ram How much does RAM latency/speed affect gaming performance?

[PerryPeak]

Hello,
I am choosing parts for a new pc I am planning to buy in ~1 month (planning to go with a ryzen cpu) and there are ram configs I am thinking of buying - 3200mhz CL14, 3600mhz CL17 or 3200mhz CL16. The first two cost the same amount and the last one costs around 85 usd less. How much does it really affect fps in games and are the first two worth the 85 extra usd? Also I read that ram sticks with 3200mhz 14-14-14-34 are more stable because they are guarenteed to be something called Samsung B-Die, how much does that matter?

[DEM0N Assassin]

Well first question, what ryzen CPU do you have.

[Haro]

4 minutes ago, PerryPeak said:

3200mhz 14-14-14-34

These are most likely b die and will over clock pretty nicely especially with AMD's imc 

 

5 minutes ago, PerryPeak said:

3600mhz CL17 or 3200mhz CL16

In this case the 3600 will perform better but since the x16 3200 is 85 dollars less get the 3200 

With a mild Soc bump with the good FCLK that ryzen has

Getting to 3600 isn't hard 

[Haro]

6 minutes ago, PerryPeak said:

called Samsung B-Die, how much does that matter?

B die is a binned type of dram made by Samsung they have really low cas latency usually 16-16-16 or less and they overclock better

[PerryPeak]

2 minutes ago, DEM0N Assassin said:

what ryzen CPU do you have.

planning to buy the 3600X or 3600XT (depends if the XT will come out by then)
 

 

1 minute ago, TofuHaroto said:

will over clock pretty nicely

forgot to mention that I don't want to overclock because of warranty

[Haro]

Just now, PerryPeak said:

forgot to mention that I don't want to overclock because of warranty

What ?

Over clocking doesn't void warranty 

Either way get the cheaper kit it's better value 

The 3600 kit will get you 2-3 % more performance 

[DEM0N Assassin]

Just now, PerryPeak said:

planning to buy the 3600X or 3600XT (depends if the XT will come out by then)

From what I have researched, 2133 -> 2400 is around a 7-11 fps difference in intense load situations. 2400 -> 2933/3000 is also around 5-8 fps. Ram does matter, but it's not something to stress over. B-die chips are known to work very well with all ryzen cpus, so go ahead.

[PerryPeak]

3 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

Over clocking doesn't void warranty 

Does it not void warranty as long as they can prove the overclocking damaged it? (if it gets damaged)

 

1 minute ago, DEM0N Assassin said:

B-die chips are known to work very well with all ryzen cpus, so go ahead.

Is there a way to know if a stick is b-die other than seeing 3200mhz 14-14-14-34?

[Haro]

Just now, PerryPeak said:

Does it not void warranty as long as they can prove the overclocking damaged it? (if it gets damaged)

No they still cover it 

 

1 minute ago, PerryPeak said:

Is there a way to know if a stick is b-die other than seeing 3200mhz 14-14-14-34?

Anything that has cas latency above 16-16-16 is most likely not b die 

[kamiraasu]

There are no dramatic differences in fps so i personally would go with the cheaper 3200mhz CL16.
One fact is that higher the resolution you play on the less cpu and ram affects fps because it becomes gpu bottlenecked.
But even 1080p i dont think there is much point to hunt for the lowest cl 3600mhz ram for maxing out the infinity fabric.
There are alot of comparisons in youtube, i made my mind with all the results i found. Value in mind.

I have order in that contains 3700x and 3200mhz cl 16 among other parts
Not the maximum performance but im pretty sure i could not see the difference.
...Unless i took a look at my wallet after purchase ofcourse.

[PerryPeak]

8 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

Anything that has cas latency above 16-16-16 is most likely not b die 

 

2 minutes ago, kamiraasu said:

There are no dramatic differences in fps so i personally would go with the cheaper 3200mhz CL16

The 3200mhz cl16 is 16-20-20-38 so is having b die important or is it not worth the extra money?

[Haro]

Just now, PerryPeak said:

 

The 3200mhz cl16 is 16-20-20-38 so is having b die important or is it not worth the extra money?

For your case no it's not worth it 

You can oc it either way 

[porina]

22 minutes ago, PerryPeak said:

I am choosing parts for a new pc I am planning to buy in ~1 month (planning to go with a ryzen cpu) and there are ram configs I am thinking of buying - 3200mhz CL14, 3600mhz CL17 or 3200mhz CL16. The first two cost the same amount and the last one costs around 85 usd less. How much does it really affect fps in games and are the first two worth the 85 extra usd? Also I read that ram sticks with 3200mhz 14-14-14-34 are more stable because they are guarenteed to be something called Samsung B-Die, how much does that matter?

The short answer is "it's complicated" and some games may response more than others. You'll have to look at benchmarks others have done to see if it matters where you're most interested. Personally I'd be happy running the 3200C16 ram on such a system. With Zen 2 it is a little more complicated than the ram itself, since the Infinity Fabric by default is tied to ram speed. So faster ram results in faster IF, which might help too. I've not really seen a good conclusion if one or the other is more important, but you can manually set IF separately from ram now. All of this can be ignored if you're not seeking every last drop of performance possible.

 

If you do want the easy option to get the higher performance, I'd get the 3600C17. I would not consider the 3200C14 if you're not interested in overclocking. Ram overclocking is not trivial.

 

15 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

B die is a binned type of dram made by Samsung they have really low cas latency usually 16-16-16 or less and they overclock better

It is often used in high performance modules, and loved by ram overclockers. But I wouldn't seek it out specifically if you can reach your performance goals otherwise.

 

13 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

Over clocking doesn't void warranty 

Intel considers CPU clock adjustment as warranty voiding. I'm not 100% sure on AMD's position, but if you ever go into the CBS section of the bios, from memory the wording there pretty much says if you break something, don't go crying to Lisa Su. The EVGA link shown earlier at best will only apply to EVGA products, and the warranty they offer.

[Morgan MLGman]

20 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

What ?

Over clocking doesn't void warranty

Actually, some companies claim it does when you overclock their products. They actually explicitly say that in their terms of service.
This is why you should always play dumb when talking with the RMA service and be like: "What's overclocking?"
Intel and AMD both say that as far as I know. Even overclocking the RAM in theory voids your Intel warranty because the IMC gets stressed more than the specs say it should.

The thing is, there's no real way of checking if the damage was due to an overclock so just don't admit to doing that and you're covered.

[Haro]

1 minute ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Actually, some companies claim it does when you overclock their products. They actually explicitly say that in their terms of service.

Oh weird never knew about that lol

 

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

What's overclocking?

Never heard of it

[Morgan MLGman]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

 I'm not 100% sure on AMD's position, but if you ever go into the CBS section of the bios, from memory the wording there pretty much says if you break something, don't go crying to Lisa Su.

Here's a screenshot of what happens when you're trying to open AMD Ryzen Master utility:

It's the same for AMD and Intel pretty much.

[Haro]

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

It's the same for AMD and Intel pretty much

I was wondering 

Like damaging the imc is really hard unless you put the soc / vccio and vccsa to a stupid voltage and for the interconnect well if the FCLK can't handle it then either the overclock profile or the memory oc just goes away 

[kamiraasu]

As people are saying. b-die seems to oc better. So it seems to be good if you are seeking higher performance.
For the value i feel +85$ is not worth it. But that is only my opinion...that 3200mhz cl16 [might] oc too.
And over clocking really can void warranty (in some cases). Better look it up before oc just in case if you cant afford the risk.

[PerryPeak]

The 2 more expensive rams are from gskill and the other one is from corsair (there are also other 3200mhz cl16 but they range in prices, starting from the corsair one and ending at the cl14 one), do you know if they void warranty if you overclock?

[Morgan MLGman]

2 minutes ago, PerryPeak said:

do you know if they void warranty if you overclock?

There's no way for them to know that. Overclock settings aren't stored in RAM, so the part could've broken just as well because of a factory defect.

[kamiraasu]

I dont know about warranties, you have to look it up on their sites.
Other thing, make sure the ram you are picking is showing up on your motherboards qlv list.
Making sure it really works.

[PerryPeak]

3 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

There's no way for them to know that. Overclock settings aren't stored in RAM, so the part could've broken just as well because of a factory defect.

I just read that it only voids warranty if you push the voltage above the normal voltage on the corsair forums, not sure if it's also the case for gskill.

 

5 minutes ago, kamiraasu said:

Other thing, make sure the ram you are picking is showing up on your motherboards qlv list.
Making sure it really works.

Seems like the most of the rams I am looking at aren't listed there but I noticed it also says who made the chips so it can be useful

[Haro]

Just now, PerryPeak said:

Seems like the most of the rams I am looking at aren't listed there but I noticed it also says who made the chips so it can be useful

Zen 2 imc is good 

For the most part the QVL list is vague 

[PerryPeak]

1 minute ago, TofuHaroto said:

Zen 2 imc is good 

For the most part the QVL list is vague 

so do I not really need to worry if it's on the list or not?

[Haro]

1 minute ago, PerryPeak said:

so do I not really need to worry if it's on the list or not?

For the most part no you don't 

Mobo manufacturers can't test every single kit so the QVL list is usually vague and incorrect