RAM Latency vs Frequency - Why It's Important - ThioJoeTech 

latency is like how fast someone gets off the couch frequency is how many things the person can get done while off the couch for a certain amount of time.

Thanks for putting these together, I am a long time IT professional and I try to educate my clients as to the "why" something works the way it does. I am a big fan of education and knowing how a tool works. I would like to add a tail on to this, as I think that this topic is important enough. Pro Tip: This may require a little math or at least the spreadsheet mentioned in the video. There is one more piece to the performance puzzle. That is how much data your CPU will crunch through per cycle, and how it matches up with the operations/second - Total Bandwidth. Try and avoid too much of a difference on either side. if you are starving your RAM, (RAM frequency higher than how much data the CPU sends back, in multiples that can leave a remainder product. This will cause the RAM to fall into wait states or Idle, and in the case of video games, can cause a "stutter" (another thought on this at the end). If your CPU is too fast then, obviously, the RAM gets overwhelmed. When this happens the buffer tells the CPU to go into wait state and operations are paused until the RAM can catch up. Most public sector CPU's have a small finite amount of on-board cache (L1, L2) to hold these commands/information. High end CPU's can be as high as 12MB. Not a lot relative to RAM these days. About game stutter: If you have ever installed a new graphics card and notice a game you are used to playing is now stuttering even with the HUGE COSMIC POWER of a new card. You have even lowered the graphics settings trying to even it out to no avail. What is really going on is the new card has evolved. There is probably newer logic that handles things like shader operations, or light vector/reflection calculations more efficiently. Freeing up clock cycles. So again, when you lowered the settings, you effectively are starving your data bus and GPU, and they are initializing that wait state until more data has been processed. Stutter. Try increasing the graphics/effects level in your game. In this situation, it will respond favorably. Your new card can take it. Just a 2 cents, I found relevant to this GREAT POST!!

I'll remember this next time I download more ram!

Watch this video before you buy any more RAM.

I am so glad I discovered your channel. This is mostly heavy stuff for me, I'm racking my brain trying to understand it, but it's extremely helpful. Subscribed

Good Video. Being CompTIA 801 and 802 certified, I appreciate 1.) That someone covered this aspect of RAM, as I haven't seen another video specifically on latency, and 2.) That you did a very good job explaining it.

Thank you ThioJoeTech. Good and fullfilling explanation, and doing the hard work on the spread sheet is appretiated!

Thank you for this clear guide, confirmed what I thought was right - as I'm preparing to build my first gaming pc this autumn.

So well explained! I watched several articles about this and nobody explained this better than u. Congrats. And thanks for the tutorial.

Awesome thank you! I didn’t know latency was in RAM. I had heard of it in graphics cards but now I know more! You are awesome.

Thanks for doing all the hard work for me :)

This is by far the best explanation of ram latency/frequency I've ever seen. the excel spreadsheet was the cherry on top.

Such great information dude! thanks to this video I managed to finally decide which RAM to choose. Thank you!

Dude I hope your channel will grow fast! A lot of time it must take you to do these videos, really great work, thanks! :D

Thanks for the informational video! It's gonna help me determine what ram I should get and what to look for. I need to check the frequency of the chips I'm looking at

Thanks for a very educational video. A difficult subject but well described & great excel sheet. I have used it to find my first computer build's memory sticks.

Awesome video, of all YT I watch, videos like this are rare, you just made it perfect!

Coming from an assistant professor of engineering, very nicely explained man. I know many professors who can't explain shit.

You forgot to mention that the Mainboard has to support the frequency and latency of the memory you buy, and also you may have to manually setup the latency in bios for high performance ram, otherwise the ram will run at some defaulted "auto" latency.

I just love how he looks in the camera. This is just awesome :D All your vids are great, Thio! Thanks :)

Seriously the best video when it comes to explain rams, you got a new subscriber ! The only thing missing I think is a possible benchmark of how it affects computer speed for various task like video editing, gaming and such.

Thank you very much for this video! Your explanation was very clear and detailed. Now I can build my ultimate music production rig with confidence!

Ever wonder what the heck CAS Timings were? Well they're more important than you think.

Hey Joe thank you so much for putting the chart out I've been watching you for a long time subscribe for a long time and you got a great sense of humor you really put out some valuable information thanks man Dave

Thanks mate. You broke it down very clearly and have made it easy to understand. The only other thing I would have added is there are usually sets of CAS numbers quoted instead of a single CAS number. I don't understand about these sets.

I watched every popular video about the subject and I never understood RAM speeds/latency .. until i watched this video Great video Thank you!

Great video...Good job ThioJoeTech! this actually helped out alot

Thank you so much! I’m quite excited to power thru this channel. Finally someone who makes sense lol

Amazing job! Thank you so much. I was looking for that :)

Thanks. This video and the chart saved me a huge amount of toil and research.

I kept expecting the wrong information as a joke per your tutorial videos but I was pleasantly surprised it's a serious video. Thanks for the info.

This is the best RAM video on RU-vid. Thanks :)

I wanted to know the details for the last few months. Best explained with quality video as always.

Well explained. Perfectly simple. Thank you. Flawless execution.

Glad I saw this video before going buying my RAM. Kudos to you for putting all the time in.

Thanks Joe, that table is very helpful!

excellent video. always wanted to know the use of latency, now I know. Thanks a ton!!

Informative, practical and a great reference chart thanks man, sub’d

Wow this is what i needed to know, great job with the video. You're a true computer expert.

Finally someone who explains it perfectly!! Thanks for the info!

+ThioJoeTech, Thank you for making that spreadsheet table, it has helped me understand the Frequency/Latencies much better. You're awesome!

Great video. You are very good at explaining this stuff!!

Thank you Sir for this tutorial. Somehow got something in to my head a bit :D

thank you so much! helped me to pick the right ram

Best explanation! Thx for the timing table!

love the videos man

Thanks for the table, that's really useful ;)

Awesome video, very useful! Thank you!!

Thank you for the nice table! :)

that was extremely informational! I now am questioning my RAM purchase.

Old but useful. Now I'm glad I discovered your channel.

Thank you for making this video. It was very informative.

Nice one thio for sharing that knowledge👍 just continue doing related videos to fully understand diff components of a pc.

Exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Wow thankyou so much. Ive always wanted to understand more about the hardware of computers but the terminology always bamboozled me. You help put it in terms i can actually wrap my brain around and absorb!!! Makes wanting to build my own gaming rig seem less intimidating!

Hugely usefull video! Thanks Jeo! :)

the ram timings table was so useful last time I was shopping for ram, you should make it easier to find, like appearing in a search engine

thanks bro... nice and simple and a very handy resource

Thank you for this video, it was very helpful :)

i dont install more ram because i dont want to get a virus

Excellent, thanks!

For most normal gaming and all normal work, RAM capacity is the most important, just pick the best cost with the capacity you need. Faster RAM has almost no influence to your PC performance (some consider that an extra 1-2 fps is already a huge impact, I won't argue with that). Aiming for faster RAM will be beneficial mainly if you do content creation and on some games e.g. GTA V. Here, keeping cost in mind you would probably want to find the best RAM for you after you decided the capacity you will need. The calculation in the video will spin your head off in real life...try this instead...which is basically the same...Just remember, this will be less precise but a lot easier to remember. Just do simple math: Freq/latency is A. Look for RAM kits with the highest value A with the best cost you can find. You will then find e.g. 1600/8= 200 is as fast as 2400/12=200. In this case, no need to spend more for the 2400MHz CL12, if the 1600MHz CL8 is cheaper. (not very realistic example, this is only for example)

thanks for sharing your knowledge, man!

Thank you so much for this video

Any one else notice the tube of vasaline?

One thing. Faster memory with higher latency will perform better than the slower memory with matching lower latency once the request is received because you don't need to send a request for every byte of data in memory. ;-)

Thanks for the video!

Great video explaining latency, I must admit before watching I didn't know exactly what RAM latency referred to. You make the math seem simple but I can't help but wonder how CPU cache pre-fetch would impact things, perhaps shifting the advantage to higher frequency again. Higher frequencies I imagine would have the advantage again until unexpected memory is accessed creating a speed bump in the road back to latency. Food for thought on where the sweet spot would be then, results would vary depending on cache size, level architecture and pre-fetch algorithm.

Excellent explanation, thank you very much!

Thanks for clearing this up

Thank you very much, you helped me choose the suitable memory for my computer.

Really nice video, you should also add the rest of the timing calculations and equations. It gets really technical, but all 4 of the timings play a factor in the overall speed. That being said CAS latency is the most common, however the RAM I bought for my computer(on sale, so it was more economical than the normally cheaper RAM I bought in the first place) is actually a little slower than the old stuff I had and according to just frequency and CAS latency it should be faster. The tRP is the latency slowing it down compared to the other.

thank you! very helpful video!

Very informative video, thank you!

Thanks man, that was awesome! :)

Thanks bro!

Thanks, very informative!

Thank you for the explanation.

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar ! Thank you

Thanks for the no bs quality video.

My english is pretty bad ( im from germany ) but i understood everything you said. it was very unterstandable how you explain how Latency works.

Nice CAS Latency explanation man. Thanks!

good info ThioJoe , thanks

Thanks man!

great video,i learnt alot!!

Thanks a lot man!

Thanks for this video :)

Good information for my X99 Build. Went with 32 GB 2400 MHz with a latency of 14. Cost only 229 dollars instead of 300 - 500 dollars. I also can overclock it hopefully if they did not lock the voltage.

thank you very very much for this helpful info

Well explained, that helped. Thanks :)

Great job ! thanks !

All you said i knew it but now with the sheet i will know which ram to choose.

Thanks!

thank you very much !

Thanks, ThioJoe!!

Thanks for educating me ^^

Great job.

Thanks a lot for the Timings table!! (Y)

Thank-you sir!

thanks a great educative video