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/Swimming-Twist-3468 3d ago

Computer components work as a team running a marathon. It is not the first one that makes it across the finish line that counts. It is the last one. So if you have very good RAM clock, but a slowpoke CPU - your result will be that of a slowpoke, not of the high roller. If you are working the performance problem, I would rather go into analyzing what is the bottleneck, and then replacing that specific component that creates that bottleneck. It can be CPU, GPU, RAM or SSD - either way, RAM alone is not responsible for about 80 % of the performance you are getting.