Does advertised RAM frequency/timing matter?

[Yoshimitsu]

I was wondering if I am anyway going to use AMD EXPO to OC my ram is there any point in buying DDR5 6000 or even 6400?

 

Isn't it a better bang for the buck to buy like 5200 RAM and then just overclock it to 6000 or even 6400?

 

 

[ChrisLoudon]

6 minutes ago, Yoshimitsu said:

Isn't it a better bang for the buck to buy like 5200 RAM and then just overclock it to 6000 or even 6400?

Yes, but ONLY if the 5200 RAM can actually be OC'd to 6000 or 6400.

 

Advertised XMP and EXPO profiles pretty much guarantee that the RAM will run at those speeds and timings or at the very least have been validated.

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Depends

 

For oem green pcbs no since you can simply just buy whatever ic you want, for example you can buy 2666 - 3200 bin samsung d dies simply by buying the model number m378a1/2k43db2, and since alot of ppl have no idea of this you can buy good ram ics for dirt cheap by buying the 2666 bin instead of the 3200 bin and itll obliterate any generic 3200c16 or 3600c18 kit since most have random ics and that can lead to getting garbage like samsung c die cause instead of the pathetic 3600 you get with c die you can oc to 4600+ instead with d die

 

For heatspreader rams for the most part yes as some particular cl and freq bins come with particular ics, if you want to overclock 5600c30/6000c32 is a good choice since those are guaranteed hynix a die, but theres also some odd cases like jedec 5600c46/6000c48 coming with the same hynix a die at a considerably cheaper price, seems to be guaranteed for particular rams like tforce classic or something, atleast thats whats implied in buildzoids ddr5 buying guide, hynix m die is discontinued so even non specific rams like 6000c36/38/40 can come with a die but obviously not guaranteed

 

If you wanna do some manual oc then tforce classic or whatever jedec 5600c46/6000c48 will do, same hynix a die thatll clock 8000+, and btw new agesa update fixes desync uclk or whatever terminology is in place of desync fclk for pre zen4 so you can do ridicolous 8000+ oc shenanigans on zen4 but i suspect itll be a massive pain to get those kinds of speeds stable cause early boards and imcs are kinda shit

[WereCat]

It does matter to a point but more often than not, it does not tell you much. Primary timings usually don't matter nearly as much as secondaries which are often omitted from specs.