When I was still using a GeForce GTX 260 paired with Core i5 750 2.66 GHz, I tested the difference between DDR3 800 MHz and DDR3 1333 MHz. To my surprise, a 66% increase in RAM speed had a negligible effect on gaming performance at 1920 x 1080 resolution. More than 9 years have passed and I am curious if RAM speed matters now in gaming using today’s hardware. To find out, I tested HITMAN and The Talos Principle at 2560 x 1080 resolution using a Radeon RX 480 8GB.

Going from DDR4 2133 MHz to DDR4 3200 MHz only improved the 99th percentile frame time by 6 – 9% in HITMAN. That is very small considering the 50% increase in RAM speed. No gains were found in F1 2017. It seems that only a CPU-intensive game benefits from faster RAM. The results we have right now are from conclusive because we only tested 2 games and used a mainstream GPU. Measuring the effect of RAM speed on something like GeForce GTX 1080 would be interesting.

If you liked our article and want to see the complete and more detailed testing, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel.