32GB 3200CL16 or 3600CL18 for RyZen 5000 ?

[gh0st47]

As title said. No I have no other choice I don't live in the US / EU...
So we only can use what my country local importer bring in....unless buy them oversea and have to deal with possibly a dead RAM and face even more hassle dealing with RMA also not to mention may not even possible for a RMA.

So it's simple, I have a choice of 3200mhz CL16 / 3600 CL18. 
Which do you think it's better ? 
I most likely be getting the 5800X, for now I'm pairing with only a 2080 Super. But I may upgrade to least a 3080 in future. 
I'm gaming on 1440p as well. So I'm more GPU bound honestly. 

EDIT : Actually at the moment I already got a 16GB Kit @ 3200mhz CL16....I just feel like upgrading to higher capacity. 
Kinda stupid question, but RyZen 5000 is weird as itself anyways. I would see still see the same performance of a 16GB 3200 CL16 kit comparing over to a 32GB one right ? 

[Mateyyy]

Whichever you can get for cheaper.

[gh0st47]

4 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

Whichever you can get for cheaper.

Ok this is the weirdest part then. 

All of them are 32GB KIt
Corsair LPX Vengeance @ 3600 CL18 is same price as the Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB @ 32000 CL16
While the G.Skill Trident Z Neo @ 3600 CL18 is more expensive than the LPX Vengeance / Vengeance Pro RGB ( I think all t he retailer price hike this RAM since it's most popular ) 

Is it recommended to buy a 1X 16GB stick kit and just buy 2 of them to get a 32GB kit ? Because I heard people said it's not recommended to do this. 
As they said RAM are sold in kits for a reason, because they are tested together, so they guarantee there won't be any compatibly issue. 
 

[boggy77]

if you already have 2x8 3200C16, just get another 2x8 3200C16 set if you really need 32gb. that would be the cheapest and most logical way to upgrade

[gh0st47]

3 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

if you already have 2x8 3200C16, just get another 2x8 3200C16 set if you really need 32gb. that would be the cheapest and most logical way to upgrade

I guess that's true. 
Actually what I was wondering is....will a 3200 CL16 kit be faster over a 3800 CL18 ? 
Can't seem to find a specific benchmark / test for this....
I mean I guess you could tighten the timing on the CL18 kit. But I don't want to run into any stability issue. 

[boggy77]

1 minute ago, gh0st47 said:

I guess that's true. 
Actually what I was wondering is....will a 3200 CL16 kit be faster over a 3800 CL18 ? 
Can't seem to find a specific benchmark / test for this....
I mean I guess you could tighten the timing on the CL18 kit. But I don't want to run into any stability issue. 

the difference between 3200c16 and 3600c18 is insignificant.

[Mateyyy]

33 minutes ago, gh0st47 said:

Actually what I was wondering is....will a 3200 CL16 kit be faster over a 3800 CL18 ? 

I assume you mean 3600 CL18. 

3600 CL18 and 3200 CL16 result in the same access latency. The only thing the 3600 CL18 kit would have going for it is that you'd be running the FCLK on your CPU at a slightly higher speed, but the difference would be insignificant at best. 

 

Just get another 2x8GB 3200 CL16 kit to go with the one you're currently using. It'd be the most logical way to go about it in this case, if you ask me.

[gh0st47]

1 hour ago, Mateyyy said:

I assume you mean 3600 CL18. 

3600 CL18 and 3200 CL16 result in the same access latency. The only thing the 3600 CL18 kit would have going for it is that you'd be running the FCLK on your CPU at a slightly higher speed, but the difference would be insignificant at best. 

 

Just get another 2x8GB 3200 CL16 kit to go with the one you're currently using. It'd be the most logical way to go about it in this case, if you ask me.

One more concern I have. In theory even for Intel system, the more RAM is being populated ( regardless the total capacity ) the more difficult / unstable it will be. 
Basically having 2X 16GB Kit is easier to OC and more stable than a 4X 8GB Kit is that true ?? Especially on AMD platform. 
But lately there are so many video came out claiming that you actually gain more performance with 4X RAM sticks over 2X....

 

[Mateyyy]

2 minutes ago, gh0st47 said:

One more concern I have. In theory even for Intel system, the more RAM is being populated ( regardless the total capacity ) the more difficult / unstable it will be. 

Basically having 2X 16GB Kit is easier to OC and more stable than a 4X 8GB Kit is that true ?? Especially on AMD platform. 

I think you're misusing the word "stable". Your (in this case) memory can either be stable or unstable, that's it. The stability is determined by various factors, like memory voltage, memory timings, memory frequency, the CPU, and the motherboard.

 

Basically, more memory sticks and/or ranks will be harder on the IMC (memory controller), meaning that the more sticks and/or ranks of memory you have, the lower the frequency cap will be. For example, if the highest frequency you can get on 2x8GB is 5000MHz, then for 2x16GB or 4x8GB you'll be looking at something lower like 4600-4866MHz, though again, there are several factors that come into play here.

 

That being said, the loss in frequency isn't necessarily a bad thing, because, say going from 2x8GB to 2x16GB (though not always) or 4x8GB, you gain the benefit of memory interleaving because of running dual-rank memory, which more than makes up for the slight frequency deficit.

 

9 minutes ago, gh0st47 said:

But lately there are so many video came out claiming that you actually gain more performance with 4X RAM sticks over 2X....

This ties into what I last talked about. It's not about two or four sticks - it's about ranks.

 

Many 16GB memory sticks are dual-rank (visually you can tell that since the memory ICs will be double-sided, that is to say that there are ICs present on both sides of the memory stick). 

Pretty much all 8GB DDR4 memory sticks are single-rank. But, if you've got two single-rank sticks in a memory channel, you're getting the same benefit of memory interleaving as you'd get with a dual-rank stick.

Therefore, a 2x16GB configuration should perform about the same as a 4x8GB configuration, since they're both dual-rank (two ranks per channel).

 

 

This is probably... pretty confusing, and I maybe could've done a better job at explaining it in a simpler way but, oh well.

Buildzoid has got several, very informative videos on this topic. If you're interested, here's a couple I'd recommend checking out:

 

[gh0st47]

15 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

I think you're misusing the word "stable". Your (in this case) memory can either be stable or unstable, that's it. The stability is determined by various factors, like memory voltage, memory timings, memory frequency, the CPU, and the motherboard.

 

Basically, more memory sticks and/or ranks will be harder on the IMC (memory controller), meaning that the more sticks and/or ranks of memory you have, the lower the frequency cap will be. For example, if the highest frequency you can get on 2x8GB is 5000MHz, then for 2x16GB or 4x8GB you'll be looking at something lower like 4600-4866MHz, though again, there are several factors that come into play here.

 

That being said, the loss in frequency isn't necessarily a bad thing, because, say going from 2x8GB to 2x16GB (though not always) or 4x8GB, you gain the benefit of memory interleaving because of running dual-rank memory, which more than makes up for the slight frequency deficit.

 

This ties into what I last talked about. It's not about two or four sticks - it's about ranks.

 

Many 16GB memory sticks are dual-rank (visually you can tell that since the memory ICs will be double-sided, that is to say that there are ICs present on both sides of the memory stick). 

Pretty much all 8GB DDR4 memory sticks are single-rank. But, if you've got two single-rank sticks in a memory channel, you're getting the same benefit of memory interleaving as you'd get with a dual-rank stick.

Therefore, a 2x16GB configuration should perform about the same as a 4x8GB configuration, since they're both dual-rank (two ranks per channel).

 

 

This is probably... pretty confusing, and I maybe could've done a better job at explaining it in a simpler way but, oh well.

Buildzoid has got several, very informative videos on this topic. If you're interested, here's a couple I'd recommend checking out:

 

Welp...YOLO...I guess I will just get another same 16GB Kit (2X8GB) as my current one and hope for the best. 
Well I did get the first kit at a really good price...I think I only paid like 60$ USD for it. Sadly I can no longer find such low price anymore lol. 
Now a 16GB 3200mhz CL16 Corsair Vengeance LPX will cost me around 80$ USD....it's not that expensive but I guess still cheaper than buying another new 32GB Kit.