Crucial 32gb (2x16gb) cl16 3600 BL2K16G36C16U4B - Single Rank

Stu

Stu

Soldato
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So this SR vs DR keeps popping up, even seen that laptops are suffering! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7CO9v9rpOk

And it makes me think.... is it worth me changing my SR 2x16GB Ballsitix sticks?

It seems 2x16GB Dual Rank sticks are hard to come by, and expensive!

This kit looks great: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...00c16-3600mhz-dual-channel-kit-my-002-8p.html
But at £300 is more than double what my Ballsitixs cost... and its OoS anyway.


So my question is.... would it be worth just buying another set of 2x16GB Crucial Ballistix for half the cost of the above set? Then either run 64GB if the new RAM is also SR. (Thus getting DR like speed?)

Or.... buy 4x 8GB of the Ballisitx at £77 each? Id get the non-RGBs at that point.


Interested to hear from anybody that DID make the change from SR to DR and what difference it really made? The place I can "see" the issue most is my CPU scores on 3DMark are like 2000 points~ lower than what people usually seem to get with a stock 5900x...

You are likely to get a better overclock using 2 sticks Vs 4 sticks, thus getting better performance boost compared to the move from SR to DR. Bottom line, 4 sticks generally not recommended.
 
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Man of Honour
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Id love to see your comparison. Is the 3600 Single rank and the 3200 Dual rank?
don't have 3dmark and not a professional benchmarker

system: 3700x (stock cooler) + aorus b450 pro + evga 1070 all at stock settings and PBO disabled

both kits were matched 2x16GB sticks
3600 rev.b (single rank) stock voltage (16-18-18-38 T1GDM)
3200 rev.e (dual rank) stock voltage (16-18-18-36 T1GDM)
OC 3600 rev.e (dual rank) @ 1.4v (16-18-18-36 T1GDM)
all secondary and tertiary timings were untuned and left at stock

Code:
all tested at 1080p
                      3600SR              3200DR              3600DR
SOTTR
low (fps)              123                  124               126
med (fps)              98                   99                98

TW:3K (Low settings)
battle (fps)          177                   177               178
dynasty (fps)         224                   224               225

FFXV (Std settings)
Score                 8990                 8888               9002



AIDA:
3600 rev.b
L1D8G7T.png

3200 rev.e
CwcQaxJ.png

3600 rev.e
XT3e1US.png

tl;dr - much of a muchness for me. YMMV
 
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Associate
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Thanks for doing that. Does look like very little if anything in it. I wonder why in those laptop tests LTT did, it made such a massive difference. (Like 20% difference... and he said towards the end, that it affects desktop too...)

If you had the time, Id love to see the impact on 3Dmark CPU scores. The demo is free. But totally understand if its too much faff to test it all gagain.
 
Man of Honour
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I wonder why in those laptop tests LTT did, it made such a massive difference. (Like 20% difference... and he said towards the end, that it affects desktop too...)
tighter secondary and tertiary timings on aftermarket ram compared to the el-cheapo default ram


The demo is free.
oh didn't know it was free so didn't test it.
but yeah. no chance. was building a pc for a friend hence why i had my 3200 rev.e and a new set of 3600 ram which just turned out to be the single rank rev.b to go head to head against.
 
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A stick of my Corsair (2X16GB) CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 32 GB memory has gone bad. I looking at RMA it back to Corsair now. I have a few options should I upgrade my memory to 3600MHz or wait for a replacement.

I notice that most 16GB sticks are now single rank, my sticks are dual rank. So may end up with replacement memory that may has poorer timings and single rank.

Any suggestions on 3600MHz memory kits no RGB, up to £170 for 32GB for Ryzen 5800x, which can run at 3600MHz now

How well does the Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G32C16U4B 3200 MHz, CL16 DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 32GB (16GB x2) overclock compare to the Crucial Ballistix 3600.

Overclockers has the Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G32C16U4B 3200 MHz, CL16 DDR4 at £140

I may get lucky and sticks will be dual rank
 
Soldato
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It is now so frustratingly awkward to get 2x 16GB DR, I am considering opting for 4x 8GB SR. Very similar performance to 2x 16GB Dual Rank, and considerably better in some cases than 2x 16GB single rank, game dependent.

Incredibly frustrating that it is so awkward to find out definitively which you're going to get, and infuriating it is pot luck from some manufacturers.

For some stuff it doesnt matter, but in some specific cases it can be as much as 10-15% performance boost which is mad!
 

Stu

Stu

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It is now so frustratingly awkward to get 2x 16GB DR, I am considering opting for 4x 8GB SR. Very similar performance to 2x 16GB Dual Rank, and considerably better in some cases than 2x 16GB single rank, game dependent.

Incredibly frustrating that it is so awkward to find out definitively which you're going to get, and infuriating it is pot luck from some manufacturers.

For some stuff it doesnt matter, but in some specific cases it can be as much as 10-15% performance boost which is mad!

Big risk trying to get the same overclock from 4 sticks compared to 2.
 
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A lot of research, a bit of luck, and if buying Corsair second hand or on the bay, researching the version numbers.

Think I just managed to pickup a 32gb Corsair kit based on Micron dual rank. That'll do, even if it is 3600cl18.

The machine it's going in doesn't support ram tweaking just xmp so the dual rank will help me get the most out without paying more for faster ram. It's Intel based so won't care too much about the slightly higher latency either.
 
Soldato
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That's a great deal for guaranteed dual rank. If I'd seen that I'd have bitten someone's arm for it, especially as they more or less don't seem to be producing this anymore as its cheaper to produce single ranked versions now..
I ended up paying £150 (albeit new, unopened) for the Corsair, but as its dual rank given the version on the back, I'm not complaining.
It's basically using the Micron also, just with CL set more conservatively to CL18.

I can't tweak that with the machine it's going into, but frankly don't think the Intel machine its going to will care much about CL16 v 18, and the dual rank will be more important.
 
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I ended up paying £150 (albeit new, unopened) for the Corsair, but as its dual rank given the version on the back, I'm not complaining.
It's basically using the Micron also, just with CL set more conservatively to CL18.

I can't tweak that with the machine it's going into, but frankly don't think the Intel machine its going to will care much about CL16 v 18, and the dual rank will be more important.

Aaaaand as is my usual luck, typically the kit didnt work. Will boot at 2666MHz, XMP disabled but enable XMP and the machine fails to boot the RAM until XMP is disabled. Another over 3200MHz XMP kit (lower density but still) worked fine, so all pointing at the RAM kit being faulty at the moment. Typically for eBay seller, guy immediately began being an *** and trying to fob off/wheedle his way out, but going to test the RAM on another machine after work to ensure it's not a compatibility quirk; but if it is, this will be going immediately back whether he likes it or not. The sellers attitude (tried to convince me new, unopened, and Corsair RAM is never faulty, blamed my machine first etc etc) makes me think he knows the kits are suspect at rated; but doesn't want to admit it. In fact the way he spammed me and tried to deflect/refuse return before I'd even stated I would be (as I told him I'd be testing in other machines) would almost be entertainingly bad if it wasn't me having to deal with it.

People like that shouldn't be on eBay...since when does unopened/new EVER mean 100% working in IT :cry:
Be no such thing as RMA/returns at the place I used to work at then...

Reminds me why I prefer to shop at the likes of the rainforest or OCUK etc where you don't have to deal with this.

PPS kit now tested in several machines and shows similar issues all around, the kit is faulty and doesn't run higher speed unless fed more volts than XMP from brief testing did in one of the machines, luckily a family member took it off me as it was cheaper than market rate, and he only cared about capacity, and not whether it'd run at 3600MHz. Think he has it running at 3000MHz to try and ensure it is stable.
Seller has since lied multiple times and said he doesn't care about eBay guidelines so reported!
 
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Stu

Stu

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Aaaaand as is my usual luck, typically the kit didnt work. Will boot at 2666MHz, XMP disabled but enable XMP and the machine fails to boot the RAM until XMP is disabled. Another over 3200MHz XMP kit (lower density but still) worked fine, so all pointing at the RAM kit being faulty at the moment. Typically for eBay seller, guy immediately began being an *** and trying to fob off/wheedle his way out, but going to test the RAM on another machine after work to ensure it's not a compatibility quirk; but if it is, this will be going immediately back whether he likes it or not. The sellers attitude (tried to convince me new, unopened, and Corsair RAM is never faulty, blamed my machine first etc etc) makes me think he knows the kits are suspect at rated; but doesn't want to admit it. In fact the way he spammed me and tried to deflect/refuse return before I'd even stated I would be (as I told him I'd be testing in other machines) would almost be entertainingly bad if it wasn't me having to deal with it.

People like that shouldn't be on eBay...since when does unopened/new EVER mean 100% working in IT :cry:
Be no such thing as RMA/returns at the place I used to work at then...

Reminds me why I prefer to shop at the likes of the rainforest or OCUK etc where you don't have to deal with this.

PPS kit now tested in several machines and shows similar issues all around, the kit is faulty and doesn't run higher speed unless fed more volts than XMP from brief testing did in one of the machines, luckily a family member took it off me as it was cheaper than market rate, and he only cared about capacity, and not whether it'd run at 3600MHz. Think he has it running at 3000MHz to try and ensure it is stable.
Seller has since lied multiple times and said he doesn't care about eBay guidelines so reported!

Did you check which chips were on the sticks? Lots of mediocre RAM around that will not hit advertised speed and timings above 3200MHz.
 
Soldato
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Micron E-Die, Dual Rank. That was why I'd picked it up (RAM was V3.32 IIRC). SHOULD have been fine; my brother was happy to have it for the capacity boost, Micron (as it tends to play reasonably well with Ryzen), RGB and Dual Rank, even if its not running at 3600MHz, I'm sure he'll spend some time getting it to the best performance he can; even if it means pumping up the volts and playing with timings, as his old set was only 3333MHz anyway. The Crucial Ballistix stuff is wonderful on Ryzen typically, unfortunately just single rank nowadays or I'd have probably gone for it as they rate CL16 out the box, and MAYBE the Corsair was running lower/failed bin chips?

For £150 it's below current asking rate for 32GB Dual Rank RGB RAM anyway (or for that particular kit new even on 3200MHz, tends to be about £180), so my brother was happy on that basis and he has a LOT of fans in his rig, so he'll be able to pump the RAM volts, keep it cool and get the best 24/7 experience out of it. My desktop motherboard is more restrictive, and system is hotter, and tweaking like that just isn't an option for me without replacing motherboards etc and I don't want to do that.

The whole experience was made drastically worse by the eBay seller to be honest. He could have offered a compromise or just a simple return, but his attitude and bombardment (probably sent me 15-30 messages in one afternoon) before I'd even told him I wanted to return, and just let him know the situation because I wanted to test ASAP when the kit arrived, was horrendous. I left very bad feedback, reported him, and blocked him. EBay does not need people like that. Worst UK Seller experience I've had.


I managed to pickup an alternate 3200MHz Patriot 32GB kit yesterday afternoon; that will hopefully come today, and can see if that plays nicer.
Judging by the SKU, it may well be an older dual rank kit, probably Hynix, but as my system is Intel, that won't matter much, so fingers crossed; thanks to an eBay deal it was only ~£130, so pretty cheap. If it runs stable and is dual rank, I'll be more than happy, as Intel Comet Lake is not so sensitive to latency etc as Ryzen anyway.
 
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