Low Latency, the lie...

[Leonidas]

after reading this new edition of pcworld i had put off for a while i read an article in it about low latency rams and the benefits there-of...

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118372,00.asp

what bull, on average 2% increase and at max 4-5% in games... for a major jack in prices... anyone care to refute this? i dont mind being proven wrong in any way, is this all true? if so then im pissed at manufacturers even wasting time/money on making this stuff and charging us for it.

 

[GameGURU]

I am honestly happy with ValueRam from Kingston, no major performance diffs with my friends computers who use higher grade memory.

 

[Nubius]

I've been saying this for a long time now. The timings are only in nanoseconds so the difference between 3-3-3-8 and 2-3-2-6 can't even be noticed by humans. But it's not only that, but a lot more engineering is spent into designing those sticks to absolute quality whereas the valueram is more put together under basic standards. So you're paying for low latencies, the name, and the fact that more architecturally sound design has gone into it.

 

[Leonidas]

well i see it like this, if you can RMA the ram if its broken or breaks in normal operation then its all good

 

[Nubius]

yeah but you can't continually RMA it if it breaks down. That article kinda brutalizes low latency RAM, but the last sentence is true. If you don't know what CAS is you don't need it generally. The high performance RAM is better served for overclocking purposes....so it's basically for those people. You will definitely get a better performance and higher OC with performance RAM than you will valueRAM.

 

[Leonidas]

well i can understand being as to overclock ram you lower timings or lose stability... but truthfully if i move my 2.5 down to 3.0 to up my FSB for overclocking i will gain more than i lose correct?

 

[4W4K3]

i can tell the difference between 2-2-2-5 and 2.5-2-2-5 on my system...in more ways that one. Bootup time is slowed, Programs load slower, even benchmarks are affected. Makes a big difference for my system. Generally though you don't buy the RAM for the timings...that's just all you see. You bay the extra $75 because not only do those RAM chips run 2-2-2-5, they also overclock higher, have a greater bandwidth, run cooler. Value Ram is indeed fine for most users, and running looser timings won't make a difference if you're not really conserned about it...but i guarantee you it won't get 250+mhz with decent timings, and if it did it would take 3.#v and it would fry. I don't pay for the latency of the chips, that's just a side dish...i pay for overclockability and quality of the actual chips.

 

[Leonidas]

i dont see how it can improve bandwidth 4w4k3... and unless they have a heatsink attached i dont see how lower latency will run uniformly cooler... would you care to explain?

i still think the benefits are mostly in the head of the guy that dropped the extra 40-50 bucks and got his low latency...


also i ran some informal benchmarks on my comp running from 2-2.5-3.0 latency timings in 3dmark2001se... it increased roughly 100 marks each time, for an increase in performance of just about 1% between each latency time jump.

 

[4W4K3]

i dont see how it can improve bandwidth 4w4k3... and unless they have a heatsink attached i dont see how lower latency will run uniformly cooler... would you care to explain?

You've obviously never heard of OCZ EB (enhanced bandwidth) then. Ram of lower latency usually runs on a lower stock voltage...usually.

Originally posted by Leonidas also i ran some informal benchmarks on my comp running from 2-2.5-3.0 latency timings in 3dmark2001se... it increased roughly 100 marks each time, for an increase in performance of just about 1% between each latency time jump.

if you base your memory on 1 benchmark, then it really doesn't matter. and if you dont think 1% increase is worth an extra $40...then by all means stick with value RAM. it's your opinion, and a money saving one at that. but i prefer low latency high overclocking RAM over $40...which is my opinion. not trying to bash you.

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

I also can tell the difference between slow timings and aggressive timings. Yeah it's only in nano-seconds.. However, if you are making thousands of memory calls all the time, those nano-seconds add up. Those nano-seconds are for each cycle, so the lower the nano-seconds the faster it will be for any program that aggressively uses the system memory.