RAM Timings Vrs Mhz Speed.

[Dave_07]

Quick question, which makes the most (*Noticeable) difference in the speed of ram, werther it has low timings such as cas 4/5 (ddr2) or a high clock speed, as provided by newer ddr3 modules ? of course said newer ddr3 modules all seem to have cas timings in the range of 7-9.

[SiM]

There is no noticeable difference... except for a small number of memory intensive uses...

[Thorsson]

On current Intel tech that is.

[Dave_07]

so if cas timings make little diff, then it's wiser to go for ram at a higher Mhz clock, eg ddr3 stuff, correct ?

[Powderhound]

so if cas timings make little diff, then it's wiser to go for ram at a higher Mhz clock, eg ddr3 stuff, correct ?

No, in most cases latency and clock speed have little noticeable impact on performance- clock speed just gives the potential for very high (and unsustainable) overclocks.

[SiM]

Its better to save the money and spend it on something else to improve performance (like viagra )

[Lanky123]

Memory timings are measured in clock cycles anyway - if you had 800mhz DDR2 at 4 4 4 12 and 1600mhz DDR3 at 8 8 8 24 the latency would be the same since the clock cycles of the 1600mhz RAM take half the time.

I'm sure there are complications that I don't understand, but DDR3 isn't necessarily a step backwards in terms of latency.

TBH, I think it should be price and upgrade plans dictating your choice anyway, rather than a marginal difference in performance.

[moogle]

TBH, I think it should be price and upgrade plans dictating your choice anyway, rather than a marginal difference in performance.

Your overclock should dictate what speed range you get too, as in can you run your ram at the lowest ratio on your designated overclock etc. Only the CL makes the biggest difference. Sure DDR3 is faster but it has higher latencies which pretty much slim the gap between DDR2 and DDR3. You won't find massive gains over it only get DDR3 when the price is cheaper than DDR2.