Latency or timing, which is more important?

[mitchgixer6]

Ok, so time for me to buy the RAM to finish off my new build. I see Scan have Corsair in the today only over the weekend (finally)!

I've pretty much decided between 2, and the question stands as per the title. I'm either going to go for the Vengeance at 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24, or the XMS at 1333Mhz 8-8-8-24. Both are the same price for 4Gb just now.

So which would you choose?

[kalniel]

Latency is timing.

But I presume you mean frequency vs latency. Depends on the processor and usage, but for most purposes frequency, up to certain point.

Either of those sticks should be able to emulate the other though, so it doesn't really matter.

[mitchgixer6]

Cheers mate. Yeah meant frequency really. Was just checking!

[Lanky123]

It should be noted that the memory timings are given in clock cycles - as each clock cycle in the 1600Mhz memory takes less time it actually has lower latency than the 1333Mhz memory as well as having greater speed.

1600Mhz: 1/1,600,000,000 x 9 = 5.625 nanoseconds
1333Mhz: 1/1,333,000,000 x 8 = 6.002 nanoseconds

Having said that, unless you're into running very selective artificial benchmarks on your computer I doubt you'd notice any difference at all either way. This review pretty much sums up the benefits (or lack thereof) of high speed memory in modern systems:

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/ram/29...ngston/?page=7

[mitchgixer6]

Thanks for the link and the maths! Maybe it'll boil down to aesthetics in the end!

[Matt94]

Yeah, reviews show again and again the beyond 4GB 1333MHz RAM, there is very little day to day or gaming benefit from upgrading. However, I would advise getting 8GB of vengeance as it will keep you running smoothly for a good few years and is very cheap at the moment. The only benefit of having faster RAM is in synthetic benchmarks and the only benefit of having more RAM is if you are going to be running specialised software which will need it.

[mitchgixer6]

Yeah, was toying with the idea of 8Gb. Thought I only really needed 4Gb, but now you've got me thinking again! Looking at the prices of DDR2 just now it kind of points to the price point of DDR3 rising again next year. Might just bang 8Gb in, but will need to sneak it past the wife. Hide the credit card bills!

[Matt94]

I would have thought DDR3 prices would stay low for a good while yet. RAM prices only usually rise significantly when they go out of large scale production. That would be when DDR4 is brought to market which shouldn't be for a few years yet.

[coolio]

thanks.
very useful info here and makes me feel relieved that i saved money by buying cheap, lower speed RAM instead !

[mitchgixer6]

Pretty much decided on the Corsair Vengeance now 8Gb. £39 on Kikatek just now so that'd cheap enough for me.