3600 cl16 vs 3200 cl14

[NuKeRGG]

Hello! I've been searching about these RAMs a lot.. but I still didn't find the answer I want.. People usually talk about getting 16GB (2x8) 3600MHz 16-16-16-36 or 16GB (2x8) 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 ... And well, i've seen answers saying that 3600MHz is faster, others saying is mostly identical and others saying 3200 is faster..

And well, if we calculate ram latency...

3600 CL16 - 8.88 ns

3200 CL14 - 8.75 ns

So technically 3200 has less latency.. But I saw someone say that even tho that's true.. having 3600mhz will be better anyway and will compensate for that minor latency difference between both.. So.. After all that, I assumed 3600 cl16 would be the best bet.. But that's considering the default values.. because there's XMP profiles/overclocking.. and from what i've seen.. you can easily turn a 3200 CL 14 into a 3600 CL 16... So.. considering 3200 is way cheaper then 3600.. Wouldn't it be better to just buy the 3200 CL 14-14-14-34 and turn it to 3600 CL 16-16-16-36?? Wouldn't that be a better choice? Or is there something I'm missing? And i'm not intending to go further then 3600mhz anyway..

Thanks for your help!

 

PS: CPU is a Ryzen 5 3600x and motherboard is MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, NuKeRGG said:

Hello! I've been searching about these RAMs a lot.. but I still didn't find the answer I want.. People usually talk about getting 16GB (2x8) 3600MHz 16-16-16-36 or 16GB (2x8) 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 ... And well, i've seen answers saying that 3600MHz is faster, others saying is mostly identical and others saying 3200 is faster..

And well, if we calculate ram latency...

3600 CL16 - 8.88 ns

3200 CL14 - 8.75 ns

So technically 3200 has less latency.. But I saw someone say that even tho that's true.. having 3600mhz will be better anyway.. So.. After all that, I assumed 3600 cl16 would be the best bet.. But that's considering the default values.. because there's XMP profiles/overclocking.. and from what i've seen.. you can easily turn a 3200 CL 14 into a 3600 CL 16... So.. considering 3200 is way cheaper then 3600.. Wouldn't it be better to just buy the 3200 CL 14-14-14-34 and turn it to 3600 CL 16-16-16-36?? Wouldn't that be a better choice? Or is there something I'm missing? And i'm not intending to go further then 3600mhz anyway..

Thanks for your help!

Get the 3200 CL14. It's cheaper and can easily be turned into the more expensive version.

[NuKeRGG]

5 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Get the 3200 CL14. It's cheaper and can easily be turned into the more expensive version.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking, that's why it confuses me why many people say it's better to get the 3600mhz cl16.. But I assume that's only true if you want to overclock further then 3600mhz etc right? since the 3600 will probably be easier to go further then the 3200mhz?

[GoodEnough]

1 minute ago, NuKeRGG said:

But I assume that's only true if you want to overclock further then 3600mhz etc right?

a lot of ram kits will refuse to go higher than their rated speeds, its a lot easier to get a kit that you KNOW will be able to get to 3600 than a kit that has the possibility of reaching that frequency. (more often than not a 3200 kit will not be able to do 3600 with decent timings lol)

[NuKeRGG]

10 minutes ago, GoodEnough said:

a lot of ram kits will refuse to go higher than their rated speeds, its a lot easier to get a kit that you KNOW will be able to get to 3600 than a kit that has the possibility of reaching that frequency. (more often than not a 3200 kit will not be able to do 3600 with decent timings lol)

well I understand that, but when it comes specifically to G.Skill Trident Z - F4-3200C14D-16GTZ , i've seen A LOT of answers saying that ram is basically the same exact ram as the F4-3600C16D-16GTZ and that either version can come the other, like turn the 3600 cl16 into 3200 cl14 and vice-versa without any problem at all. People even say they are the exact same ram stick, the only difference being they come with different default values lmao (not sure if its true.. but a lot of people said something similar).. And even ragnarok also asnwered that too already here, well not the specific ram, but he also stated the 3200 can easily get to the 3600 with same timings etc.. (but usually that only seems to be true with that specific ram stick) but that's also what I want to really confirm.. so.. idk..

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

33 minutes ago, NuKeRGG said:

it confuses me why many people say it's better to get the 3600mhz cl16.

For most people it's the better option, because most people are incapable or unwilling to manually tune their RAM. Many people never even enable XMP, and end up running their RAM at 2400Mhz even though they spent extra for 3200Mhz or 3600Mhz etc.

 

Personally, I run my 3200Mhz CL14 kit at 4000Mhz CL16. Still, it's almost always best to recommend something with the best settings out of the box, even if it costs a bit more, because most people aren't going to bother to tune it.

[NuKeRGG]

1 minute ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

For most people it's the better option, because most people are incapable or unwilling to manually tune their RAM. Many people never even enable XMP, and end up running their RAM at 2400Mhz even though they spent extra for 3200Mhz or 3600Mhz etc.

 

Personally, I run my 3200Mhz CL14 kit at 4000Mhz CL16. Still, it's almost always best to recommend something with the best settings out of the box, even if it costs a bit more, because most people aren't going to bother to tune it.

Hmm yeah that makes sense.. so basically, if I'm willing to manually tune my ram, I should go for the 3200 cl14 kit right? its way cheaper and can easily get to the values of the 3600 etc right? and apparently 4000 lmao

[illegalwater]

On Ryzen, 3600 CL16 is better than 3200 CL14 because it lets you run the Infinity Fabric clock higher in 1:1 mode, which offsets the minor increase in RAM latency.

 

As for which kit you should get, it comes down to price. I wouldn't pay more than $20 extra. It's nice to have that guarantee that it'll run at 3600 CL16, but honestly 3200 CL14 is a good bin and I'd be shocked if you had any trouble getting it to run at 3600 CL16.