Do Fast RAM Clock Speeds Really Matter?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/511-memory-scaling-ddr3.html' target='_blank'>http://www.tomshardware.com/picture...aling-ddr3.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"In general, the benefit of expensive enthusiast memory is at least questionable. We found that tight timings are typically more beneficial than high memory clock speeds. But in the end, it's important to look at the benchmarks that are relevant to you. This picture story compares the performance benefits of using faster DDR3 memory across all three popular platforms: AMD's Phenom II X4 955 (3.2 GHz), Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (3.2 GHz), and the Intel Core i7-975 (3.33 GHz), which is Intel's current flagship solution for enthusiasts and professionals."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1248894387.usr1.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>This is one of those hard-core articles that won't interest everyone, but if you're keen on maximizing performance and have wondered if that ultra-fast expensive RAM is worth it, this is worth checking out. The results may surprise you: in nearly every case, the improvement was in the 3% to 5% range, making it hardly worth it.</p>

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

The only reason to have highly clocked RAM is for overclocking the CPU. For instance on i7 machines to reach something like 4ghz you'll probably need it, as at say, a base clock of 200MHz with a 20x multiplier you'll need 1600MHz RAM if the RAM is clocked at 8x base clock speed.