Why is lower speed memory more expensive?

[Joshcanread]

At my local pc store and basically the only good one which is PLE in Australia there is corsair vengeance 2x8 gb kit (2666mhz) for AUD$139 but it's sold out and the step up is the same kit rated at 2400mhz but its AUD$145 and then literally the same kit again for AUD$155. I think the difference is c14 and c16 but what does that mean? 

2666 2x8 -https://www.ple.com.au/Products/627643/Corsair-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-Vengeance-LPX-Ryzen-Black-C16-2666MHz

2400 2x8 c14-https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620610/Corsair-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-Vengeance-LPX-Black-C14-2400MHz

2400 2x8 c16-https://www.ple.com.au/Products/624743/Corsair-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-Vengeance-LPX-Black-C16-2400MHz

[Surreals]

2 minutes ago, Joshcanread said:

At my local pc store and basically the only good one which is PLE in Australia there is corsair vengeance 2x8 gb kit (2666mhz) for AUD$139 but it's sold out and the step up is the same kit rated at 2400mhz but its AUD$145 and then literally the same kit again for AUD$155. I think the difference is c14 and c16 but what does that mean? 

2666 2x8 -https://www.ple.com.au/Products/627643/Corsair-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-Vengeance-LPX-Ryzen-Black-C16-2666MHz

2400 2x8 c14-https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620610/Corsair-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-Vengeance-LPX-Black-C14-2400MHz

2400 2x8 c16-https://www.ple.com.au/Products/624743/Corsair-16GB-Kit-2x8GB-DDR4-Vengeance-LPX-Black-C16-2400MHz

This basically is the ram timings of the ram, the lower the timings the faster it would be in terms of signals been sent, cl14 is Samsung b die 

[chckovsky]

CL means CAS Latency which I belive stands for Column Access Strobe Latency. In general terms a kit with higher CL value will perform a little worse than a kit with a lower value, GIVEN the SAME frequency.

1 minute ago, Surreals said:

cl14 is Samsung b die 

That is not even close to accurate. 3200MHz CL14 is B-die (nothing else presently does that stock), yes, but 2400MHz CL 14 is very unlikely to be.

[Surreals]

2 minutes ago, chckovsky said:

CL means CAS Latency which I belive stands for Column Access Strobe Latency. In general terms a kit with higher CL value will perform a little worse than a kit with a lower value, GIVEN the SAME frequency.

That is not even close to accurate. 3200MHz CL14 is B-die (nothing else presently does that stock), yes, but 2400MHz CL 14 is very unlikely to be.

Yeah I miss read that he put 2400 I thought he asked what cl14 would genuinely mean and most cl14 is b die 

[chckovsky]

6 minutes ago, Surreals said:

Yeah I miss read that he put 2400 I thought he asked what cl14 would genuinely mean and most cl14 is b die  

Is it though? AFAIK only 3200MHz and a very few 3000MHz CL14 kits are (supposedly) B-die:

 

https://benzhaomin.github.io/bdiefinder/
 

But then again, brands are free to use any memory modules that can hit the advertised speeds, which is why 3200MHz is safe because basically ONLY B-die can hit that safely at CL14 1.35V.

[mariushm]

Pricing is sometimes not related to performance.

 

2400 Mhz memory is in lower demand than 2666 or 3000 or 3200 memory sticks so it may be sold in lower volume and it may be imported in lower volume.

 

The manufacturing process of memory has also improved so much that it's basically really hard NOT to make memory that can do 2666 Mhz or 2933 Mhz so these 2400 Mhz memories are either made with chips that couldn't pass 2666 Mhz tests, or they're perfectly good chips configured to run at lower frequencies.

The ram manufacturer probably has razor thin profit margins on such sticks, probably making them just to move the shitty chips they end up with after binning all chips and using those in better sticks (ex. a manufacturer like Adata or Geil or Corsair buys 1 million chips rated for 2666 Mhz and bins them in 3-5 "speed grades" and probably 1-5% end up being shittier than 2666 Mhz)

 

2666 Mhz CL16 is kind of standard... 2400 Mhz CL14 kind of matches with stick having 2666 Mhz CL16 chips configured to run at 2400 Mhz just to have another SKU (stock keeping unit)

 

Here's a scenario... not saying this is the reason but it could be. And numbers are out of my ass.

 

Distributor imports 10k 2400 Mhz sticks when the price is 50$ per stick in volume, and 10k 3000 Mhz sticks at 60$ each and they distribute them to stores.

2-3 months later, the prices for memory drop significantly due to various reasons and it coincides with the moment for distributor to refill their stocks.

They may still have 2-3k of 2400 Mhz spread all over the country in stores, not yet sold, but the 10k 3000 Mhz are basically all sold.

So seeing the 2400 mhz don't move, distributor orders only 2-5k 2400 Mhz now at let's say 40$ per stick (cheaper due to cheaper prices, but not as cheap as if they would have bought 10k+ pieces) and they order 10-25k 3000 Mhz pieces at the cheaper price of 45$ each (down from 60$) because they know they move fast.

 

So stores will still have the old 2400 Mhz sticks at 50$ + distributor profit % + shop profit , and the stores also get the 3000 Mhz sticks at the new 45$ + distributor profit + shop profit ... your old 2400 mhz sticks are now more expensive unless distributor and store and manufacturer agree to take a loss and decrease their cut to move the merchandise