Does ram speed matter?

[StillLeanp]

Hello, i am wondering if ram speed should matter, alot of youtubers say that 3200 MHz is the sweet spot, but what if your on a budget? would 3000 MHz have practically the same speed?

[Illusion of Progress]

Автор сообщения: Nico

8gb is enough for almost the entire steam store. Including any open world game, arkham knight, gta online, red dead, RE8. As long as you close discord and chrome. The only exception is Rust.

The Steam store isn't the entirety of gaming, nor does a game being "open world" or newer necessarily mean it has the claim to being among the most RAM hungry examples of games (meaning there is far more than the ones you mentioned to consider).

I was coming close to exhausting 16 GB in Minecraft half a decade ago (on a single occasion I did), IMO 8 GB is now really the "ideal minimum" you want for that game (it's become heavier since then in updates) and I'd honestly recommend 16 GB even for it, unless you're fine playing at reduced render distances and/or limiting yourself from mods. I quote "ideal minimum" as it's not the minimum it will run on (I had it running mostly happily on 6 GB), but it will scale up to use a lot more if you want mods and/or or further render distances.

My nephew had 8 GB on his previous PC. I'm pretty sure Beam.NG Drive (or whatever it is called) was hammering his RAM, and that was on Windows 7 which is a bit leaner than Windows 10. It was doing the same to his Core 2 Duo. With even just a 2500K and twice the RAM it's way better off.

Pretty sure the newest Flight Simulator is heavy on everything.

I've heard Star Citizen can be as well.

These few aren't the only outliers, either. There are games that are known to benefit, if small in number and circumstantially, with above even 16 GB, so there's far more that will run more smoothly on more than 8 GB (even if it means less occasional hitches and loading or whatever). There's really been little reason to go with 8 GB intentionally for a gaming PC unless budget really restricted you and you're therefore avoiding some heavier titles.

Автор сообщения: Escorve

It's less than ideal though, and DDR4 is stupid cheap right now, but prices will gradually go up once DDR5 motherboards become available.

Yeah, 16 GB was cheap in 2011 on DDR3 even (because that's when I got as much and it was under $100). I know DDR4 was expensive for half a decade or so, and 16 wasn't needed that far back, but there's actually benefits to it now, and the price is low enough to where going with 8 GB isn't worth the small cost savings. Pretty sure I had 8 GB DDR2 in 2008 and it was under $100 then; there's really little reason to go with 8 GB in 2021 just for cost savings reasons.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

8GB is enough for a game running, maybe...
But not enough for OS + Apps + Game running at same time.
Only good options I see is 16GB minimum anyways because when buying RAM you want Dual Channel and buying 2x 4GB is so 2011-ish... Ever since DDR4 came along there is no reason EVERYONE should not have at least 2x 8GB installed in their PC. RAM is stupid cheap. If you are going for say; 3700X or Intel 10th Gen i5 or better + RTX 2080 Super / 3060 or better; get 2x 16GB of RAM

[tonimark]

Автор сообщения: StillLeanp

Hello, i am wondering if ram speed should matter, alot of youtubers say that 3200 MHz is the sweet spot, but what if your on a budget? would 3000 MHz have practically the same speed?

depends on cpu team for intel it doesn't matter intel can take up slow ram just fine for amd you have serious issue especially with ryzen 5000 series where slow ram (2x8gb 1600mhz) can decrease cpu performance and score by 35% OR EVEN MORE so if you have intel buy anything cheap but for if you have amd make sure you get anything fast and not get scammed

[r.linder]

Автор сообщения: tonimark

Автор сообщения: StillLeanp

Hello, i am wondering if ram speed should matter, alot of youtubers say that 3200 MHz is the sweet spot, but what if your on a budget? would 3000 MHz have practically the same speed?

depends on cpu team for intel it doesn't matter intel can take up slow ram just fine for amd you have serious issue especially with ryzen 5000 series where slow ram (2x8gb 1600mhz) can decrease cpu performance and score by 35% OR EVEN MORE so if you have intel buy anything cheap but for if you have amd make sure you get anything fast and not get scammed

If you run Z490/590 there's no reason not to do at least 3200. Otherwise, 2666.

And funny you mention 1600 MHz RAM because DDR4 RAM base clock is 2133 MHz, no 1600 MHz kit is even compatible because that's DDR3. FCLK for 3200 MHz DDR4 would be 1600 MHz and that's standard, going above that doesn't add more than a few percent in games even for Ryzen unless you're CPU limited

[Mailer]

Автор сообщения: Escorve

If you run Z490/590 there's no reason not to do at least 3200. Otherwise, 2666.

And funny you mention 1600 MHz RAM because DDR4 RAM base clock is 2133 MHz, no 1600 MHz kit is even compatible because that's DDR3. FCLK for 3200 MHz DDR4 would be 1600 MHz and that's standard, going above that doesn't add more than a few percent in games even for Ryzen unless you're CPU limited

I actually have a Z590-F board and a 10600K processor applied to it. Running my sticks of RAM through a compatibility table (2x8GB) for said motherboard didn't actually yield any direct results but there was a relatively similar model listed so I thought it relatively safe to try XMP 2.0 on 3000MHz (works fine thus far). I could do 3200 but concerned that either of the earlier factors will come to affect the stability of the system from what I have read on the subject. Curious if you have any thoughts on this special case of hardware, as for actually stepping up and running at 3200 MHz instead. And whether my concerns are actually right.

[r.linder]

Автор сообщения: Mailer

Автор сообщения: Escorve

If you run Z490/590 there's no reason not to do at least 3200. Otherwise, 2666.

And funny you mention 1600 MHz RAM because DDR4 RAM base clock is 2133 MHz, no 1600 MHz kit is even compatible because that's DDR3. FCLK for 3200 MHz DDR4 would be 1600 MHz and that's standard, going above that doesn't add more than a few percent in games even for Ryzen unless you're CPU limited

I actually have a Z590-F board and a 10600K processor applied to it. Running my sticks of RAM through a compatibility table (2x8GB) for said motherboard didn't actually yield any direct results but there was a relatively similar model listed so I thought it relatively safe to try XMP 2.0 on 3000MHz (works fine thus far). I could do 3200 but concerned that either of the earlier factors will come to affect the stability of the system from what I have read on the subject. Curious if you have any thoughts on this special case of hardware, as for actually stepping up and running at 3200 MHz instead. And whether my concerns are actually right.

On Z490, you can basically go up to 4800.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Z490 or Z590 boards just stick good 3600mhz ram on it, they all can take it and should be stable using the XMP Profile. Ram all coats about the same regardless of what speed you buy. The prices are more about the size then anything. Buy 2x 16gb and it should be plenty and more stable then using 4x of any RAM