Arma 3 CPU vs RAM performance comparison 1600-2133= up to 15% FPS gain

[dasa 20]

The performance gains are much bigger than i expected but i triple checked the results and there is well under 1fps difference between most runs at the same settings so if somebody else would like to give this a go to confirm or disprove my results it would be interesting

Arma 3 stratis 1600-2133 15.369 % increase

Arma 3 altis 1600-2133 11.477 % increase

Test System

2600k

ASUS Z77 MAXIMUS V GENE

2X4G SAMSUNG 2133 (10-10-10-24-1T used for all tests)

Two 7970@1050\5600MHz crossfire is enabled not that it makes any difference at 1080p

2TB 7200RPM with OCZ Synapse 128G Cache

Seasonic 1000W Platinum

win7 64

cat 13.10 beta2

Tests were run at high detail 1920x1080 unlike last time on the alpha http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?153524-CPU-VS-RAM-Performance-amp-CPU-Threading-Benchmarked

with 16g 2400 c10 ram being within $20-50 of 1600 c10 ram i think this is useful information for those considering replacing there pc and goes against the results of other ram performance tests in games due to most other games being gpu bottlnecked

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Late edit with some new tests

i have run some new tests on ram timings but there is obviously some inconsistency with the tests since i only bothered to run them all once with 1600 8-8-8 performing the same as 9-9-9 in one test and 9-9-9 performing the same as 10-10-10 in another this is just a hickup

one 7970 is now dead so im back to a single gpu for these tests

minimum fps in altis was to inconsistent to bother including

current ram prices in au

2x4g

1333 9-9-9 $93

1600 11-11-11 $89

1600 9-9-9 $103

1600 8-8-8 $109

1866 9-10-9 $105

2133 11-11-11 $102

2133 9-11-10 $115

2400 10-12-12 $125

2x8g

1333 9-9-9 $152

1600 11-11-11 $175

1600 9-9-9 $203

1866 10-11-10 $199

1866 9-10-9 $205

2133 11-11-11 $205

2133 9-11-11 $225

2400 10-12-12 $229

Edited March 11, 2014 by dasa

[Minoza 11]

Nice find!

[tremanarch 6]

thats interesting - time to overclock the ram ^^

[MavericK96 0]

Likely due to the massive amount of I/O streaming textures and whatnot the game does.

[verstand3n 13]

yes interesting! thank you!

2400Mhz Cl10 is not that more expensive either...

[tremanarch 6]

more benchmarks and with altis would be nice

[dasa 20]

more benchmarks and with altis would be nice

what would you like done different?

[fabio_chavez 103]

there was another benchmark with that result some month ago, thank you for confirming this!

very intressting. (remind me to get rid of my 1066mhz ddr2 :/)

[St. Jimmy 272]

I got G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1600 DIMM CL9. Is there a chance to go for 2133 or should I give up before even trying?

[roni 11]

This show how arma is very different from most other games, where ram frequency almost doesn't matter. Also would be nice to see differences with for example 9CL and 11CL rams.

[Fushko 59]

That's quite a big FPS boost. See ya, gonna destroy my RAM trying to overclock it.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

dang, another hole just appeared in my budget

[big_t 1]

Interesting test, thanks for the discovery.

I'm also wondering about cas latency, I'm thinking it might effect fps as well as it is related to overall ram speed in a way.

[jumpinghubert 49]

Altis-Bench

old ram: 2000mhz (11.11.11.30.1T): 47fps

new: 2666mhz (11.14.13.36.1T): 49fps

not so much I hoped.

system in signature.

[roni 11]

What if my MB supports 1600mhz ram max, and I use faster? And if I buy 1600mhz rams, can I overclock it more than 1600mhz with this MB ?

[jumpinghubert 49]

@roni

what mb do you have?

[roni 11]

H87 performance aka fatal1ty, and would like to overclock rams more than 1600mhz, because as we can see it help give nice fps boost.

[dasa 20]

here is some tests on haswell that show the importance of getting a balance with timings\frequency

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/10

its just console ports unfortunately but still useful

and here is something else to look out for with newer high performance ram that can make higher speed sticks slower

http://hwbot.org/newsflash/2125_the_truth_about_hynix_mfr_based_memory_kits___overclockers.coms_g.skill_tridentx_8gb_ddr3_2933_memory_kit_review

Roni

does your mb have settings in the bios for taking the ram higher than 1600mhz?

JumpingHubert

it might be worth overclocking the ram try leaving at 2666 but tightening timings to 10-12-12 or as low as you can get

and do you have any pics of your rig? i used a toyota camry heatercore in my rig several years ago :)

the old heatercore

before upgrading to the thermochil 4x120 rad

Edited November 12, 2013 by dasa

[mordeaniischaos 3]

Altis-Bench

old ram: 2000mhz (11.11.11.30.1T): 47fps

new: 2666mhz (11.14.13.36.1T): 49fps

not so much I hoped.

system in signature.

This sort of thing would certainly have diminishing effects at higher clocks. If you were starting a 1600 and moved up to 2666 you'd find a bigger boost than say 2666 to 3600, most likely. Eventually the game overcomes the bottleneck and it doesn't matter nearly as much any more.

[grillob3 11]

Arma 2/3 is a cpu/ram overclock whore game! GPU oc does not effect that much.

[galzohar 31]

GPU is the main factor in which graphic settings you can run smoothly (all else put aside, aka mission that doesn't bring your game to a crawl due to heavy CPU load, and "heavy" doesn't mean 100%, just that the FPS drops due to CPU-based operations).

CPU is the main factor in running non-graphical-related things like having a lot of units/AI active on the mission.

Both are important, and which one should be more important to you depends on which one is your weak link (bottleneck).

[griffz 1]

here is some tests on haswell that show the importance of getting a balance with timings\frequency

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/10

its just console ports unfortunately but still useful

TOTALLY IRREVELANT here. anand bench was made using IGP ! where RAM speed has all its importance !

with a discret GPU , GPU bandwith doesn't depend of cpu RAM speed anymore.

totally irrevelant ...

Edited February 4, 2014 by griffz

[izaiak 1]

Does switching from 8 GB PC 16000 CAS 7 to 16 GB PC 16000 will also increase performance ?

Because i read on Arma 3 feedbacktracker, arma can go over 3,4, or 5 GB of RAM due to some tweak already into the game. I'm not a master of that so i can't explain how it works. But i never see anything testing the game with 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM.

thank you.

[neodammerung 8]

Does switching from 8 GB PC 16000 CAS 7 to 16 GB PC 16000 will also increase performance ?

Because i read on Arma 3 feedbacktracker, arma can go over 3,4, or 5 GB of RAM due to some tweak already into the game. I'm not a master of that so i can't explain how it works. But i never see anything testing the game with 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM.

I had 8 gig of RAM 1600 and I went for 32 gig 1600 (for After Effect, not Arma) and I saw no difference

I guess performance gains are more about the 1600mhz => 2333 mhz

[mamasan8 11]

Does switching from 8 GB PC 16000 CAS 7 to 16 GB PC 16000 will also increase performance ?

Because i read on Arma 3 feedbacktracker, arma can go over 3,4, or 5 GB of RAM due to some tweak already into the game. I'm not a master of that so i can't explain how it works. But i never see anything testing the game with 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM.

thank you.

Amount of RAM has no effect on its performance.