Ram question : 2666 VS 3000

[JayzSub]

I do light video editing and photo editing, and little gaming. Right now I don't do streams (not yet authorized by principal) but I plan to do after I've been approved.

Will using 2666 ram affect the system if I start streaming? 

2666 VS 3000 mhz $30 diffrence, is it still worth getting the 3000 mhz? 

 

My planned editor's build : 

CoolerMaster NR400 

Ryzen R7 1700 

Reference cooler 

Msi b450m mortar 

G.skill Trident Z 2666mhrz cl16 16gb 

Powercolor rx Vega 56 8gb 

Crucial mx500 500gb m.2 ssd

Seagate barracuda 1tb hdd 2.5 inch

Seagate ironwolf 10 gb hdd

CoolerMaster MWE gold 650w 80+ gold

[Skiiwee29]

For Ryzen, 3000 is the sweet spot to feed that Affinity link between the CCX's. You likely can overclock the 2666 up to 2933 or 3000 with some patience and trial & error. For ease of things, I think its worth the 30$ extra myself. 

[DrMacintosh]

The performance difference from 2666 to 3000 is not worth $30. Save your money and use it to do literally anything else. 

[Stormseeker9]

1 hour ago, JayzSub said:

 

2666 VS 3000 mhz $30 diffrence, is it still worth getting the 3000 mhz? 

 

 

Personally I would.

[porina]

If you can comfortably afford the faster ram, go for it. If things are tight, don't worry about it. I'd rate it as nice to have but not essential.

[trevb0t]

@Tristerin did we do any tests between 2666 and 3000? Or 2666 and 3200 for that matter?

 

This guy has been running some interesting tests regarding RAM speeds on the 2700. 

The difference between 2133 and 3200 is massive in most games. (literally unplayable at 2133 in some instances and highly stable with 3200.)

But 2666 is a grey zone.

 

Most B450 MOBOs list 2666 as the natural ceiling for Ryzen before the RAM is considered OCed.

This doesn't mean anything is wrong with faster memory (it's distinctly better.) But I am pretty interested to see what those differences might look like. It may look like 10% improvements between 2666 and 3000. It's not actually far fetched based on what we've seen.

 

Also if the 2666 has a really nice CAS latency at the lower clock, that might equate to great performance... Who knows. But 16 is pretty average. 3000mhz with 16cl isn't hard to find for a good price.

[Tristerin]

15 minutes ago, trevb0t said:

@Tristerin did we do any tests between 2666 and 3000? Or 2666 and 3200 for that matter?

 

This guy has been running some interesting tests regarding RAM speeds on the 2700. 

The difference between 2133 and 3200 is massive in most games. (literally unplayable at 2133 in some instances and highly stable with 3200.)

But 2666 is a grey zone.

 

Most B450 MOBOs list 2666 as the natural ceiling for Ryzen before the RAM is considered OCed.

This doesn't mean anything is wrong with faster memory (it's distinctly better.) But I am pretty interested to see what those differences might look like. It may look like 10% improvements between 2666 and 3000. It's not actually far fetched based on what we've seen.

 

Also if the 2666 has a really nice CAS latency at the lower clock, that might equate to great performance... Who knows. But 16 is pretty average. 3000mhz with 16cl isn't hard to find for a good price.

 

7 hours ago, JayzSub said:

I do light video editing and photo editing, and little gaming. Right now I don't do streams (not yet authorized by principal) but I plan to do after I've been approved.

Will using 2666 ram affect the system if I start streaming? 

2666 VS 3000 mhz $30 diffrence, is it still worth getting the 3000 mhz? 

 

My planned editor's build : 

CoolerMaster NR400 

Ryzen R7 1700 

Reference cooler 

Msi b450m mortar 

G.skill Trident Z 2666mhrz cl16 16gb 

Powercolor rx Vega 56 8gb 

Crucial mx500 500gb m.2 ssd

Seagate barracuda 1tb hdd 2.5 inch

Seagate ironwolf 10 gb hdd

CoolerMaster MWE gold 650w 80+ gold

 

We have no "intentional" tests yet between 2666mhz and 3200mhz atm other than when a game will not run at 3200mhz and I downclock to go ahead and get it to run without crashing.  I will easily assume there is a about half the delta between 2666mhz and 3200mhz RAM that we have seen at 2133mhz and 3200mhz - because on the side Im working on OCing my 2133mhz ram kit (CL14) and haven't posted results yet.  At 2666mhz CL18  -18-18 result in increased gains in synthetic benchmarks, and smoother low end FPS on my Ryzen 2 rig. 

 

Ryzen Zen = max official supported is 2667mhz anything other than that is silicone - and I can attest to this, my test rig (Ryzen Rig 1) for most of our testing (gaming specific here as all synthetic benchmarks have accepted the RAM at any frequency) - some games will crash at 3200mhz (right now its only Outward and Ring of Elysium, Battlefield 5 patched and...the difference between 2133mhz and 3200mhz is not even measurable at Maxed out settings...you cant play with 2133mhz ram maxed out on my Ryzen Rig 1 until you put in the 3200mhz kit - then its 60 fps smooth butter at 1440p)

Ryzen Zen+ = max official supported is 2933mhz (just putting the info out there)

 

What I HAVE found out doing the 2133mhz CL14 vs 2666mhz CL18 is that the faster Frequency easily beats out the Cas Latency.  Ryzen Rig 2 in sig posted a 2002 Heaven Score at Extreme Presets, bumped to 2666mhz CL18 (loose timings to get it to post) and scored 2038 repeatedly (so not margin of error) - I am positive tightening those timings when I have time will result in even better gains, but Frequency plays the largest role for Zen imho.

EDIT - my lowest FPS increased by 4 FPS as well with higher frequency and hooker timings

 

@OP - There is a difference, software you are running dependent - but my advice is absolutely with Ryzen - if you are building a rig now, get the fastest frequency you can.  You can always downclock for stability if a program just WONT play nice with 3200mhz or more (plus you can always work on the timings till it all works out, Im not super versed in this portion still learning myself).

The only reason I own a 2133mhz kit is back in 2017 you had to pay a mortgage for a 16gb kit and frequency delta vs price delta was huge.

[trevb0t]

1 hour ago, Tristerin said:

@OP - There is a difference, software you are running dependent - but my advice is absolutely with Ryzen - if you are building a rig now, get the fastest frequency you can.  You can always downclock for stability if a program just WONT play nice with 3200mhz or more (plus you can always work on the timings till it all works out, Im not super versed in this portion still learning myself).

The only reason I own a 2133mhz kit is back in 2017 you had to pay a mortgage for a 16gb kit and frequency delta vs price delta was huge.

I agree. That $30 isn't going to make any massive performance boosts anywhere else in the build. If it needs to come from somewhere, the mortar could easily jump down to a B450M Bazooka right now for a good savings.

[Tristerin]

2 minutes ago, trevb0t said:

That $30 isn't going to make any massive performance boosts anywhere else in the build. If it needs to come from somewhere, the mortar could easily jump down to a B450M Bazooka right now for a good savings.

Great point

[porina]

1 hour ago, Tristerin said:

We have no "intentional" tests yet between 2666mhz and 3200mhz atm other than when a game will not run at 3200mhz and I downclock to go ahead and get it to run without crashing.

Is there a thread for this testing? I'm curious about the instability at 3200 you mention. 

[Tristerin]

Just now, porina said:

Is there a thread for this testing? I'm curious about the instability at 3200 you mention. 

Ill tag you on our wall post we have going, feel free to peruse and join us.  Its an ongoing effort where I try to do some testing on the weekends between titles and settings (maxed out AA etc) right now we are only using the Ryzen Rig (1) in my sig as the baseline for everything.  Its pushing a Acer 1440p 144hz monitor etc - you will read all of that on the thread

 

Basically I have a lot going on, but really am enjoying this process.  Its not expeditious (results) but when I can I spend an hour or two checking diff titles swapping out kits. 

 

The next step we have is a forum user here is advising me how to tighten my timings on my 3200mhz kit so we can test 3200mhz CL16 vs 3200mhz CL14 etc to compare.

[Tristerin]

@porina specifically (so all on the thread can read) Battlefield 5 (Ryzen Rig (1) ) with the 2133mhz CL14 kit at all settings maxed out on an Acer 1440p 144hz monitor - would run between like 7 FPS and insane dips and rises.  Slap in the 3200mhz CL16 kit - 60 FPS butter. (EDIT - should specify - ONLINE play, have two tests going on for BF5, online play was horrid with 2133mhz)

 

But originally (two months or so ago) BF5 would crash anytime I tried to run at 3200mhz, had to downclock to 2667mhz to get it to play.  Now its stable after some updates on their end.

 

Right now its Outward, and Ring of Elysium that will not play nice (of the titles I test) @ 3200mhz atm

[JayzSub]

1 hour ago, trevb0t said:

I agree. That $30 isn't going to make any massive performance boosts anywhere else in the build. If it needs to come from somewhere, the mortar could easily jump down to a B450M Bazooka right now for a good savings.

 

1 hour ago, Tristerin said:

Great point

Thanks guys

[trevb0t]

I must ask: What is that 10GB HDD doing? Lol

That may be sucking up more power and making more noise than it's worth