# Does RAM speed affect performances so much?



## bosone (Aug 4, 2021)

Hi!
i'm planning a PC upgrade.
I will probably go for an ASUS B460 PLUS, which supports ram speed up to 2933 MHz.
I plan to install 64 GB, but I have found several options from a vendor which has everything I need for the new setup.

the cheapest ones are 2400 MHz.
then I have an option at 2600 MHz.
the last ones are rated 3600 MHz but are far more expensive. And I don't even know if they will work at that speed or they will be "downgraded"

I plan to use many kontakt libraries (i own komplete 13CE).

will I see so much difference between the different RAM types? or the cheapest one at 2400 MHz will be more than enough?

thanks!


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## pranic (Aug 5, 2021)

Anything you buy that's higher than the maximum rating of the board will be "downgraded", but rather than looking at 3600 Mhz, you could go with 3200 which is closer to the maximum speed of your board: https://www.newegg.com/corsair-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236541 and it's on sale right now.

At least that's the memory speed I'd probably be looking at, given the scenario you've presented and with that motherboard. I'm running a Core i9-9900k with 4x16GB Micron Ballistix 3200Mhz sticks and it's a rock-solid computer, and don't suspect you'll see much of an issue, though I recommend getting the fastest RAM your system supports, as a matter of principle. Practically, you probably won't see a major difference in perceived speed, though you'll be leaving performance on the table (and will always wonder, "Could my experience be better?")

That's obviously just my $0.02. Not sure if it helps or not. Also, with memory, take a look at the CAS Latency value and go for the lower value if you're comparing the RAM to each other. Here's a great article on that: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cas-latency-ram-cl-timings-glossary-definition,6011.html

Best of luck!


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## Alex Sopala (Aug 5, 2021)

bosone said:


> Hi!
> i'm planning a PC upgrade.
> I will probably go for an ASUS B460 PLUS, which supports ram speed up to 2933 MHz.
> I plan to install 64 GB, but I have found several options from a vendor which has everything I need for the new setup.
> ...


RAM Speed has very little impact I've found on Intel CPUs compared to AMD CPUs, where speed and CAS latency matter quite a lot more.

I personally wouldn't worry about it for B450, but it looks like that motherboard doesn't like 2600mhz sticks, as it seems to like these:

DDR4-2133
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2666
DDR4-2800
DDR4-2933
So I'd personally go with the 2400 MHz sticks. If you were to upgrade in the future, DDR4 is getting phased out for DDR5 for the next generation of CPUs, so that wouldn't really have an impact.


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## Sunny Schramm (Aug 5, 2021)

Your board will support XMP2-Profiles for DDR4 for sure - so you CAN get higher ram-speeds 

"XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) are certifications issued by Intel for DDR3 / DDR4 memory modules. Unlike the JEDEC speeds such as DDR3-1600, DDR4-2400 or DDR4-2666, the XMP parameters are specially adapted for the respective RAM and therefore allow higher memory speeds."

Also: lower "CL"-Timings (standard-ram for 3200: 16-18-18-34) will get you more perfomance - like 3200 with: 14-14-14-34. Its more pricy but if you want the best performance and the money is there - take it  For gaming this will bring you about 10-12fps - and thats a lot for just using better ram.


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## chimuelo (Aug 9, 2021)

My new Asus B550, obviously an AMD board, actually has a proprietary protocol for RAM like Intel’s XMP.

First time I ever bought an Asus board, but it seems the new AMD 5600/5700G’s and the B550 have lots of various tweaks for CPU, RAM and iGPU.

Single Core settings is what I’m after and it seems the Curve Optimizer and other tricks can really get the DRAM fast and in sync.

Can you tell I’m excited? Only have half of the parts here, the rest tomorrow.

Hopefully the DRAM tricks I’ve seen in Prime, Cinebench and gaming benchmarks can be applied to Digital Audio.

Lots of folks are using AMD but can’t find any audio Benchmarks yet.
Guess I’ll share my DRAM and CPU tweaks. iGPU will stay stock, or maybe even dropped to 1800MHz from 2000MHz if possible.

Cheerz


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## Pictus (Aug 10, 2021)

chimuelo said:


> Lots of folks are using AMD but can’t find any audio Benchmarks yet.
> Guess I’ll share my DRAM and CPU tweaks. iGPU will stay stock, or maybe even dropped to 1800MHz from 2000MHz if possible.
> 
> Cheerz


Consider setting the RAM to 3733MHz, more is possible, but gets complicated.
The 5700 probably have a better memory controller and maybe can go further
without much problems.
The procedure is here and can go further with this.
The 1usmus DRAM calculator is not updated for ZEN3, better keep the voltages(not DRAM) in AUTO
until you know what you are doing...





You can check with https://zentimings.protonrom.com/

For the CPU use the Curve Optimizer and use this script to find the proper values








CoreCycler - tool for testing Curve Optimizer settings


Over the last couple of days resp. weeks I've been working with the Curve Optimizer for Ryzen processors a bit more, but I hadn't found a good way to test the settings for stability. CineBench single threaded almost always worked fine, and getting Prime95 stable with load on all cores was also...




www.overclock.net





To check for stability:





OCBASE/OCCT : Free, all-in-one stability, stress test, benchmark and monitoring tool for your PC


Ocbase is the home of OCCT, the most popular all-in-one stability / stress testing / benchmarking / monitoring tool available for PC




www.ocbase.com






y-cruncher - A Multi-Threaded Pi Program




Good luck!


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## chimuelo (Aug 10, 2021)

Thanks brotha’ man Pictus..

I remember 3733MHz was the sweet spot on the 3000’s, and clockers like 3200 for price, and the ability to clock higher.

I got the Ballistix CAS16 16GB x 2 DIMM’s @ 3600MHz.
Right between 3733 and 3200.

Seeing a few clockers getting 750-900MHz on water, 900 from using FMax offset for the extra 200MHz.
I plan on adjusting my settings according to results on the DAWBench Kontakt test.

Right up to the point of diminishing returns.
So if that’s 4.4GHz that’s fine by me.
Polyphony is a better goal than single core R20.

Really like the power tests and temps of these chips.
Even @ 4.65GHz 73C is impressive.

Thanks Again.


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## Pictus (Aug 10, 2021)

chimuelo said:


> Thanks brotha’ man Pictus...


I am glad to help!
Crucial, good!! I know the tricks...
Send me a screenshot from ZenTimings from your default 3600MHz settings
and send me the Thaiphoon Burner report like you see here.


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## JohnG (Aug 10, 2021)

I have never been able to detect any meaningful improvement in buffers, voice count-- anything -- from higher RAM speed.

Am I missing out? It seems that lots of RAM is always better than faster RAM.


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## Pictus (Aug 10, 2021)

JohnG said:


> I have never been able to detect any meaningful improvement in buffers, voice count-- anything -- from higher RAM speed.
> 
> Am I missing out? It seems that lots of RAM is always better than faster RAM.


Check http://www.scanproaudio.info/2019/07/30/ryzen-memory-testing-for-audio-does-it-make-an-impact/


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## chimuelo (Aug 10, 2021)

Pictus said:


> I am glad to help!
> Crucial, good!! I know the tricks...
> Send me a screenshot from ZenTimings from your default 3600MHz settings
> and send me the Thaiphoon Burner report like you see here.



Next week a builder will complete everything and I’ll start testing.

Cheerz.

And JohnG. I know guys using 3700X builds who followed the ScanAudio tips and tricks and claim the sweet spots were great for audio.

I needed a 1U build that only an APU (No GFX Card) would give me.
I’ve got 1 PCI slot and that’s for my PCI-e 1X Connector card.

Must replace my i7 4790k’s and these chips run fast and cool.

Fingers crossed on driver issues, I use 18 x ADSP 21469 SHARC processors like UAD uses. Lots of those guys at the UAD forums angry about AMD + UAD. That was a while back so hopefully everything has been addressed with the 5000 series.

Cheerz


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## Pictus (Aug 10, 2021)

chimuelo said:


> Fingers crossed on driver issues, I use 18 x ADSP 21469 SHARC processors like UAD uses. Lots of those guys at the UAD forums angry about AMD + UAD. That was a while back so hopefully everything has been addressed with the 5000 series.
> 
> Cheerz


If does not work, get in contact with ASRock support.
Someone in another forum had a problem with some old/rare PCIe card
and ASRock fixed, but they asked the user to loan the card.
Gigabyte does not do that... ASUS/MSI I do not know.

BTW, in the BIOS the first thing to do is to set the PCIe slot to the proper
generation and *not *leave it to *AUTO*.


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## JohnG (Aug 10, 2021)

Pictus said:


> Check http://www.scanproaudio.info/2019/07/30/ryzen-memory-testing-for-audio-does-it-make-an-impact/


So? Honestly, paying more for at most a 10% DSP improvement seems underwhelming.

I think that study convinces me that picking mid-point speed, at lower cost, and getting more RAM is far more useful a strategy.


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## Pictus (Aug 10, 2021)

JohnG said:


> So? Honestly, paying more for at most a 10% DSP improvement seems underwhelming.
> 
> I think that study convinces me that picking mid-point speed, at lower cost, and getting more RAM is far more useful a strategy.


Yes, but I do not see much difference in price for the Crucial 32GB modules
from 3200MHz to 3600MHz, YMWV.


https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#m=12&Z=65536002&sort=price&h=1


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## Vik (Aug 11, 2021)

JohnG said:


> So? Honestly, paying more for at most a 10% DSP improvement seems underwhelming.
> 
> I think that study convinces me that picking mid-point speed, at lower cost, and getting more RAM is far more useful a strategy.


Agree, but since PCI5 (with 128 gigabytes pr second with a 16 x combination) and DDR5 is on it's way, the most advanced libraries may soon be designed with that in mind, which makes me think that every drop counts – in the sense the next gen libraries may be hard to run on what's consider good computers today (for VI work). 

If fast RAM provides a 10% improvement, more RAM also, of course, improves our rigs, NVME over regular SSDs makes a big difference, M1X or M2 over M1 will be beneficial for pro users (and so on) we may keep our existing computers longer.


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## chimuelo (Aug 11, 2021)

10% + 30% (IPC) over my i7 4790k is significant, but so is more RAM so I will double up on RAM once I confirm drivers and OS work. Regardless of gains from tweaking the build for audio.

16GB DIMM’s x 4 will be more expensive than the CPU....

I like running @ 50-60% of peak power.
Don’t want a machine hitting 90%.
So PSU, CPU, RAM and Storage on the PC, and the same headroom on my DSP based Audio/MIDI interface will keep me smiling.

It’s a test of sorts. I had great luck with the H97 chipset, less featured but
very stable. The B550 is nice because it’s cooler, less featured, and PCI 3.0 speeds are more than sufficient for what I’ll need.

64GB’s of RAM in sync at high speeds is exciting.
DDR3-1600 CAS 9 has been fine for me. DDR4-3733 or 4266 has to be a blast..

Cheerz


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## Nick Batzdorf (Aug 11, 2021)

chimuelo said:


> % + 30% (IPC) over my i7 4790k is significant


I have no idea what IPC is, but are you saying that the RAM makes a difference?

My hunch is that it doesn't really matter, but then my prejudice is that most things people say about computers don't.


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## chimuelo (Aug 11, 2021)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> I have no idea what IPC is, but are you saying that the RAM makes a difference?
> 
> My hunch is that it doesn't really matter, but then my prejudice is that most things people say about computers don't.


Instructions per clock, and 10% uptick from RAM on AMD 3000’s. Maybe more on the 5000’s.
I’m your Huckleberry for those.
I’ll max out w/64GB’s as it’s a stage rig that won’t use more than 28-32GB’s.
Want to see the scores before I add 2 x more DIMM’s.

AMD tweaking for audio seemed like a fun chore.
If it works, great. If not, it’s still a 30% uptick in IPC over my i7 4790k’s that have worked well. I need more instances though, hence a 6/8 core over a quad.

cheerz


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## Technostica (Aug 11, 2021)

I have noticed that maximising RAM latency on current AMD systems is not nearly as simple as it used to be with XMP on Intel platforms.
So it's not just the cost that is higher when you go above the stock 3200, but the time it takes to read up on and test any tweaks has to be taken into account.
I'd be tempted to buy 3600/16 if the price difference was small enough but run it at 3200/16.
Then if my system ever felt that it was creaking in the future, one option would be to then spend the time to tweak the RAM.
Of course you can buy even faster than that, but for those with a large pool of RAM the price increase starts to become significant.


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## Pictus (Aug 11, 2021)

Technostica said:


> I have noticed that maximising RAM latency on current AMD systems is not nearly as simple as it used to be with XMP on Intel platforms.
> So it's not just the cost that is higher when you go above the stock 3200, but the time it takes to read up on and test any tweaks has to be taken into account.
> I'd be tempted to buy 3600/16 if the price difference was small enough but run it at 3200/16.
> Then if my system ever felt that it was creaking in the future, one option would be to then spend the time to tweak the RAM.
> Of course you can buy even faster than that, but for those with a large pool of RAM the price increase starts to become significant.


IF you buy *Crucial *3600MHz, just need to enable it in the BIOS and that is it.
If you want to tweak or run at 3733MHz, then need some work, but I can help.
If you want to run at more than 3733MHz, it is too much work and I can NOT help.

Independent of the RAM you buy, tweak or not, must do some tests to see if the RAM
is not defective.


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## JohnG (Aug 11, 2021)

Technostica said:


> for those with a large pool of RAM the price increase starts to become significant.


Well, I'm all for using the most overkill on computer resources. Expensive as they are, there is nothing more expensive than wasting five or ten years struggling with inadequate resources.

*Saving Money on Computers?*

Some people think "I'm competing for low-budget fare, the producers understand I don't have what the Famous Composers have."

No, they don't.

They temp with the top box office scores and they want their music to sound like that. If Junkie and Hans and JNH etc. have 10 computers that cover every conceivable sound, and their demos sound great, you'd better try to be in the ballpark if you want work.

When I started out I thought I was saving money, but I was wasting time better spent composing or just having fun doing things where I could make friends in Los Angeles. That would have been a lot smarter than saving on computers.

I practice what I preach; I decided to go Maximum Overkill with my latest Mac Pro, which has nearly 400GB of RAM. I don't even remember what speed it is. It is fast.

When I see people arguing that "you can work with a 16GB laptop" I think, "sure, by why would you?"

Do you think guys that composer music for games, or TV shows that _you_ might like to work on have a single laptop?


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## chimuelo (Aug 11, 2021)

FWIW Asus boards have a proprietary protocol just like XMP by Intel.
The review/tutorial I watched showed Profile 1 was 4266MHz.
This will be my first choice, if stable, then cometh DAWBench trials.

Love chatting with folks passionate about creativity assisted by hardware.

We do what must be done.


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## chimuelo (Aug 12, 2021)

After thorough reading about overclocking Ryzen 5 chips I’ve decided to settle for overclocking the RAM to 4266MHz and leaving the CPU @ stock.

Mostly because I don’t think I need to as the IPC is plenty in comparison to my Intel IPC which was fine, but I outgrew my Quad as multiple instances of Kontakt and Keyscape are preferable now as opposed to pushing those sample based apps to their limits.

Seems the 5000 chips @ stock using single thread strategy is better than boosting CPU 4-500MHz. All benchmarks indicate multi threaded apps benefit while single core drops slightly. It’s not until you Jack up voltage and jump the CPU by 900MHz do you see a 10% jump in single core. But now you’re at 100+ Watts and 93C.

I will settle for faster RAM and keep my CPU running at low Watts and cool so it last longer, and the other parts won’t be stressed much.

Keep in mind these are AMDs lowest binned chips w/ graphics. So with a RAM only tweak of 3-5%, plus the extra 30% uptick in IPC over the Intel 4/5/6/7/8000 series chips, that’s a 33% boost which is impressive.


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## Voider (Aug 12, 2021)

bosone said:


> will I see so much difference between the different RAM types? or the cheapest one at 2400 MHz will be more than enough?


Afaik RAM speed doesn't matter when making music, because it determines how quickly the RAM can gather tasks from the CPU and load data from the harddrive into its memory. That would be important for games where a lot of stuff is going on and changing quickly, so that the RAM needs to exchange what it currently holds inside fast.

That doesn't apply to music because once you've loaded up your template, you're ready to go, data is being read from the RAM and there is no continious new stuff coming in that your ram has to deal with.

For live performance with instruments that create sound in real time (e.g. complex software-sided synthesizers) rather than playing back samples, the CPU is way more important, but here again anything that is in the modern mid-range should by far not reach its capacity through synthesizers or Vsts.


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## Pictus (Aug 12, 2021)

chimuelo said:


> FWIW Asus boards have a proprietary protocol just like XMP by Intel.
> The review/tutorial I watched showed Profile 1 was 4266MHz.
> This will be my first choice, if stable, then cometh DAWBench trials.











Infinity Fabric Clock or FCLK on AMD CPUs, How Do They Work? | ITIGIC


Already in the past we have discussed and defined what is AMD's Infinity Fabric , the method of interconnection of the different components that make up AMD Ryzen processors . This interconnection method also involves a new parameter in the processors, called FCLK or Infinity Fabric Clock , and...




itigic.com




In the Ryzen 5000 without GPU, RAM 4266MHz and maintaining *1:1 ratio*
with infinity fabric is impossible. 





You can go up to 3733MHz with *manual settings* and with the help of the mentioned
tools, with a lot of effort and luck people achieve RAM at 3800MHz, sometimes 3866MHz.
*But it is very hard(above 3733MHz) and not recommended for production machines.*
It also produces more heat...

The BIOS AUTO settings are not optimized, they are just generic.

If you want to the CPU to stay cool/silent, use the Curve Optimize, but keep
Scalar = 1
Max Boost = zero


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## chimuelo (Aug 24, 2021)

Pictus said:


> Infinity Fabric Clock or FCLK on AMD CPUs, How Do They Work? | ITIGIC
> 
> 
> Already in the past we have discussed and defined what is AMD's Infinity Fabric , the method of interconnection of the different components that make up AMD Ryzen processors . This interconnection method also involves a new parameter in the processors, called FCLK or Infinity Fabric Clock , and...
> ...


Correctamundo on my APU.

I decided to just stay stock with a nice Noctua Cooler.
Didn’t even need to run benchmarks as ZebraHZ w/ 4 Diva Filters and 4 x OSC presets are @ 50% which is perfect.

Same with everything with multicore off like PTeq and Kontakt.
Omnisphere and Keyscape/Trilian with a 6 way multi hits 60%.

Went with 3200MHz Ballistix C14’s, sent back the 3600, and 360 cooler too.

The AMD 5600G is their low binned 5000 w/ Radeon GFX and it’s way faster than my i7 4790k which was fine and can both (2 x 1U’s) be spares.

I might push on the 5700G that will be finished this week.

But in all honesty I just don’t see the need to overclock Infinity or CPU.

Thanks for all the help though, if I do the 3733 trick on the 5700G I will let you know if the RAM tricks allow more IPC @ acceptble temps.


Cheerz


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