Cas 14 vs Cas 16 DDR4

[scoobert]

If the memory speed was the same (ie DDR4 3200) would you notice any difference in gaming with the faster cas timings?

 

[bal3wolf]

you should see a bump in small bandwith if its stable without requiring you to bump the volts alot.

 

[Xinmosni]

In gaming?

Short answer: No

Long answer:

 

[scoobert]

Thank you guys, just building a new rig and seen the cas 14 only about 20 bucks more than the cas 16 both at ddr4 3200.

Appreciate the help.

 

[Nenu]

Chances are the CAS 14 will overclock higher.
That is what matters most, but...
There are nearly no benefits beyond 3200MHz DDR4 on Skylake/Kabylake.
2800MHz will net you almost everything.

 

[scoobert]

Thank you sir, purchased ddr 3200 cas 16

 

[dasa]

saying there is no gains over 2800 is just not true
for me overclocking the ram from 3200c14 to 3866c16 is a bigger performance jump in fallout4\arma3 than overclocking the 6700k from 4-4.2ghz<stock to 4.7ghz
c14 vs c16 isnt a noticeable difference on its own but since it affects cpu performance maybe 200mhz worth when you add that to your cpu oc where each on there own may not be noticeable the difference from the two together can become noticeable in any cpu limited sections of gameplay

 

[VulcaN]

In that vein, if one cares about ARMA 3 performance, does it make sense to get the fastest possible for your motherboard?
For example: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820232496
My mobo supports nearly all of them DDR4 4133(O.C.)/ 4000(O.C.)/ 3866(O.C.)/ 3733(O.C.)/ 3600(O.C.)/ 3466(O.C.)/ 3400(O.C.)/ 3333(O.C.)/ 3300(O.C.)/ 3200(O.C.)

Or is it more wise to grab the 3200MHz rated and see if you can O/C it to 4133.

It used to be I could just get "the best ram" at the time and O/C it, but now that manufacturers are practically charging for overclocks, is it better just to get the 4133 out of the gate?

~$100 is not much price difference if games like ARMA 3 are really benefiting from the higher speeds

 

[dasa]

well the performance gains in arma are there
https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/194735-3770k-to-6700k-performance-review-with-ramcache-scaling/

going 3200c14 and overclocking seemed the best value option to me when i upgraded
this 3200c14 kit hit 3866c16 1.425v which is probably faster than most 4133 kits due to the timings
i did get lucky though not all will oc that well but most will probably get 3866c17

how much you want to spend is really up to you

 

[Nenu]

The motherboard quality can also figure strongly in how high DDR4 ram will clock or overclock.
My first 2 Z170 boards were mid/low end and my LPX 3000 C15 could only max at 2800Mhz with a certain BIOS.
I now use a mid/high end board and it clocks to 3600MHz C17 easily.

Also CPU overclock and ram overclock affect each other.
At 4.6GHz my ram can run at 3600MHz C17 but at 4.7GHz that isnt stable.
I use 3333Mhz C16 at the moment which is stable, need to see if it will go a bit higher.

 

[rastaban]

As a general rule of thumb for DDR4, shoot for a performance index of 2 (frequency/100 : CL) within your budget, or pay a few bucks more for >2.
Keep in mind that RAM overclockability will also strongly depend on mobo UEFI compatibility and the CPU's IMC quality which will be a crap shoot.