Mhz or Cl?

[Rob636363]

I’am gonna build a pc and I don’t know if to get 3600MHz Cl18 or 3200MHz Cl16. They are at the same price and the cpu is 5600x. I saw some videos about this but it was for zen 2 and is the same for zen 3?

 

 

[Omar.B]

5 minutes ago, Rob636363 said:

I’am gonna build a pc and I don’t know if to get 3600MHz Cl18 or 3200MHz Cl16. They are at the same price and the cpu is 5600x. I saw some videos about this but it was for zen 2 and is the same for zen 3?

 

 

Go with 3600mhz with cl16 its better and not that much price difference like this one https://pcpartpicker.com/product/2TFKHx/crucial-ballistix-16-gb-2-x-8-gb-ddr4-3600-memory-bl2k8g36c16u4b

[Chris Pratt]

Clockspeed is more important than timings. 3600MHz CL18 is better than 3200MHz CL16, but 3600MHz CL16 is actually what you should be looking for. It can be had at or oddly sometimes even cheaper than the cost of 3600MHz CL18, so there's no real reason to go for CL18.

[Pixelfie]

Most 3200 sticks run fine at 3600 so I recommend the 3200.

[Beerzerker]

CL14 3200 sticks is the thing if needing to run it at 3200 period.
However most CL14 3200 sticks can run 3600 without issue, I have a set of G. Skill Flares that can with ease, stock timings too.

If you can find a set like that, go for it or at least a set with the better timings.

[freeagent]

Indeed, at this point I would be looking for 3200C14.. get it while you can, because once its gone, its gone..

[NelizMastr]

2 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

Clockspeed is more important than timings. 3600MHz CL18 is better than 3200MHz CL16

For bandwidth, yes, but that's not really a big issue anymore. The most important criterium for gaming is the overall latency.

[Chris Pratt]

22 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

For bandwidth, yes, but that's not really a big issue anymore. The most important criterium for gaming is the overall latency.

Yes, total latency matters, but that is composed from the clock cycle time (clockspeed) and the clock latency.  The total latency of 3600MHz CL18 is the same as than 3200MHz CL16, but you get better overall performance with 3600MHz, obviously because of the higher clockspeed. This is why I also said the better thing to get is 3600MHz CL16, which beats both, and doesn't really come at much if any additional cost.

 

[Mister Woof]

It depends. It would seem Ryzen systems are more affected by latency, whereas Intel systems are more affected by frequency. For a couple of reasons:

 

Frequency on Ryzen systems might be a not-starter because they tend to cap out at 1600-1800mhz, so you're effectively limited to 3600/3800 so aiming for better timings makes more sense since going more would decouple the memory and IF which results in performance losses.

 

Intel systems are more easily able to achieve higher frequency as their IMCs tend to be able to work with higher frequency memory. Additionally, they are (up until 11th gen anyway) default 1:1 system agent and memory frequency. Unlike Ryzen.