Is CAS Latency a HUGE factor in performance?
Memory timings in general account for a performance difference. The proper memory timings can result in as much as a 2-4% difference in application performance, but CAS settings alone will probably only account for an even smaller performance increase. CAS is not always an important factor either: different applications will have different memory requirements and CAS only comes into play at one stage of the memory access: you still have to worry about the RAS-to-CAS delay. Also, your CAS will only be effective for memory intensive situations or situations where memory is accessed a lot. In consideration for whether you should choose CAS2 or CAS3 DRAM, I’d suggest going for CAS2 whenever possible (ie: when the cost is about the same). The performance difference is not huge but it’s still there. Also, even if you have RAM that’s not rated for CAS2 operation, you *might* be able to try it out. We’ve known many cases where CAS can often be tweaked a little with no ill effects. Always check
