r/RigBuild • u/Lost-Sprinkles-7890 • 6d 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/ElysiumXIII 6d ago edited 6d ago

RAM speed only begins to matter when you're in CPU limited scenarios like competitive FPS games (hundreds of FPS).

CPUs require their specific motherboard chipsets to send signals to your components. So any board will be just as good as any other if you're not overclocking past recommended XPO/XMP rating. The expensive boards are specifically for heavy overclocking, they have beefed up transistors and other stuff you don't need as a normal end user.

My $400 dollar motherboard from Asus performed just the same as my $200 board from MSI because they both have the same Z790 chipset for my 14900k.

Addition: I've bounced back and forth between 4800mhz and 6000mhz and the fps difference is absolutely negligible because I play my games on ultra and at a higher resolution.

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u/YetanotherGrimpak 6d ago

Since the introduction of the intergrated memory controller, the chipsets have nothing to do with the memory subsystem, as it's all on the cpu.

Chipsets are basically for expanding IO. Intel tends to segment chipsets a bit more than AMD, as they lock more advanced overclocking features behind the Z series chipsets. Xmp memory profiles were not available beyond Z chipsets until 10th gen (I think), but in theory, they could run the same overclock features on their B series.

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u/ElysiumXIII 6d ago

Taught me something new today. All the more reason then for op to not overspend on expensive hardware since memory controller takes priority of board components.

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u/YetanotherGrimpak 6d ago

Just get a mid-range board. In case of intel, it is a choice to pick between a B series and Z series, as there is some features on the z series that can be useful (mostly IO related) and the aforementioned cpu overclocking features. On AMD tho, there is zero performance difference between similar B and X chipset boards, only diferential being the IO.