Why high frequency RAM?

[Stumpy122]

Hi guys!

I was wondering why some people use such high frequency RAM. For example, a friend of mine has an Intel I5-7600K, which supports either (DDR4) RAM on 2133mhz or 2400mhz. However, he is using DDR4 3200mhz and says he benefits from it.

How does this work? I would expect that it wouldn't make a difference. Does it have something to do with overclocking?

Thanks in advance.

 

[herrwizo]

Technically, if a DDR4 memory is running above 2133 MHz, it can be considered overclocked. Either manually or through XMP settings.

Certain apps do benefit from higher memory clock, but the difference is usually marginal unless you are using an app that mostly stresses memory. That's as far as Intel is concerned.

As for AMD's Ryzen processors, they actually benefit much more from increased memory clocks, since they help increasing the speed of communication between the cores within the CPU, due to the specific way the CPU is built.

 

[CRO5513Y]

Yeah Ryzen's performance boost from faster RAM is actually quite noticeable, see benchmarks here: https://www.eteknix.com/memory-speed-large-impact-ryzen-performance/. On Skylake/Kaby Lake it doesn't make a huge difference in most Games and desktop apps but there are workstation related tasks that can achieve better gains from fast RAM. Hope this helps