Benchmarks - Overclocking RAM for more FPS - Kingston Technology (2024)

RAM, more commonly referred to as memory (and sometimes DRAM), can often be overlooked when buying or building a PC. Most game specifications will recommend a certain minimum amount of RAM capacity, but do not mention anything about memory performance. The ability to overclock RAM opens the door to maximising the potential power of a computer, and faster memory speeds with lower latencies have a direct impact on some games and applications.

For this experiment, we wanted to demonstrate how overclocking RAM could increase FPS (Frames Per Second), a critical measurement of the smoothness and responsiveness of motion in games. While graphics cards deservedly tend to get all the attention for gaming, it’s important to remember that RAM is one of the fastest components within a PC and plays a critical role between the processor and storage (HDD/SSD). Some games and applications are more memory- and processor-bound than GPU.

Our benchmark focused on the latest memory technology for AMD and Intel platforms, DDR5. Since it launched in 2021, DDR5 has had one of the fastest year-on-year performance gains of arguably any memory technology in the past 50 years. Debuting at 4800MT/s CL40 for JEDEC industry-standard speed and timings, in just one year it jumped to 5600MT/s CL46. (Sidenote, CL stands for CAS Latency, which is one of many timings or wait states between the processor and memory). By comparison, DDR4 took nearly four years to scale up by 800MT/s. But gamers don’t use standard speeds and timings, they tap into the hidden potential of their system by overclocking the RAM far beyond spec.

Kingston FURY is our line of overclockable RAM solutions. Note that if you selected ValueRAM or one of Kingston’s other standard memory product lines, those are not overclockable.In previous articles, we discussedoverclocking basics, and how to choose the right components for your performance-tuned system. If overclocking is new to you, check out our YouTube series that explains the process and benefits.

For our test platform, we used the following components:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 13700K
• Motherboard: MSI Z790 MPG Carbon WIFI
• Graphics: ASUS TUF RTX 3070
• Storage: Kingston FURY Renegade 1TB SSD

For memory, we installed a 32GB dual-channel kit for each run, consisting of two 16GB 1R (Single Rank) DIMMs, at various speeds, latencies and voltages to see how FPS performance was affected. Why 32GB, you may ask? 32GB (2x 16GB) kits are the sweet spot for DDR5 in terms of performance, as of the time of writing this article. 64GB (2x 32GB) 2R (Dual Rank) kits are more limited by chipsets on how fast they can go, but are still a great option up to certain speeds. Now theoretically you could also install four 8GB DIMMs for the same target capacity, and many builders opt to do this for aesthetics with the RGB lighting covering all memory sockets. But you should note that installing four DIMMs on DDR5 motherboards will severely limit overclock potential. This is also referred to as 2DPC (two DIMMs per Channel), which puts additional data loads on the memory controller, which then toggles memory speed down to compensate.

Here are the memory kits we used:

For the games, we ran:

These were run at 1080p and under high settings for a level playing field, as not all users will have 4K-capable monitors. For most of the titles, our benchmarks reflect three scores: maximum FPS (first bar), average FPS (second bar) and minimum FPS (third bar). We used a combination of in-game benchmarks and overlays to measure FPS.

Rainbow Six Siege is an excellent choice as a first person-shooter e-sport title, where high frame rates are critical. Our tests showed incremental improvement as memory speed increased, with a marked jump as memory went from 6800MT/s to 7200MT/s.

For Cyberpunk 2077, we noted only slight improvements across all speed increases. 7200MT/s saw slightly lower minimum FPS than the rest of the lineup, but no notable difference at maximum FPS, resulting in a marginal average.

Red Dead Redemption 2 showed a significant range between minimum and maximum FPS, and as we increased memory speed, we only observed a two point increase in the average FPS.

F1 2020is a racing simulator based on the professional racing series Formula One. All speeds ran at an
average FPS of 149 and a maximum of 150. The minimum frame rate did increase as speed increased, showing 7200MT/s with a 6 FPS differential compared to 4800MT/s at a 28 FPS differential.

Arma 3 is a popular military simulator with large open maps and various vehicles to be driven. Running through a training course, open and closed spaces were encountered with sporadic gunfire. 4800MT/s lagged behind scoring the lowest average while 5600MT/s scored the highest, beating the Renegade options by 2-6 FPS. The minimum FPS increased as speed increased excluding 7200MT/s.

Horizon Zero Dawn was a PlayStation® exclusive that received a PC port a couple of years ago. This adventure game features grand areas and high-quality textures. Average FPS did not vary much between speeds, hovering around the 144 mark. The Beast speeds maintained a higher maximum with 6000MT/s having the highest FPS.

APEX Legends is a popular battle-royale title that features 100 players fighting to be the last one standing. The top Renegade speeds saw a larger drop-off in their minimum FPS with 7200MT/s achieving the lowest average. The other speeds saw consistent results, hovering just below a 144 FPS average.

Ashes of Singularity is a real-time strategy game with large-scale battles. Running the CPU-focused test, average FPS increased as speed increased, over 11% from 4800MT/s to 6800MT/s. During this test, we were curious just how much of a difference dual channel made over single-channel memory configurations. For budgetary reasons, a lot of users may opt to install only one memory module in their system instead of the recommended two. This benchmark illustrated an average 17% difference in FPS performance when compared to the dual-channel configuration.

As expected, the data showed that while FPS was affected by increasing RAM speed, it varied greatly by how the titles used system memory and CPU versus graphics. More CPU-intensive games showed that RAM speed played a key role with FPS, while GPU-dependent games' frame rates were less influenced by RAM speed.

What was most interesting to see was the difference between single and dual-channel configurations. Installing the pair of identical modules aggregated the memory bandwidth for the CPU and demonstrated a significant boost to FPS. Increasing memory capacity is always good to be able to run more programs and multi-task, but making sure the memory is installed correctly to take advantage of multi-channel memory architecture made the biggest measurable difference.

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The Basics of Overclocking

Overclocking can be dangerous if done incorrectly but really amazing if done right! Overclocking is a catch-all term for adjusting the standard specs on memory modules, CPUs and GPUs to get better performance.

How to choose overclock memory

Are you unsure of how to choose the right overclock memory for your system? We are here to help!

Overclocking profiles

Memory overclocking profiles can help you get the top speeds out of your computer’s memory in just a few clicks. Computer memory for PCs comes in two standard flavours. Memory built to industry-standard specification, aka JEDEC spec, and memory that’s performance tuned to exceed standard speeds, timings and voltage, aka overclocking.