WHAT IS CAS LATENCY?
CAS stands for Column Access Strobe (conversely, RAS stands for Row Access Strobe) and CAS Latency is the amount of delay that you have to wait between the CAS signal and the data being pushed from the RAM pins. CAS2 latency essentially means we have a 2 cycle delay, and CAS3 has a 3 cycle delay: hence the lower the CAS, the lower the latency, and the better your performance.
CAS Latency (also referred to as latency) is the amount of time it takes for your memory to respond to a command. Specifically, it is the length of time between memory receiving a command to read data, and the first piece of data being output from memory. Latency is measured in terms of clock cycles and is often noted as CL2 (two clock cycles) or CL3 (three clock cycles).
CAS latency (also referred to as latency) is the amount of time it takes for your memory to respond to a command. Specifically, it is the length of time between memory receiving a command to read data, and the first piece of data being output from memory. Latency is measured in terms of clock cycles and is often noted as CL2 (two clock cycles) or CL3 (three clock cycles). PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CL2 AN CL3 CL2 parts process data a little quicker than CL3 parts in that you have to wait one less clock cycle for the initial data. However, after the first piece of data is processed, the rest of the data is processed at equal speeds. Latency only affects the initial burst of data. Once data starts flowing, there is no affect. Bear in mind, a clock cycle for a PC100 module is a 10 nanoseconds so you probably won t notice a significant performance difference. Most systems will accept either latency part. However, there are some systems that require either CL2 or CL3 parts.
