Lowest latency DDR2 667 notebook memory? 4-4-4-12

Lowest I've found was 4-4-4-12.

Never been too keen on memory, but for gaming/overclocking and overall performance, lower is better, right?

Anything lower than 4-4-4-12 in DDR2 667 PC2 5300 (or 5400) 200 pin SO-DIMM?

That's a 2GB Dual Channel kit btw!

 

There is no benefit in having lower latency.

 

None? I have a hard time believing that. Is there was no advantage to lower or higher latencies, then there wouldn't be different ones manufactured.

- http://www.upgradememory.com/Computer_Memory_Glossary_W10.cfm

So if I'm looking to overclock, lower is better.

 

More like there is negligible benefit to having lower latency memory. If you're accessing a single bit on memory every time you call it, lower latency has a somewhat signficant improvement on performance. However, the vast majority of the time you'll be accessing more than one bit, in which case the benefit of lower latency becomes less and less, eventually becoming negligible. So, for example, if you access 32 bits at a time, the lower latency is only improving performance for the first bit. If it gives you 20% quicker performance for the first bit, it only gives you 0.625% quicker performance for the whole 32 bits.

What I'm not sure of is how often you'll access 1 bit, 4 bits, 16 bits, etc. from memory. I'd hazard a guess that 32 bits would be fairly common - being the length of an integer on 32-bit systems - but I'm sure it varies, and 32-bits may not be most common.

This is also why faster memory is generally more beneficial than lower latency memory. Even if the higher-MHz memory is slower for the first bit due to its higher latency, on average it will be considerably faster due to its higher clock speed.

Whether memory is even a bottleneck most of the time is debatable, and I don't know enough about it to say whether faster memory is something you should even be concerned about. I know that memory speed has been increasing slower than processor speed for a decade or two, but nevertheless you seldom hear faster memory as a recommended improvement.

 

That makes a little more sense than the last post, seeing as there's actually an explanation. Now moving on... overclocking software for my Asus F3Jm... the hunt begins!

 

It will feel faster, psychologically.

P.S. I don't have 4-4-4-12 RAM.

 

Yeah as the others have said its basically a worthless upgrade thats mostly there (i believe) to take money from people that want EVERYTHING to be the best, regardless of whether or not it actually makes a difference.

There is a round about way to get 3-3-3-9 timings though. If you use the HyperX 4-4-4-12 800mHz RAM from Kingston it will down clock itself to 667mHz and if your lucky your first down clocked latencies will be 3-3-3-9.

Its still not worth it...but if you absolutely HAD to have the best RAM currently available that would be the way to do it