hi, I recently bought some new pc parts and have now 2GB (ddr2@800MHz) RAM (brand Vdata), The latencies CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRFC are: 6-6-6-18-52. They seem somewhat high. I am running an Intel E5200 800MHz FSB (I might do some mild overclocking in the future, a higher FSB perhaps), but I was wondering if I had bought more quality ram e.g. Crucial Ballistic 4-4-4-12, would I notice interesting performance gain? I also read that lower ram latencies seem to make little difference with Intel processors. Thanks.
woudlnt notice much difference only 2clock cycles. what you really want to look for when buying ram is the memory speed (memory bus frequency) higher the better because the cpu can request more data/bandwidth but you can only go as high as your motherboard supports. CAS is just how many clock cycles it takes the ram to respond to the cpu's request. for example, if you buy 1066mhz ram at CL6 and buy 800mhz ram at CL4 the 1066mhz ram would be better because the cpu can request more data even though it does take a couple clock cycles more.
Thanks for your answer. Actually, I ordered new RAM (Crucial Ballistic 4-4-4-12@800MHz) to exchange with what I currently have, to be sure. I read mixed things, as written in my earlier post: Intel processors are less sensitive to latencies than AMD processors, and bandwith is more important to them, so 1066MHz might be preferable. Crucial Ballistic 5-5-5-15@1066MHz is the same price (here) as the 800MHz versions. I've chosen the 800MHz version, I wasn't sure what to chose. The JEDEC standard for ram goes as far as 800MHz. So does that mean that 1066MHz ram is actually 800MHz ram with looser timings? Would it be possible then to switch between both ram versions (by settings in your bios)? In case I overclock my processor to a 1066MHz FSB (some have even set it to 1333MHz), 1066MHz ram will perhaps be a better choice, but it probably also depends on the application you are running.
