G.Skill Trident Z 3200 CL16 - B-Die common?

[Neopreemsubmarine]

Hi there,

 

I bought a set of RAM which had to be returned due to a fault. The shop sent an exact replacement but the replacement has different chips, they have Samsung B-die when the set that was returned were E-die. The kit I am talking about is G.Skill Trident Z 16GB Kit DDR4 3200MHz (CL16-18-18-38) F4-3200C16D-16GTZB

 

I have been reading that B-die are the best for stability and for over-clocking but I have also read that only sets with very tight timings have B-die, such as G.Skill Trident Z CL14 whereas G.Skill Trident Z CL16 wont use B-die. I have also used the B-die finder on-line tool and F4-3200C16D-16GTZB is not listed. There is also a thread titled "Clearing up any Samsung B-Die confusion (e.g. on G.Skill Flare X 3200 MHz CL14)" and its not listed there either to having B-die.

 

I am not complaining just wondered if this specific kit (F4-3200C16D-16GTZB) does commonly have B-die ? This was a relatively cheap set and to get a set that has guaranteed B-die, such as the CL15 or CL14, costs 2x and even 3x as much, which I was considering recently.

 

I attached a screen shop of Thaiphoon Burner with the details.

 

Thanks for looking!

[Jurrunio]

Thaipoon burner do not always read them correctly, someone apparently found Hynix CJR when it reports Samsung B-die, or Hynix AFR when it says Samsung D-die. You have to take the heatsink off to be sure.

 

It is true that Samsung B-die is not found in 3200 16-18-18-38 bins, or rather those that carry its famed potential. There are garbage B-die that perform much like good Hynix AFR for example, where they struggle to go past 3333MHz with tight timings. The chance of finding good B-die from cheaper kits of larger, more famous brands like G.skill is even lower than smaller brands like Team group or Patriot because they have the resources to do better binning to make sure even less decent dies flow to lower rated kits. For example, you can see many people claiming 3600MHz to be the sweet spot memory frequency for Zen 2 CPUs, as a result Corsair has made a new 3600MHz bin to hopefully get more people from 3200MHz to 3600MHz. Back then their worst bin is 18-22-22-42, the new bin is 20-23-23-43 which is even worse... In the past these dies could very well end up in 3000MHz 16-18-18-38 kits along with those that refuse to go higher in frequency no matter what. So yeah, that's how far they would go just to earn some more $$$.

[Beerzerker]

The sets I'm running in this build are B-Die. ( G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) AMD X370 / B350 Memory (Desktop Memory) Model F4-3200C14D-16GFX - Newegg.com )

 

These have the tighter CL14 timings but from what I've experienced so far they don't like clocking up very high. The kits I do have that goes up high are these ( G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Intel Z170 / Z270 / Z370 / X299 Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C16D-16GTZSW - Newegg.com ) and this is what I got them to do earlier: https://valid.x86.fr/qlqvez

Clearly the better bin of B-Die was used in these.

 

The other sticks here ( G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin RGB DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C16D-16GTRS - Newegg.com ) are B-Die as well..... Then again these (  G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C16D-16GTRSC - Newegg.com ) either aren't B-Die period or really bad B-Die was used for these.

 

Look at the differences in the specs between the two sets and you'll see them.

 

The ones I clocked up high were Trident Z's and are B-Die but the Better set of Royals shown are a good alternative to the Tridents if you don't see them in stock where you shop. The Flares themselves are good sticks too, just don't expect alot of speed past stock from them but if you get it, that's great.

[Neopreemsubmarine]

So best case scenario Thaiphoon is reading wrong or the kit has crap quality B-die, didn't know manufacturers did that. I have not messed around timing/settings but they do work as intended, at default speed (2133Mhz) and their advertised speed with XMP enabled (3200Mhz), I tested both speeds with memtest86 and no errors were found in both tests. The kit does have a lifetime warranty so if they do fail, possibly due to poor quality chips, they will be replaced, I hope.

 

The kit in you link Beerzerker, that is almost the same kit I am returning but the 3200Mhz version. A bit of a long story but I built my PC over Xmas and I saw this kit going very cheap, I paid about £70 (GBP) https://www.ebuyer.com/772381-g-skill-trident-z-16gb-kit-ddr4-3200mhz-ram-f4-3200c16d-16gtzb

 

I checked the MSI Tomahawk Max QVL and the CL16 were not listed (F4-3200C16D-16GTZB) but bought them any way as the CL14 version (F4-3200C14D-16GTZKW) was on the QVL so I thought there was a very good chance they would work. They arrived and installed with no problem but then a couple of weeks later, in January, I had a BSOD with a "Memory Management Error". As I already knew they were no officially supported, I tested them with Memtest86, each time I ran a 3 hour test, 1 hour in to the test errors were found, 7-9 in total after each 3 hours test. I ran the test again 2-3 times and every time errors were found so I assumed they caused the crash and had errors due to compatibly so I returned them to the shop, they sent me a new kit but the exact same kit as that was all they would do but I knew they would not work as they were not on the QVL. While I waited for the replacement to arrive, I checked the MSI Tomahwk Max QVL to find the nearest kit that was official listed and the kit listed was the kit in your link but the 3200Mhz version; https://www.amazon.co.uk/3200-16-GB-DDR4-3200-MHz-Memory-288-pin-Heatsink/dp/B01HQDGSUE/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvp?cv_ct_cx=F4-3200C14D-16GTZsw&keywords=F4-3200C14D-16GTZsw&pd_rd_i=B01HQDGSUE&pd_rd_r=16cbf441-99bc-4ae3-a072-408f2bf33d92&pd_rd_w=BfVIG&pd_rd_wg=Eqm06&pf_rd_p=7dc56c0d-8a5f-4d97-9143-7233b106859a&pf_rd_r=S3JA3WQFWCH00SJFH9B7&psc=1&qid=1581859598&s=computers&sr=1-4-718396de-69ac-46a0-9195-9669ab0086b2

 

So F4-3200C14D-16GTZKW kit arrived and fitted with no issues, ran memtest86 a few times and no errors at all and they have B-die chips, however, the price difference is shocking, nearly £100 ! I was OK with this as that was the cost to get kit that was on the QVL but now this CL16 replacement arrived from the shop and I though I would test them to see if they had errors too, tested at default speed 2133Mhz and with XMP enabled (3200Mhz), tested 3 times and not a single error. The set returned were probably faulty  after all, although likely did not cause the crash ( that was driver issue) and they also have B-die chips, albeit substandard quality but may also be the reason why they are now compatible as the returned set had E-die but not sure of this theory.

 

So now I am tempted to return the very expensive CL14 version (F4-3200C14D-16GTZKW) as my only comfort was that the expensive kit had B-die and were compatible but this much cheaper kit has B-die and are also compatible, although not officially listed and the only difference is colour and CL14 compared to CL16, the CL16 cost about £70 (bargain I thought) while the CL14 cost over £160 ! Is there any reason to use CL14 ? I have read Ryzen 2600X benefits from B-die and faster kits  but the cheaper kit isn't exactly slow, they are both very fast.