a game changer.

 

EDIT - LINUS DID A THING:

 

 

ALSO MORE THINGS:

 

 

 

Ok, what about DDR vs DDR2? Would it be the same 5% difference?

[MedievalMatt]

5 hours ago, crazysteve240 said:

Ok, what about DDR vs DDR2? Would it be the same 5% difference?

I cant imagine why it would be more.  the different generations are more about speed and maximum throughput than anything else.  honestly RAM is simply storage for possible CPU instructions, thats what gets stored in RAM when you open an app.

 

speaking strictly theoretically.  The reason why different generations of DDR RAM dont have a performance effect is because the CPU and platform they run on also increase in Speed.  So a DDR1 compatible CPU will work with DDR1 RAM, but cannot work with DDR4 RAM.  In theory, if it were possible for a CPU made for DDR1 to communicate with DDR4 then there would be significant performance boost by doing so.  The inverse is also true of DDR4 CPUs running with DDR1 RAM, their performance would fucking tank.  But because RAM and CPU are so closely linked together in terms of minimum access speeds/times the different speed of RAM doesnt really mean much.

 

Just buy RAM that works with your motherboard/cpu and ignore frequency, unless you plan on overclocking... and...really...why would you do that?