DDR4-3200 vs 3600, which one to get?

[Edea]

I'm still looking for the best DDR4 to pair with my Asus Z270E & i7-7700k. If I understood correctly, my board will handle RAM up to 3866Mhz.

 

The price is quite similar in here where I live, the product is the same, just different speed and latency. Which one I should get? I know there isn't a huge difference but there still should be a difference.

 

G.Skill Trident Z 3200Mhz CL14

G.Skill Trident Z 3600Mhz CL16

 

Thank you in advance!

[Simon771]

Overall same performance. 3200 have lower timings which is better, but less Hz.

Now the 3600 have higher Hz, but higher timings

 

I would say it's pretty much the same ... and you won't notice that difference in your daily usage. Even on server level you wouldn't notice that difference at all.

 

So get the cheaper one if you ask me.

[jj9987]

10 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

So get the cheaper one if you ask me.

Says it all.

 

EDIT: I recall seeing calculation for the performance by...
3600/16 = 225
3200/16 = 228.something

so 3200MHz is in theory very minimally faster.

Summary: Real-life difference is pretty much none. iGPU may gain a little. Showoff skills definitely boost with higher MHz.

[pwn_intended]

Whatevers cheapest.

 

RAM speed makes little to no difference in 99% of computering tasks. Also, higher frequency usually means worse timings and vice versa so they kinda balance each other out in the end.

[Edea]

Thank you everyone, I'll just go with the one that is cheapest!

[Princess Luna]

6 minutes ago, pwn_intended said:

Whatevers cheapest.

 

RAM speed makes little to no difference in 99% of computering tasks. Also, higher frequency usually means worse timings and vice versa so they kinda balance each other out in the end.

Yes, frankly I do not understand why don't people research a little about RAM more before wanting to buy that highest frequency speed possible with zero benefits from it and a much higher price tag, I frankly feel that the best RAM frequency for your rig is the highest frequency non-OC your motherboard can support, always.

[Edea]

14 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Yes, frankly I do not understand why don't people research a little about RAM more before wanting to buy that highest frequency speed possible with zero benefits from it and a much higher price tag, I frankly feel that the best RAM frequency for your rig is the highest frequency non-OC your motherboard can support, always.

I did my research before making this topic here and found really different opinions from both ends. Tom from OC3D TV for example said he wouldn't pair the new Z270 with anything lower than 2800MHz. That's why I was hoping for some insight and made this topic. Also as I said in my original post, the price is similar in that specific black/white edition. All I needed was some recommendations from people and not a lecture about not doing the research myself. I'm not obliged to "google it" before making a topic here. I apologise if that wasn't what you meant but it kind of sounded like that to me.

[Morgan MLGman]

46 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Yes, frankly I do not understand why don't people research a little about RAM more before wanting to buy that highest frequency speed possible with zero benefits from it and a much higher price tag, I frankly feel that the best RAM frequency for your rig is the highest frequency non-OC your motherboard can support, always.

That is not true, with latest Skylake/Kaby Lake CPUs there is often a very noticeable difference between faster and slower RAM. 2133MHz RAM (in DDR4 case) will give you substantially lower FPS than a 2666/2800+ RAM in some games.

 

Here you go, the latest Kaby Lake i5-7600K tested with RAM of different speed:

It's not every single game, but for instance in The Witcher 3 you get 13FPS (!!!!!!) lower with 2133MHz RAM when the CPU is at stock rather than if you had a 3000MHz one (4:07 in the video) and over 20 (!!!!!!) when the i5 is at 4,8GHz (also 4:07).

 

Of course there are cases when RAM speed doesn't matter and you should just get the cheaper kit, like:

- In the case of DDR4 anything beyond 3000MHz does not yield noticeable performance improvements - so in this case OP should just get the cheaper 3200MHz with lower timings

- With older gen CPUs it doesn't make such a difference, whether you have 1600MHz RAM on Haswell or a 1866MHz one, it yields little to no benefit.

 

It used to be as you said (with the exception of APUs), but it was before Skylake and DDR4 were commonly introduced (I know that DDR4 was in X99 before Skylake launched, but it was still Haswell back then, just with an -E)

 

EDIT:

17 minutes ago, Edea said:

I did my research before making this topic here and found really different opinions from both ends. Tom from OC3D TV for example said he wouldn't pair the new Z270 with anything lower than 2800MHz. That's why I was hoping for some insight and made this topic. Also as I said in my original post, the price is similar in that specific black/white edition. All I needed was some recommendations from people and not a lecture about not doing the research myself. I'm not obliged to "google it" before making a topic here. I apologise if that wasn't what you meant but it kind of sounded like that to me.

I guess you're not the one who didn't do the research properly

[Edea]

10 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

That is not true, with latest Skylake/Kaby Lake CPUs there is often a very noticeable difference between faster and slower RAM. 2133MHz RAM (in DDR4 case) will give you substantially lower FPS than a 2666/2800+ RAM in some games.

 

Here you go, the latest Kaby Lake i5-7600K tested with RAM of different speed:

It's not every single game, but for instance in The Witcher 3 you get 13FPS (!!!!!!) lower with 2133MHz RAM when the CPU is at stock rather than if you had a 3000MHz one (4:07 in the video) and over 20 (!!!!!!) when the i5 is at 4,8GHz (also 4:07).

 

Of course there are cases when RAM speed doesn't matter and you should just get the cheaper kit, like:

- In the case of DDR4 anything beyond 3000MHz does not yield noticeable performance improvements - so in this case OP should just get the cheaper 3200MHz with lower timings

- With older gen CPUs it doesn't make such a difference, whether you have 1600MHz RAM on Haswell or a 1866MHz one, it yields little to no benefit.

 

It used to be as you said (with the exception of APUs), but it was before Skylake and DDR4 were commonly introduced (I know that DDR4 was in X99 before Skylake launched, but it was still Haswell back then, just with an -E)

Thank you very much for this video Morgan! Also, I understood that in SLI the difference would be even more noticeable even when beyond 3000MHz. I don't however have any plans on buying another card right now so I'll just go with the 3200MHz as you suggested. Thank you for solving this.