Tech News Today
  • Hardware
    • Motherboards
    • CPUs
    • Graphic Cards
    • RAM
    • SSDs
    • Computer Cases
    • Monitors
    • Peripherals
    • Power Supply Unit
    • PC Builds
    • Computer Tips
  • Software
  • Operating System
    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
  • Gaming
  • Mobile
  • Console
  • More
    • Internet
    • Networking
    • Security
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Gadgets
    • Laptops
    • Reviews
    • How To
    • News
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Tech News Today
  • Hardware
    • Motherboards
    • CPUs
    • Graphic Cards
    • RAM
    • SSDs
    • Computer Cases
    • Monitors
    • Peripherals
    • Power Supply Unit
    • PC Builds
    • Computer Tips
  • Software
  • Operating System
    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
  • Gaming
  • Mobile
  • Console
  • More
    • Internet
    • Networking
    • Security
    • Buyer’s Guide
    • Gadgets
    • Laptops
    • Reviews
    • How To
    • News
Tech News Today
Home » RAM

Does RAM Affect FPS

Deep ShresthaBy Deep ShresthaAugust 17, 2023
does ram affect fps

System RAM affects FPS only when it fails to meet the game’s minimum memory requirement. But besides capacity, other variables like total RAM usage and transfer rates may also affect in-game FPS.

First off, the FPS mainly depends on the CPU and GPU. But if the system does not have enough capacity in memory, the CPU and GPU have to wait for the data to be loaded into memory before processing it.

This results in random stutters and frame drops. Only in such cases more RAM will improve your gaming experience. Another factor is RAM frequency. Higher frequency means CPU can access data much faster, lowering CPU idle time.

So, theoretically, a system with higher capacity and frequency RAM does perform better. But does that mean improved FPS?

It depends. To answer this, our team performed several benchmarks using different capacity and frequency RAMs. And we have got some exciting results for you all.

Table of Contents

  • FPS Depending on RAM Capacity
    • 8GB Vs 16 GB Vs 32 GB FPS Benchmarks
  • FPS Depending on RAM Frequency
    • DDR4 2666 v DDR4 3200
  • More RAM or Faster RAM for Gaming
  • Final Thoughts

FPS Depending on RAM Capacity

does more ram affect fps

When your PC is constantly using high memory when gaming, the CPU and GPU have to wait on RAM to free memory and load required game data. Only then the CPU and GPU can start rendering shaders and compiling game codes.

This is why you see your frame drops and game starts to stutter once the system hits memory limit. Here, adding more RAM improves the FPS.

If your RAM does not bottleneck the CPU and GPU, or if the system has plenty memory, adding more RAM will have little to no effect on average FPS.

To better understand, let’s consider an analogy. Think of your total RAM capacity as a workbench. A bigger workbench means you have more space to spread out (in the case of RAM, open game data) and work efficiently. 

On a smaller workbench, you have less space and you constantly need to take things off from the workbench to make room for things that you require frequently. 

If you have a smaller workbench, upgrading to a bigger one allows you to freely work. But if you already have a big enough workbench, upgrading to a even bigger one is not going to make much of a difference on your performance.

is more ram better

This reasoning applies to most games, But, it depends on the type of game you play, CPU intensive or GPU intensive. 

On a games that rely heavily on GPU, data required to generate frames are saved on the video memory and memory capacity only matters if the system is low on VRAM. On CPU intensive games, both RAM capacity along with frequency play a huge role in a game’s FPS.

8GB Vs 16 GB Vs 32 GB FPS Benchmarks

8gb v 16gb v 32 gb ram

To give you a general idea of how RAM capacity affects FPS, we ran a couple of tests. The games were running on 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB all on the same frequency. 

Here is the specification of the test system.
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
  • GPU: AMD RX 6650 XT 8GB
  • SSD: Samsung Evo Plus 2TB
  • RAM: DDR4 3200 CL16 (XMP Enabled)
  • OS: Windows 11 22H2

I ran four different tests for each game on low 1080p and took the average FPS and average 1% lows. Running games on lowered graphics settings also reduced any chance of CPU or GPU bottlenecks.

Here is what I found.

8GB (1x8GB)16GB (2x8GB)32GB (2x16GB)
Cyberpunk 20771% low FPS606869
Avg FPS758486
GTA V1% low FPS658790
Avg FPS120127130
Red Dead Redemption 21% low FPS475962
Avg FPS809595
Marvel’s Spiderman: Miles Morales1% low FPS437978
Avg FPS75105106
God of War1% low FPS547876
Avg FPS97106107
Marvel’s Spiderman1% low FPS687275
Avg FPS105125127

You can see the boost on average FPS and the 1% low FPS I got when upgrading from 8GB to 16 GB. 

Note: 1% low is the lowest frame rate you get 1% of the time during the total time of the benchmark.

16GB and 32GB showed increased FPS compared to 8GB because of two reasons: The 16 GB and 32 GB system ran on dual channels and had a higher memory capacity.

corsair vengence two memory stick

Running on dual channels increased our bandwidth, thus increasing the average FPS. The higher capacity, on the other hand, improved our 1% low FPS. This is because data was made readily available for the CPU and GPU to process, eliminating any bottlenecks.

When going from 16 GB to 32 GB, you cannot see much average FPS gain. This happens because, the game is not utilizing all its 16 GB of memory, so adding another 16 GB is doing nothing to our average FPS.

TL:DR: RAM capacity affect FPS only when the system is low on memory. If the system already has enough memory, adding more RAM will not bring much average FPS improvement to the table.

FPS Depending on RAM Frequency

RAM Frequency also plays a crucial role in determining how much FPS you get. RAM frequency is the rate at which data transfers between RAM and the CPU. 

A RAM with higher frequency will technically give you a higher frame rate. But this also depends on its CAS (Column Address Strobe) Latency. CAS Latency is the number of clock cycles it takes the RAM to deliver data once requested by the CPU.

Although a lower CAS latency is better, the FPS gain you get is pretty low and negligible. Where the RAM with lower latency shines is in a heavy workload environment where the CPU usage is constantly high.

DDR4 2666 v DDR4 3200

ddr4 2666 v ddr4 3200

Here, we have performed a few benchmarks on a system to give you a general idea of how frequency affects FPS. Here, CAS Latency and sub timings were not changed. We just ran the test by varying the frequency.

The test system was similar to the above one. However, we disabled XMP to run the memory on 2666MHz. Once the test on 2666 transfer rate was done, we enabling XMP which boosted the frequency to 3200MHz.

Here is the specification of the test system.
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
  • GPU: AMD RX 6650 XT 8GB
  • SSD: Samsung Evo Plus 2TB
  • RAM: DDR4 16GB
  • OS: Windows 11 22H2

Since I just needed the FPS difference depending on RAM frequency, I ran all the tests on low settings on 1080p to avoid any bottleneck due to the CPU or the GPU, just like the above benchmark

DDR4 2666 CL 16-16-16-36DDR4 3200 CL 16-16-16-36
Cyberpunk 20771% low FPS6468
Avg FPS7884
GTA V1% low FPS6875
Avg FPS99115
Red Dead Redemption 21% low FPS5459
Avg FPS8095
Marvel’s Spiderman: Miles Morales1% low FPS5679
Avg FPS75105
God of War1% low FPS6578
Avg FPS97106
Marvel’s Spiderman1% low FPS6872
Avg FPS124125

The RAM with higher frequency gave slightly better FPS compared to the lower one. But, the difference in FPS is not very significant, and you probably cannot feel the difference unless you use an FPS counter.

Another reason that the differences were not significant could also be due to the frequency difference. If the comparison was between RAM running at 2133 MHz and 3600 MHz, the FPS between the two RAM types would probably deviate even more.

More RAM or Faster RAM for Gaming

16 gb or 32 gb ram

The benchmarks probably gave you a general idea of how speed and capacity affect the in-game FPS. So, which one should you choose? The answer depends on your total RAM usage or what type of games you play.

If you are certain that the system does not go beyond 16 GB RAM utilization, there is no point in installing 32GB RAM. Instead, I would opt for a faster 16GB RAM.

But, if you are certain that the games you play use more than 16GB, which will likely be the case in the near future, it is ideal that you choose 32GB RAM.

If the budget allows, I recommend going for a higher-capacity RAM with higher transfer rates. 

Final Thoughts

The FPS you get on games primarily depends on the CPU and GPU. So, if you are using a CPU and GPU that does not perform well, upgrading RAM will have little to no effect on FPS.

For instance, a Core I3 6th generation CPU with an integrated GPU and 8GB RAM will not give you much FPS boost, even if you upgrade capacity or frequency.

If you have a top-of-the-line CPU, say Ryzen 9 7950x paired with an AMD RX 7900 XTX and 8GB RAM, the RAM will bottleneck both components. Only in such cases RAM affects the FPS.

Talking about frequency, faster RAM does increase your average FPS as the CPU can access data much more quickly. But you may not be able to see much visual difference going from a lower frequency to a higher one.

technology explained
Deep Shrestha
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Deep Shrestha works as a computer hardware writer at TechNewsToday with several hardware and programming certifications. Although he has been writing technical content for more than a year, his interest in hardware components started at a very young age ever since he heard about PC building. Pursuing his passion, he has assembled several desktop computers. Besides building desktop PCs, Deep also has hands-on experience fixing software and hardware issues on laptops and desktop computers. Using all this knowledge and skills about computer hardware, he's on a quest to make content that's easy to read and understand for everyone. You can contact him at deep@technewstoday.com

Related Posts

motherboard chipset

Understanding Motherboard Chipset and Its Importance

September 20, 2023
best pattern to apply thermal paste

Best Thermal Paste Pattern: 5 Methods Tested

September 18, 2023
how-to-print-without-a-printer

How to Print Without a Printer

September 18, 2023
msi raid

How To Create A RAID Array On MSI Motherboard

September 17, 2023
printer-keeps-going-offline

How to Fix Your Printer That Keeps Going Offline

September 16, 2023
motherboard slots

Motherboard Slots and Sockets: Beginner’s Guide

September 20, 2023
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Latest Posts
how to turn off hardware acceleration

How to Turn Off Hardware Acceleration

September 22, 2023
motherboard chipset

Understanding Motherboard Chipset and Its Importance

September 20, 2023
Naval-Warfare-Games

Best Naval Warfare Games

September 18, 2023
You may also like
printer-not-printing

How to Fix a Printer That’s Not Printing

September 20, 2023
Share Location With Friends and Family

Share Location With Friends and Family (iPhone and Android)

September 18, 2023
how-to-print-without-a-printer

How to Print Without a Printer

September 18, 2023
Recommended
Cookie Clicker Garden Guide

Cookie Clicker Garden Guide to Unlocking Every Seed

September 26, 2021
monitor no signal

Computer Turns On But Monitor Says No Signal (9 Ways To Fix)

November 10, 2022
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Team
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Disclosure
© 2023 TechNewsToday, editor@technewstoday.com | Tech Central Pvt. Ltd.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.