32GB Memory Recommendation & Advice

[markymoo]

I’m wanting 32gb of memory for a new build I’m going to do.
I was looking at the Vengence RGB Pro, when blindly just glancing through.
Then I saw both the Balastix RGB with tighter timings and Team Group (but no RGB)

Memory, PSU and Motherboards are the most confusing for me. Can I ask the following;
Is it best to get 2x16gb or 4x8gb? (4x RGB would look better, 2x would give space for upgrade, however, is there a technical difference?)
Is 3600mhz the best speed to get? (Thinking of going with 5900x and a 3080 or above Nvidea card)
Is the RGB stuff straight forward or do I have to get the right motherboard to match to be able to use?

Thanks in advance. 10 years ago, the choice was way more simple.

 

[brakeinup]

GN have an interesting 2 vs 4 sticks video here: AMD Ryzen: 4 vs. 2 Sticks of RAM on R5 5600X for Up to 10% Better Performance - YouTube

 

[ATIorNvidia]

Those gains are down to single rank vs dual rank, rather than 2 vs 4 sticks. Two dual rank sticks would achieve the same effect as in the GN video

 

[brakeinup]

Those gains are down to single rank vs dual rank, rather than 2 vs 4 sticks. Two dual rank sticks would achieve the same effect as in the GN video

My bad - title of the video is a little off.

 

[HangTime]

First up, there's no way I would choose to fill all my RAM slots simply for aesthetics. So 2x16GB dual rank would be best.
Speed wise, I would say 3600mhz is the sweet spot for value as can be had for £100 or thereabouts.

 

[hartgeh3]

is 3600 a decent upgrade from 3200? I have 64GB LPX and might downgrade to 32GB

 

[Twinz]

is 3600 a decent upgrade from 3200? I have 64GB LPX and might downgrade to 32GB

I rcommend look at timings before making that call.

I would go 3200 c14 before 3600 c18 myself. Also, if you have something like 3200 c16 now, 3600 c16 would be better but not enough that I would spend money for the small improvement.

 

[hartgeh3]

LPX timings are 16-20-20-38
I was looking at Crucial Ballistix 32GB Kit 3600 mhz
I know naff all about timings lol

 

[Guest2]

I don't know why people say there is a 'sweet spot' the sweet spot it high frequency, lower timings!

OP didnt specify a budget, so go for 4000C14 - https://www.gskill.com/product/165/299/1620978059/F4-4000C14D-32GTRS

(presuming DDR4 not DDR5 of course)

 

[Ayahuasca]

The above memory is pretty hard to find from any reputable UK retailer and is pretty expensive.

I'd rather spend £100-150 on a decent 32GB 3600mhz CL16 kit and use the money elsewhere on a GPU upgrade etc.

 

[hartgeh3]

The above memory is pretty hard to find from any reputable UK retailer and is pretty expensive.

I'd rather spend £100-150 on a decent 32GB 3600mhz CL16 kit and use the money elsewhere on a GPU upgrade etc.

Which would you get, Crucial Ballistix, Dominator (CL14), LPX or other?
I'm looking for something for my X570 and 3900x which might get upgraded down the line

 

[Ayahuasca]

Which would you get, Crucial Ballistix, Dominator (CL14), LPX or other?
I'm looking for something for my X570 and 3900x which might get upgraded down the line

I'd go for these: https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-RGB-RT-Black/p/CMN32GX4M2Z3600C16

You can pick them up £20-30 cheaper than the price shown there sometimes. That said, I wouldn't upgrade from 3200 CL16 to 3600 CL16.

3600+ mhz CL14 and 15 kits seem to be stupid money, likely due to the binning process.

 

[EsaT]

I know naff all about timings lol

Lower the number the better.
Because it's literally time delay in clock cycles/pulses.

Though of course clock speed has effect and faster enough clock speeds can make up for couple cycle difference in timing:
14 clock cycles at 3200MHz is only tiny bit faster than 16 cycles at 3600MHz. (~8.75 ns vs ~8.89 ns)

With Ryzens 3600MHz 16-16-16 is the sweet spot for the best memory performance, if you don't want to do manual tweaking.
Though Samsung B-die chips using DIMMs cost quite a lot.
Crucial Ballistix with Micron chips is usually notably cheaper.
But Samsung B-die is the only shot for guaranteed dual rank in 16GB DIMMs.

 

[hartgeh3]

Makes sense. Found some 3600mhz C14 dominator which I might swap out for my LPX. They seem to hate running at 3200mhz.

 

[Devrij]

Gonna hijack this thread a little:

What real world performance difference is there gonna be between 3600mhz c18 and 3600mhz c16? Given that the former can be had in 32gb for £99 and the latter for £179, is it really £80 of value for gaming and other fairly mundane tasks?

 

[Guest2]

Gonna hijack this thread a little:

What real world performance difference is there gonna be between 3600mhz c18 and 3600mhz c16?

6ns

Depends on the kit but if you can raise frequency and lower timings then you should notice a difference in gaming, especially if you game at 1080p or play high framerate games in general

 

[[HB]Rugrat]

Lower the number the better.
Because it's literally time delay in clock cycles/pulses.

Though of course clock speed has effect and faster enough clock speeds can make up for couple cycle difference in timing:
14 clock cycles at 3200MHz is only tiny bit faster than 16 cycles at 3600MHz. (~8.75 ns vs ~8.89 ns)

With Ryzens 3600MHz 16-16-16 is the sweet spot for the best memory performance

Does that count across the whole range of Ryzen or does it change as you move up (or down) the range?

 

[EsaT]

Does that count across the whole range of Ryzen or does it change as you move up (or down) the range?

Because of very mediocre memory controller original Zen and slightly tweaked Zen+ architecture/generation Ryzens were pretty much limited to max 3200MHz memory speed.

Zen2 and Zen3 have good memory controller capable to above 4000Mhz speeds.
Though CPU's internal blocks connecting InfinityFabric bus is kind of limit.
While you can decouple IF clock from memory controller clock, that unsync adds around 10ns to memory access latency hurting gaming performance.
3600MHz is basically that "110% achievable" speed for every CPU.
But getting IF to 3800MHz needs good CPU and correctly tweaked settings.

 

[[HB]Rugrat]

Because of very mediocre memory controller original Zen and slightly tweaked Zen+ architecture/generation Ryzens were pretty much limited to max 3200MHz memory speed.

Zen2 and Zen3 have good memory controller capable to above 4000Mhz speeds.
Though CPU's internal blocks connecting InfinityFabric bus is kind of limit.
While you can decouple IF clock from memory controller clock, that unsync adds around 10ns to memory access latency hurting gaming performance.
3600MHz is basically that "110% achievable" speed for every CPU.
But getting IF to 3800MHz needs good CPU and correctly tweaked settings.

Interesting, thanks - I must admit I've never really paid enough attention to RAM but this has prompted me to do some more reading

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Anyone got ddr4 4600 16-16-16 ram and compared it to ddr4 3600 14-14-14?