Do timings matter if you aren't overclocking?

[spartan92]

Hi, just wondering if someone could shed some light on whether the specific latency memory timings really matter in real world applications like games if you aren't going to overclock your computer.

I'm looking at building a brand new system from scratch, likely with an ASUS A8N-SLI board and while I want good quality memory, I don't want to spend extra money for features I may never use or just to get a 2% higher benchmark score. Can anyone please clarify for me? Thanks

 

[fishmahn]

Do they make a difference? Yes. Much difference? No. (caveat: Going from 2-2-2-6 to 3-4-4-11 might be noticeable, but its still not a big difference)

Will it change your gaming experience? probably not. If you're playing a game where the fps is borderline, it may be enough to give you that 1-2 fps to make it more playable, but on a game where you already have 80-100fps, having 78 or 82 fps is going to be unnoticeable. And I'm not even sure it'll give you 2-4 fps - at least not in all games.

That said, it's my understanding that Intel is more sensitive to timings than AMD - at least Athlon 64's. But I might be wrong - it may be that Athlon XP is most sensitive, Intel second, and Athlon 64 is least sensitive. But in any case, it doesn't make that much of a difference in the real world.

Mike.

 

[fishmahn]

Just goes to show I need much more research on memory... Sounds like I have it exactly backwards.

Last time I *really* looked into memory, the guy at the computer store told me I was on my own when I wanted 1 64kbit, 150ns dram chip... and he almost wouldn't sell me a single when I told him it wasn't going into a PC, it was going into an HP3000 minicomputer.

Mike.

 

[jammydodger]

The athlon XP line didnt benefit much from increased bandwidth but loved low timming. The pentium4 on the other hand needs lots of raw bandwidth but doesnt care too much about timmings.
The Athlon64/FX prolly likes low timmings (I say this because it does not seem to benefit much from going to dual channel mode and because it uses a short pipeline architecture like the XP) but im not sure.

 

[spartan92]

Thanks for the information. What is sounds like I'm hearing is that as long as I get some decent name brand memory in a matched pair, I'm okay and don't really need to spend an extra hundred bucks or so for the tightest timings. Does that sound about right?