"value" RAM with ryzen?

sprayduster · July 1, 2017

So I've recently started to take interest in building a PC, and managed to snatch a graphics card before the whole crazy crypto-currency deal blew up.

However, I'm wondering if cheap "value" RAM from Kingston and Patriot are compatible with Ryzen.

Since RAM prices are so expensive, these value RAMs are really tempting, around 50$ cheaper than other 2133mhz RAM from Corsair and Hyperx here in Australia.

I know that ryzen's had a lot of issues with RAM compatibility, but people have been saying that they have mostly been resolved now, so does anyone know if they work or not?

Much appreciated.

samcool55 · July 1, 2017

Have you checked the QVL of your motherboard? It will list all the ram that's tested and qualified to work with the motherboard.

If it's not on the list it might still work, if you can return it without issues to the shop you will buy it from i would just get it, test it and if it doesn't work send it back.

Jurrunio · July 1, 2017

First question answered by @samcool55

When I pick RAM, I go to pcpartpicker, filter the RAM size I want (1x8GB or 2x8GB), let it list in ascending order of price, then pick the cheapest one with highest frequency. As Ryzen loves high frequency RAM, I wouldn't buy a 2133MHz 16Gb kit for Ryzen. I'd rather spend on 2800MHz 8GB instead.

July 1, 2017

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

@samcool55

I wouldn't buy a 2133MHz 16Gb kit for Ryzen. I'd rather spend on 2800MHz 8GB instead.

That's stupid imo, the benefit of faster ram does not and will never exceed the benefit of having more ram capacity

14 minutes ago, sprayduster said:

So I've recently started to take interest in building a PC, and managed to snatch a graphics card before the whole crazy crypto-currency deal blew up.

However, I'm wondering if cheap "value" RAM from Kingston and Patriot are compatible with Ryzen.

Since RAM prices are so expensive, these value RAMs are really tempting, around 50$ cheaper than other 2133mhz RAM from Corsair and Hyperx here in Australia.

I know that ryzen's had a lot of issues with RAM compatibility, but people have been saying that they have mostly been resolved now, so does anyone know if they work or not?

Much appreciated.

The problem with RAM compatibility are higher speed RAM not able to run at that speed, 2133 will be totally fine

sprayduster · July 1, 2017

11 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Have you checked the QVL of your motherboard? It will list all the ram that's tested and qualified to work with the motherboard.

If it's not on the list it might still work, if you can return it without issues to the shop you will buy it from i would just get it, test it and if it doesn't work send it back.

Thanks, I've checked it out, doesn't seem like it's listed there, but I'll give it a shot.

5 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

That's stupid imo, the benefit of faster ram does not and will never exceed the benefit of having more ram capacity

The problem with RAM compatibility are higher speed RAM not able to run at that speed, 2133 will be totally fine

Yeah, I do hope so it'll shave quite a bit from the cost and get me a better SSD if that's the case

13 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

First question answered by @samcool55

When I pick RAM, I go to pcpartpicker, filter the RAM size I want (1x8GB or 2x8GB), let it list in ascending order of price, then pick the cheapest one with highest frequency. As Ryzen loves high frequency RAM, I wouldn't buy a 2133MHz 16Gb kit for Ryzen. I'd rather spend on 2800MHz 8GB instead.

yeah, the place I'm looking at is confirmed to be cheapest in Australia by pcpartpicker, but I don't think I'll get high-speed ram, I'm kinda poor and the GPU is the bottleneck so the high-speed ram won't grant me any extra performance.

DrMikeNZ · July 1, 2017

31 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

That's stupid imo, the benefit of faster ram does not and will never exceed the benefit of having more ram capacity

Don't say never... In a situation where the workload is not RAM limited and is infinity fabric limited, faster RAM could exceed the benefit of having more RAM capacity. 16GB of RAM is a bare minimum IMO.

Faster memory is an overstated recommendation for Ryzen systems. Due to the Infinity fabric being linked to the RAM speed, faster RAM speeds can help in some games where optimisation is poor, most of the gains are seen going from 2133 to 2666, with reduced gains from then on. The number of games where these benefits have been shown are small, and in all of the testing in the applications that I use on my R7 1700 I only saw a 1% difference going from 2133CL15 to 3200CL14 (at a significant cost).

Due to the high cost of RAM I recommend getting cheap 2133 or 2400 MHz RAM, and manually overclocking if desired.

31 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

The problem with RAM compatibility are higher speed RAM not able to run at that speed, 2133 will be totally fine

In extreme cases incompatibility with some RAM in Ryzen systems prevented them from posting, even at stock. This is very rare though, and I haven't heard of any recent cases of this.

37 minutes ago, sprayduster said:

Thanks, I've checked it out, doesn't seem like it's listed there, but I'll give it a shot.

Some stores in NZ do not allow memory returns in case of incompatibility and refuse to replace them if they are not on the motherboard's QVL. I recommend you check the stores T&C if they have a clause about this, but you should be fine.