What frequency and latency is best performance value for DDR5?

[philmar]

I will do a new build with 32 GBs DDR5 RAM on a Z790 AORUS Elite (or Z790 UD AC) and i7 13700K. RAM budget is about max $200 but would be happy at $150 if performance at that price range is 95% of the $200 sticks.

I am a photographer, not a techie and want to do a build that will last 10 years like my last Gen 3 17 build. I am mystifed by RAM and its specs. As such I will NOT over clock the RAM. I want RAM that I can boost in the BIOS by enabling XMP. I MAY decide to undervolt it or do what ever everyone seems needs to be done to the RAM to decrease power without sacrificing much performance. I can explore that later but would like RAM that will support that. I will not overclock the CPU as it seems the CPU and motherboard essentially does that already and additional gains are not worth the bother for a noob like me.

There are plenty of 'Best Gaming RAM' articles on the web but I don't know if my usage differs and how it effects my choice. Photo-editing is RAM and CPU single core intensive. It is 2D pixel pushing not 3D gaming. I know the amount of RAM I need - 32 GB will be enough. It is what I have had since 2012. It is the type of RAM that bewilders me....varying speeds and latency numbers. I thought this might be something important for me to take in to account when I buy my 32 GBs.

If faster ram does very little for performance, considering the extra spending to make it work, then that is useful knowledge for me. My workstation PC values stability as well as performance.

 

[TylerD321]

This is the ram I would go with.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cnbTwP/gskill-flare-x5-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr5-6000-cl32-memory-f5-6000j3238f16gx2-fx5

[RONOTHAN##]

6 minutes ago, philmar said:

I MAY decide to undervolt it or do what ever everyone seems needs to be done to the RAM to decrease power without sacrificing much performance.

Dont bother, RAM draws at most 5w per stick. Undervolting RAM would save you maybe 0.1w at most. It's completely and utterly pointless to save no power. 

 

For what kit I'd get, just get the cheapest kit of 6400 CL32. That should run you ~$140 last I checked, and it's the fastest kit I'd reasonably expect the XMP to just work with. Plus it's usually where you start hitting diminishing returns. 

[rippy4500]

You can get some 6400-6600 cl32-34 ram.

 

I have something similar to this

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb/p/N82E16820374434

Its a good price for what it is.

[philmar]

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Dont bother, RAM draws at most 5w per stick. Undervolting RAM would save you maybe 0.1w at most. It's completely and utterly pointless to save no power. 

 

For what kit I'd get, just get the cheapest kit of 6400 CL32. That should run you ~$140 last I checked, and it's the fastest kit I'd reasonably expect the XMP to just work with. Plus it's usually where you start hitting diminishing returns. 

GREAT info - thanks so much for your time!

[philmar]

1 hour ago, rippy4500 said:

You can get some 6400-6600 cl32-34 ram.

 

I have something similar to this

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb/p/N82E16820374434

Its a good price for what it is.

Thanks for the suggestion - appreciate it immensely!

I'm a photographer, not a techie (though I am enjoying reading up on all this). I last did a build 11 years ago so I have spent about a month thus far learning about the new gens of component hardware....I didn't even know NVMe existed.

I just checked your PC specs..and see you have a Z790 Elite and i7 13700K. .I probably should have just copied it and been done with it - LOL....well except for the GPU. As a 2D photo editing rig (no video ro gaming) I won't need anything so beefy.

[rippy4500]

2 hours ago, philmar said:

Thanks for the suggestion - appreciate it immensely!

I'm a photographer, not a techie (though I am enjoying reading up on all this). I last did a build 11 years ago so I have spent about a month thus far learning about the new gens of component hardware....I didn't even know NVMe existed.

I just checked your PC specs..and see you have a Z790 Elite and i7 13700K. .I probably should have just copied it and been done with it - LOL....well except for the GPU. As a 2D photo editing rig (no video ro gaming) I won't need anything so beefy.

DDR5 can be kind of unreliable, 6800 xmp should work just fine at stock settings but anything higher than 7000 will require manual tweaking of voltages and things, even if the kit is rated for that speed.

 

If you dont overclock you can save money and get a B760 board, z790 is meant for lots of tweaking and overclocking.

2 hours ago, philmar said:

2D photo editing

You can probably just use the iGPU on the 13700k for that.

Edited March 19, 2023 by rippy4500

[philmar]

34 minutes ago, rippy4500 said:

DDR5 can be kind of unreliable, 6800 xmp should work just fine at stock settings but anything higher than 7000 will require manual tweaking of voltages and things, even if the kit is rated for that speed.

 

If you dont overclock you can save money and get a B760 board, z790 is meant for lots of tweaking and overclocking.

You can probably just use the iGPU on the 13700k for that.

Thanks...It's a matter of diminishing returns. I won't spend another $50 more to get an extra 3% performance. Just want to find the price/performance value sweet spot.

 I used the onboard graphics on my Gen 3 i7 for 6 years but had to get a RX 460 when I added a 2nd 1440p monitor. So I will at least try that initially.

I do use some Topaz AI programs for sharpening and noise reduction that benefit from GPU. I'll see what improvement I get from the new CPU onboard graphics first and decide if that boost was sufficient for me. If not I'll get a better discrete GPU...and I also need the DVI-D connection for my older NEC monitor which still runs great.

[rippy4500]

5 hours ago, philmar said:

Thanks...It's a matter of diminishing returns. I won't spend another $50 more to get an extra 3% performance. Just want to find the price/performance value sweet spot.

 I used the onboard graphics on my Gen 3 i7 for 6 years but had to get a RX 460 when I added a 2nd 1440p monitor. So I will at least try that initially.

I do use some Topaz AI programs for sharpening and noise reduction that benefit from GPU. I'll see what improvement I get from the new CPU onboard graphics first and decide if that boost was sufficient for me. If not I'll get a better discrete GPU...and I also need the DVI-D connection for my older NEC monitor which still runs great.

Use that rx 460 then, it should be better than the uhd 770 in the 13700k, assuming you use the right drivers.

 

You can just use a displayport or hdmi to dvi adapter for that old monitor. If you need dvi on the gpu for whatever reason then you may need an older gpu.

[philmar]

Thanks guys for your help. I saw some reasonably priced (for Canada - I may do some cross border online shopping instead) G.Skill sticks. Decided to go with the Ripjaws over the Trident Z5 as I will be air-cooling (clearance!) and I suspect it is the same RAM. One just has the fancy RGB lights that I don't need.

 

   Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($189.99 @ Canada Computers)

[Ebony Falcon]

9 minutes ago, philmar said:

Thanks guys for your help. I saw some reasonably priced (for Canada - I may do some cross border online shopping instead) G.Skill sticks. Decided to go with the Ripjaws over the Trident Z5 as I will be air-cooling (clearance!) and I suspect it is the same RAM. One just has the fancy RGB lights that I don't need.

 

   Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($189.99 @ Canada Computers)

Good choice mate