CAS v tRCD influence on gaming/general performance?

[IanM]

At any given clock speed, how much does the tRCD timing affect performance for gaming and general desktop use? Is 6-8-6-x really better than 7-7-7-x or just a nice excuse to advertise CL6 and increase the price? or maybe it's good for the benchmarks but insignificant for general use?

 

[JN]

Lower timings will always generally be 'better', but with DDR3 they make MUCH LESS of a difference than what they did with DDR and DDR2. I wouldnt worry too much.

 

[IanM]

Thanks, it doesn't bother me at all and the point is somewhat academic. I'm just really curious to know why different options are available from the same manufacturer at similar prices. It was the Mushkin Redline PC-12800 that piqued my interest, on the face of it 6-8-6 looks so similar overall to 7-7-7 (both at 1.65v) that just looks like variations for the sake of it.

 

[|3ourne]

get the mushkins if the price isnt the issue , they are better binned. And its no joke for be able to run DDR3 1600 on CAS 6. So if comparing two , CAS 6 will give u better performance at the same speeds. But then again DDR3 is usually all about mhz