How does RAM affect CPU score

I made many benchmarks to test how RAM speed, capacity, stick count and slot order affects benchmark score. In this guide I will share the results with you and I will try explain it.

Version

This guide has been made with 0.7.6 version of the game and may not work with newer releases. I was lvl 9 at the time of benchmarking those. Few test were done in free build mode.

RAM doesn't affect GPU score.

Increasing CPU score may only help you if your GPU isn't bottleneck too much, but you will always have some if little improvement in overall score.

There is no difference in performance of RAM stick made by different company, so RAM made by company A that is 2666Mhz will work as RAM made by company B as long as it is 2666Mhz too.

RAM Speed

RAM Speed does affect score, the better CPU the more increase will occur when you change from low speed RAM to higher. So for low end Intel i3-6100 there is 27 score increase when upgrade form 1x8GB 2400 to 1x8GB 2666 but there are no score increase when you upgrade from 2666Mhz to higher.

I have checked in free build mode and even going as high as 4000Mhz doesn't affect CPU score so only going form 2133Mhz (only 2GB sticks exists) to 2400Mhz and from 2400Mhz to 2666Mhz.
Anything higher doesn't affect CPU score.

-----------------------------------SPACER--------------------------------	--------SPACER--------		--SPACER--	--SPACER--
RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2400Mhz	2143	2123	2269
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2666Mhz	2147	2123	2296
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2147	2123	2296
RAM	Intel Core i7-6700K	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2666Mhz	2300	2123	4361
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2300	2123	4361
RAM	AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2666Mhz	2326	2123	5108
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2326	2123	5108
Team Group Team T-Froce Dark (Silver)	1x4GB 3000Mhz	2326	2123	5108
DFL MOTIV8OR	1x4GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 2666Mhz	2326	2123	5108
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2800Mhz	2326	2123	5108
RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz			2269
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2666Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2800Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3000Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3200Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3600Mhz			not tested
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3733Mhz			not tested
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 4000Mhz			2296
RAM	AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz			6464
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 2666Mhz			6682
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 4000Mhz			6682

You can see that on low end CPU Intel Core i3-6100 you see ~27 CPU score increase when going from 2400Mhz to 2666Mhz RAM.
On higher end AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600 the increase is ~118 CPU score.
On AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X the increase is ~218 CPU score.

In summary, RAM speed affects CPU score, but you will see that count of populated ram slots has higher influence then RAM speed.

RAM Sticks Count

RAM sticks count has greater influence on CPU score then RAM speed.

-----------------------------------SPACER--------------------------------	--------SPACER--------		--SPACER--	--SPACER--
RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2147	2123	2296
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	3x8GB 3000Mhz	2176	2123	2537
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	4x8GB 3000Mhz	2189	2123	2658
RAM	AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 4000Mhz			6682
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	2x4GB 4000Mhz			7795
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	3x4GB 4000Mhz			8909
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	4x4GB 4000Mhz			10022

You can see that on lower end Intel Core i3-6100 adding stick of RAM increases CPU score by ~121, and on higher end AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X adding stick of RAM increases CPU score by ~1113.

RAM Slots

Slots order doesn't affect benchmark score.

RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score	Slots
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	1 & 2
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	1 & 3
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	1 & 4
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	2 & 3
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	2 & 4
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	3 & 4

RAM Capacity

RAM capacity doesn't affect benchmark score as well. As you can see 4GB RAM has always the same score as 8GB with the same speed.

-----------------------------------SPACER--------------------------------	--------SPACER--------		--SPACER--	--SPACER--
RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x4GB 2400Mhz	2143	2123	2269
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2400Mhz	2143	2123	2269
RAM	Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2326	2123	5108
Team Group Team T-Froce Dark (Silver)	1x4GB 3000Mhz	2326	2123	5108
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x4GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990

Different RAM Speed combinations

If you combine different RAM speed, for example, 3200Mhz with 2400Mhz you will end up with 2400Mhz as higher speed RAM will work at lower speed. You can see it in "System Info" app.

You can see each RAM stick on the left in "System Summary" and there is "Memory Clock Speed" on the right, in "Sensor Status" that shows result of the combination.

Since 2400Mhz produces lower score than 3200Mhz it would hurt your CPU score, but if the case would be combination of 2666Mhz with 3200Mhz the score that 2666Mhz produces is the same as 3200Mhz score so there would be no difference in CPU score.

RAW DATA

Raw data containing all test and scores.

-----------------------------------SPACER--------------------------------	--------SPACER--------		--SPACER--	--SPACER--
RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score	Slots
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x4GB 2400Mhz	2143	2123	2269
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2400Mhz	2143	2123	2269
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2666Mhz	2147	2123	2296
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 2666Mhz	2162	2123	2417
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2147	2123	2296
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	1 & 2
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	3x8GB 3000Mhz	2176	2123	2537
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	4x8GB 3000Mhz	2189	2123	2658
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	1 & 3
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	1 & 4
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	2 & 3
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	2 & 4
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	2x8GB 3000Mhz	2162	2123	2417	3 & 4
RAM	Intel Core i7-6700K	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2666Mhz	2300	2123	4361
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2300	2123	4361
RAM	AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 2666Mhz	2326	2123	5108
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x8GB 3000Mhz	2326	2123	5108
Team Group Team T-Froce Dark (Silver)	1x4GB 3000Mhz	2326	2123	5108
DFL MOTIV8OR	1x4GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990
Team Group Team T-Force Delta II RGB Series (White)	1x4GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz	2323	2123	4990
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 2666Mhz	2326	2123	5108
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2800Mhz	2326	2123	5108
RAM	Intel Core i3-6100	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz			2269
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2666Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2800Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3000Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3200Mhz			2296
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3600Mhz			not tested
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 3733Mhz			not tested
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 4000Mhz			2296
RAM	AMD Ryzen 7 Eight Core 1800X	Score	GPU Score	CPU Score
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x8GB 2400Mhz			6464
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 2666Mhz			6682
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	1x4GB 4000Mhz			6682
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	2x4GB 4000Mhz			7795
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	3x4GB 4000Mhz			8909
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum	4x4GB 4000Mhz			10022

[Trader Vic]

For anyone visiting this in the future, the basic idea is still relevant.

Any particular build will have a max RAM clock speed. This is displayed on the BIOS screen. You can install 3200 RAM but if the CPU config caps it at 2600, it won't perform better than 2600 RAM. This can be affected by tweaking the CPU overclock settings, which can unlock higher RAM clock speeds.

Also, there will be a limit on how many channels the CPU can use. For example, a CPU in dual-channel mode will perform better with 2 sticks (say, 2x4GB) than 1 stick (say, 1x8GB), but it won't perform any better with 4 sticks.

[Zengrath]

Is this still relevant, i've noticed increasing Mhz on ram and running benchmark again and not seeing any increase at all in score, if i OC CPU i do,, but not ram. This is going from like the default 2133 to 2400 i see no change in benchmarks.

[Trykite]

doesn't

[너굴맨]

thx good guide.

[HS]

Very good guide.. simple putting it. The priority to improve CPU score is
1. Increase Ram Sticks
2. Increase Ram Speed

Nothing else matters =P

[Biazior]

Nice! I knew this before but really great guide if someone works need upgrade to 4gb of ram and they've low benchmark results hah