More computer parts questions

[RedWardancer]

Getting my tax returns and the stimulus checks in.  Looking into a gaming PC.  From what I have seen on the Dell website (booo!), there are three different types of memory cards based on these values: 2933MHz, 3200Mhz, and 3400MHz.  What is the major difference between them?  Is going from 2933 to 3200 a major jump in performance?  Actually, my question is what does MHz do for the memory?  I know that the more GBs, the more "jobs" the memory can do (8GB, 16GB, etc).  

[Ssnake]

While the difference in memory bandwidth is measurable, I doubt that you'll feel the difference. Faster is better if you can get it, but if it comes at a significant price hike, I'd pass. The number of cases where memory bandwidth is the bottleneck in a time-consuming process should rank somewhere between minimal and non-existent for anyone not in the number crunching business where a lot of data are held in RAM and need to be transferred to the CPU and back.

[stormrider_sp]

13 hours ago, RedWardancer said:

Getting my tax returns and the stimulus checks in.  Looking into a gaming PC.  From what I have seen on the Dell website (booo!), there are three different types of memory cards based on these values: 2933MHz, 3200Mhz, and 3400MHz.  What is the major difference between them?  Is going from 2933 to 3200 a major jump in performance?  Actually, my question is what does MHz do for the memory?  I know that the more GBs, the more "jobs" the memory can do (8GB, 16GB, etc).  

The memory clock in one of several factors that result in performance. One of the other characteristics to consider is the memory latency. For example, a memory that 3600mhz and CAS 17, has about the same performance index as a 3000mhz CAS 15. Some applications benefit from higher clocks while others from lower latency.

Now to answer your question, well, it depends. AMD Ryzen CPUs specially after and including zen2 gen, usually benefit from faster memory. The end result or raison d´être is always the same: better frame-rates and lower frame-times.

 

https://www.crucial.com/articles/about-memory/difference-between-speed-and-latency

[Ssnake]

Generally however, I think that lower latencies are more beneficial than higher bandwidth. High memory bandwidth is something that helps especially integrated graphics that use system RAM for video memory. But integrated graphics are generally not great for performance anyway, so if you absolutely want to shoot for the best possible performance, pick the memory modules that require the fewest cycles to perform an access.

But we're talking about an optimization potential, when all the cards are down, of maybe 5% framerate increase between an "average" and the best in class memory module.