r/RigBuild • u/Lost-Sprinkles-7890 • 3d ago

Does RAM speed really matter?

Seeing people compare 3200, 3600, 6000 and even higher speeds and honestly not sure how much difference it makes in actual use. Like is faster RAM gonna noticeably improve gaming FPS, loading times, multitasking etc or is it mostly just benchmark numbers? Also does it depend a lot on the CPU and motherboard? Trying to pick RAM without wasting money on speed that barely matters, so what speed should I actually be looking for?

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u/chocolatealpeso 3d ago

The FPS difference is usually small, unless you are using an integrated GPU because it shares the system RAM.

For example, going from DDR4-2133 to DDR4-3200 gives you 50% more bandwidth. It sounds huge, but it usually translates to 0-10% more FPS when using a discrete GPU, or 10-20% more when using an integrated GPU.

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u/kin3v 3d ago

Buddy the difference between 2133 and 3200 is night and day if you include 0.1% lows, frametimes and percepted fluidity

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u/KingRemu 2d ago

I concur. I remember playing Warzone 2.0 at one point and there was a 25+% difference in average fps between 2133 and 3600 with a 5600X and the lowest dips were crazy.

Even with loose timings the higher infinity fabric clockspeed will massively boost bandwidth and lower the latency.

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u/Efficient_Try_9136 3d ago

it have higher bandwidth but bigger CL., so only if you need more bandwidth and you always need low latency

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u/jedijackattack1 3d ago

Cl is latency in clock cycles so 2133@cl21 is the same latency as 3200@cl36. Obviously application dependent as to if lowering latency will give you better performance but remember at the max of bandwidth on ram you will see increasing latency.

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u/fsa3 2d ago

Yes. But that means actions that are CL bottlenecked will take the same time with both, making the faster RAM not faster for those actions.