Memory Speed in iMac

[AndiS.]

I just received 16 GB of Kingston RAM (DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 CL11), which I installed into my 2012 iMac (27/i5/680MX/Fusion).

The RAM works properly (checked with memtest), but I was wondering if the memory speed is something to take into consideration, as I got the following results with Geekbench 2 32 Bit:

8 GB Apple stock memory: Memory performance 7312 Memory bandwidth performance 7317
16 GB Kingston memory: Memory performance 7218 Memory bandwidth performance 7195

Would I be better off with faster memory or does it not make a difference, in games under Windows for example? I have no experience with Geekbench and no very little about memory speeds, just honestly wondering whether the 100 point difference is marginal and doesn't mean anything to real world performance, or whether it does make a difference

 

[Latino4Me]

I just received 16 GB of Kingston RAM (DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 CL11), which I installed into my 2012 iMac (27/i5/680MX/Fusion).

The RAM works properly (checked with memtest), but I was wondering if the memory speed is something to take into consideration, as I got the following results with Geekbench 2 32 Bit:

8 GB Apple stock memory: Memory performance 7312 Memory bandwidth performance 7317
16 GB Kingston memory: Memory performance 7218 Memory bandwidth performance 7195

Would I be better off with faster memory or does it not make a difference, in games under Windows for example? I have no experience with Geekbench and no very little about memory speeds, just honestly wondering whether the 100 point difference is marginal and doesn't mean anything to real world performance, or whether it does make a difference

I think it does. I bought Corsair Vengeance 4 of 8Gb sticks rated at CL10 and I got 7832 in memory performance using Geekbench

 

[AndiS.]

I think it does. I bought Corsair Vengeance 4 of 8Gb sticks rated at CL10 and I got 7832 in memory performance using Geekbench

I meant whether it will make a noticeable difference, but I guess not. I didn't notice any difference with boot, shutdown or any other speeds for that matter. Gaming and other benchmarks don't seem affected, at least not in a negative way, as I'm getting better 3Mark results etc. I had actually ordered the Corsair first, but cancelled the order when I read that people were randomly having problems with the memory, good that yours works. Btw, did you use Geekbench 2 in 64 or 32 Bit mode? The higher speed probably stems from the lower CAS latency I guess?

 

[vingi]

Did you use the Kingston KTA-MB1600/8G modules?
I have 4x8Gb of the above Kingston modules installed and my memory performance score is 7688 (link 32 bit Geekbench). Did you mix Apple with Kingston memory?

 

[Latino4Me]

I meant whether it will make a noticeable difference, but I guess not. I didn't notice any difference with boot, shutdown or any other speeds for that matter. Gaming and other benchmarks don't seem affected, at least not in a negative way, as I'm getting better 3Mark results etc. I had actually ordered the Corsair first, but cancelled the order when I read that people were randomly having problems with the memory, good that yours works. Btw, did you use Geekbench 2 in 64 or 32 Bit mode? The higher speed probably stems from the lower CAS latency I guess?

I used 32bit mode, don't want to pay to use the 64 bit. I don't think you would get a noticeable difference in the actual use. It's only the number game with the benchmarking. Better CAS latency gives my score a few hundred extra points. There are even faster chips: CL 9 latency - like Kinsgston hyper-x sticks but costs almost twice as much on Amazon and I didn't want to spend that much as I was also buying CD/DVD/Bluray burner.