RAM Speeds - What should I be aiming for

[SM Phoo]

Hey guys, like many others, building a new PC in a few months and I want to get it completely right.

One thing I've never paid much attention to is the latency side of things.

 

Been reading a bit but I can't fully get my head around it, but it seems speed still matters more than latency, but getting the best of both is obviously ideal. (According to a crucial article)

Anyway, I'd like to purchase the Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB and my options are:

3600 - 18 - 22 - 22 - 42

3200 - 16 - 18 - 18 - 36

3000 - 15 - 17 - 17 - 35

 

Now, considering all three kits are the same price. Is their much of a performance difference?

Reading reddit, I found a chart and basically all three resulted in a score of 10 (Not sure what the score meant, but they seemed to have identical performance going off that)

I'd hopefully like to use it with Zen 3 CPU when they're released

 

Thanks

[WereCat]

The higher the clock of the RAM, the higher the clock off the IF, that affects the performance the most. 

Then for every 1ns of latency you get about 0.5%-1% of performance improvement. 

 

IDK how much you care about RGB on RAM, but I highly recommend the Crucial kits as they can be OC'd fairly easily to high speeds. They are not as low latency as Samsung B-die but typically much cheaper and easier to get. 

I know that some of those Corsair kits use Micron E-die but I don't know which ones. 

[Cyracus]

the lower clocked ones may have binned lower, but latency on all 3 is identical. basic memory latency calculator https://notkyon.moe/ram-latency.htm

[svmlegacy]

7 minutes ago, SM Phoo said:

Hey guys, like many others, building a new PC in a few months and I want to get it completely right.

One thing I've never paid much attention to is the latency side of things.

 

Been reading a bit but I can't fully get my head around it, but it seems speed still matters more than latency, but getting the best of both is obviously ideal. (According to a crucial article)

Anyway, I'd like to purchase the Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB and my options are:

3600 - 18 - 22 - 22 - 42

3200 - 16 - 18 - 18 - 36

3000 - 15 - 17 - 17 - 35

 

Now, considering all three kits are the same price. Is their much of a performance difference?

Reading reddit, I found a chart and basically all three resulted in a score of 10 (Not sure what the score meant, but they seemed to have identical performance going off that)

I'd hopefully like to use it with Zen 3 CPU when they're released

 

Thanks

Well, first off, when it's reported with the speed as 18-22-22-42, it's actually talking about timings, not latency.

Latency is a measure of time in regards to actions... while the timings is the number of cycles it waits.

 

So 3600 CL 18 actually has less latency than 3000 CL 18, because the 18 cycles happen faster.

If they're all achieving the same latency, the higher speed is preferable across the board.

[SM Phoo]

4 minutes ago, WereCat said:

The higher the clock of the RAM, the higher the clock off the IF, that affects the performance the most. 

Then for every 1ns of latency you get about 0.5%-1% of performance improvement. 

 

IDK how much you care about RGB on RAM, but I highly recommend the Crucial kits as they can be OC'd fairly easily to high speeds. They are not as low latency as Samsung B-die but typically much cheaper and easier to get. 

I know that some of those Corsair kits use Micron E-die but I don't know which ones. 

Unfortunately I've been suckered in and do like that RAM, so as much as I want the best performance, I'll have to sacrifice some for the one I like.

4 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

the lower clocked ones may have binned lower, but latency on all 3 is identical. basic memory latency calculator https://notkyon.moe/ram-latency.htm

 

Thanks. That calculator gives me the exact same numbers as that reddit post. I think in this instance, getting the 3600 would be best.

 

4 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

Well, first off, when it's reported with the speed as 18-22-22-42, it's actually talking about timings, not latency.

Latency is a measure of time in regards to actions... while the timings is the number of cycles it waits.

 

So 3600 CL 18 actually has less latency than 3000 CL 18, because the 18 cycles happen faster.

If they're all achieving the same latency, the higher speed is preferable across the board.

Ok, thank you. So 3600 would be the one to go for. I thought as much, just wanted to be sure