We were WRONG about RAM – Or were we?

The video revisits a well known RAM myth from a 2013 video and examines why RAM speed may matter more now than it did back then. It starts by laying out four theories about RAM impact on modern systems: the old benchmarks were flawed, software has become more complex, GPUs have become much faster, and CPUs have also advanced significantly. The hosts attempt to reproduce the original test with updated hardware, swapping in a modern GPU and a faster CPU while keeping other variables constant to isolate RAM speed effects. Initial results with older settings show only marginal differences as RAM speed increases, suggesting the old conclusions might have some truth still hold. The discussion then expands to how game workloads, asset sizes, and multi-threaded CPU/GPU usage influence RAM bottlenecks. The team tests more modern scenarios, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 6, to explore how RAM speed interacts with bigger textures and higher data throughput. They observe that with a contemporary RTX 2080 Ti, RAM speed does show material differences in some benchmarks like Metro and Tomb Raider, but the magnitude varies by title and setting. The conclusion emphasizes a nuanced view: RAM speed matters more when GPUs and software demand high bandwidth and when you upgrade other components over time, but it is not a universal performance lever in every scenario. The video closes by reaffirming that a balanced system and realistic workloads are key, and it hints that future testing with other CPUs or GPUs could yield different results. The sponsor segment is integrated and returns to the core message that RAM speed can influence performance depending on context, with an emphasis on practical takeaways for upgrading RAM alongside newer hardware.

Topics · technology · computer-hardware · gaming-performance · benchmarks · memory · cpus-gpus