DDR5 ram speed and latency - opinions?

[DarkEnergy]

I'm finally upgrading my computer from an FX 8350 to an i5 13600k. I'm trying to get a decent 32gb DDR5 ram kit for under $190 and can't decide if the ~$60 difference from 5600MHz CL36 to 6000MHz CL30 is worth it. 

From what I've read, CL timing might not matter much for DDR5 which tells me the 400MHz difference isn't worth the price increase but I'm not sure. 

 

I'm comparing this kit for $130

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YTTCQKT/ref=twister_B09PDMQTND?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

To this one for $190

https://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-RipJaws-288-Pin-CL30-40-40-96-F5-6000J3040F16GA2-RS5K/dp/B09Y16CDLG

 

The motherboard (haven't gotten yet, waiting to see if price drops) supports up to 6400MHz. 

I plan on keeping the computer for at least 10 years, next time I'll upgrade DDR7 will probably exist. 

I play at 1440p on a 144Hz monitor and GPU will be the bottleneck for quite a while (Radeon 5700). 

[Ryuikko]

That's a good price for 5600 ram, cl dosent play as much of a part in ddr5 so imo it's not worth it. I'd get the 130 usd kit 

[RONOTHAN##]

11 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

The motherboard (haven't gotten yet, waiting to see if price drops) supports up to 6400MHz. 

What board specifically? The advertised memory frequency is almost always wrong, sometimes it can support much higher frequencies than advertised (Z690 Unify X can run 7000MT/s or higher even though it only advertises 6800), while the Z690 Aorus Pro can struggle to hit 6000MT/s even though it's advertised to do 6200)

 

Anyway, I'd probably go for the 5600 kit, the speed difference between them is not really that large. Frequency is more important than timings, so a 6000 Cl40 kit will beat a 5600 CL36 kit but not by all that much. Besides, if you really do need the extra memory performance, bump the DRAM voltage to 1.35V and your motherboard willing should do 6200 Cl40 without too much of a fight. 

[Cyracus]

Since it's 5600 36-36-36-76 vs 6000 30-40-40-96, I'd go with the 5600 and OC it, as mentioned CL is only a small piece, and the other timings are roughly equivalent, I wouldn't expect a noticeable difference at xmp settings. I don't know anything about ddr5 ICs and what to look for though, so grain of salt and all.

[Jurrunio]

I'd go for the 6000MHz CL30 kit. It's $50 investment for the future. Ask people who bought 2666MHz CL16 kits back in early DDR4 days with X99 or Z170 and later upgraded to AM4 or LGA 1200, aren't their old memory kits kinda... unsatisfactory? Maybe 6000MHz CL30 isnt so fast 5+ years in the future, but 5600MHz CL36 will definitely be slow.

 

Oh and for OC, 5600 CL36 wouldnt go nearly as far. We only start getting kits around 6000MHz CL30 after Hynix A-die entered the market, so you can say that older DDR5 options simply couldn't reach this level.

[DarkEnergy]

15 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

What board specifically? The advertised memory frequency is almost always wrong, sometimes it can support much higher frequencies than advertised (Z690 Unify X can run 7000MT/s or higher even though it only advertises 6800), while the Z690 Aorus Pro can struggle to hit 6000MT/s even though it's advertised to do 6200)

 

Anyway, I'd probably go for the 5600 kit, the speed difference between them is not really that large. Frequency is more important than timings, so a 6000 Cl40 kit will beat a 5600 CL36 kit but not by all that much. Besides, if you really do need the extra memory performance, bump the DRAM voltage to 1.35V and your motherboard willing should do 6200 Cl40 without too much of a fight. 

Currently on mobile but it's the ASRock z690 phantom itx

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Oh and for OC, 5600 CL36 wouldnt go nearly as far. We only start getting kits around 6000MHz CL30 after Hynix A-die entered the market, so you can say that older DDR5 options simply couldn't reach this level.

5600 Cl36 is almost certainly Samsung B die, which does do 6400 CL36 fairly reliably, though can be M die. 6000 Cl30 is guaranteed M die, which does 7000 CL34 with little effort. A die is only really guaranteed to show up in the kits with XMPs around 7000MT/s, since M die is a bit harder on the memory controller to be able to hit those high speeds with XMP levels of reliability. 

 

Besides, if you want M die to overclock there are cheaper kits where it's guaranteed. Heck, eBay is an option, personally managed to pick myself up a kit of M die in a Corsair 5200MT/s bin that does do 7000 CL34-42-40-28 at 1.435V, guaranteed that by the version number, for only $130 brand new in the packaging. Sure you can end up with a locked PMIC, but you only really need higher than 1.435V when going for very tight primary timings, which really don't matter for daily operation. 

 

5 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

Currently on mobile but it's the ASRock z690 phantom itx

There isn't much info on that board for memory overclocking. It is an ITX board, so it should have pretty good memory support, though that's not always guaranteed. I'd be pretty comfortable with a higher speed kit on that board though, ASRock is usually decent at optimizing their ITX memory topology, but nothing is ever guaranteed with them. 

[DarkEnergy]

Ended up getting the Team 5600 kit. It was cheap and there's no guarantee I can go past the 6400MHz max mobo supported speed. If I can get this to 6000 it would be more than worth it.