[SOLVED] CL19 4133MHz vs CL16 3000MHz

Chris David

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Dec 11, 2013
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Hello !

The title states my question in entirety. But i'll weigh out a little more info.

Back when I had the 7600K and the Z270X, I got the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16x1 3000MHz CL16 RAM. The board supported upto 3000MHz so it was a good deal, considering CL16 isn't bad and 3000 is good.

Now I have the Z370 A-II which extends up to 4400MHz.

When i first got the board, I didn't exactly go through XMP and assumed it would run 3000 MHz out of box, it kept running at 2400 for a long period of time before I decided to snoop through the BIOS for a 5GHz 7600K run, where I noticed the RAM speed was at 2400MHz, i turned on XMP and it went for 3000MHz.

Least to say, the 5GHz run was a failure and I had to revert to stable clocks, but what I did notice was a good increase in FPS. I tested it out by reverting back to 2400 and there it was, less performance than 3000, which wasn't a big surprise.

Now onto the point, since I got a board that could potentially go up to 4400MHz, I am willing to spend money on RAM for at least 4133 MHz. I am hoping it has more performance than 3000MHz and i am stupidly assuming its going to be future proof despite DDR5 being round the corner.

Now what I do not know is, i am not very good with timings or what their purpose it, i assume CL19 is on the higher end of timing and the latency factor might or might not triumph my performance. But 4133 MHz isn't something to look away from either, a solid 1000MHz boost from 3000MHz does sound appealing.

So which one is better, should I just run CL16 1x16 3000MHz or should I invest in more RAM as in CL19 4133MHz 2x8 ? Also would 4133 MHz benefit a 8700K and 1650 Super ?

Also if someone could mildly explain how latencies work and how much of a effect it has, i'd be very grateful. Thanks !

tl;dr : CL19 4133MHz 2x8 vs CL16 3000MHz 1x16
 
Solution
really depends on the price difference between those sticks. especially with Intel builds RAM speed doesn't have that big on an effect on performance -- depending on the task. tricky part is: some applications like high bandwidth. some like lower frequency. some do not care at all.

I'm just gonna link various reviews with actual gaming benchmarks so you can see if a price premium is worth it to you. Also keep in mind that some games are more sensible to RAM speeds than others. Furthermore it doesn't scale linear. you often spot huge differences between 2133/2400 MHz and 3000 MHz but above that the returns get smaller and smaller...

Chris David

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Dec 11, 2013
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18,545
Having a single stick of RAM is drastically hurting performance as you're operating in single channel mode. The 2x8gb CL19 kit will offer a noticeable increase in performance as it'll be working in dual channel mode.

I already know that Dual Channel is better than Single Channel. I had to go for 1x16 as the time when I bought this, RAM prices were skyrocketing at that juncture and considering where I live, it was a pain in the ass to source RAM that wasn't DDR2.

All i am asking is if the CL19 4000MHz is a trade off for CL16 3000MHz (ignore 2x8, 1x16 and all that) just CL16 3000MHz and CL19 4000MHz, will the CL19 timing badly hurt the 4000Mhz clock to the point where it becomes a trade off rather than a upgrade ?
 
really depends on the price difference between those sticks. especially with Intel builds RAM speed doesn't have that big on an effect on performance -- depending on the task. tricky part is: some applications like high bandwidth. some like lower frequency. some do not care at all.

I'm just gonna link various reviews with actual gaming benchmarks so you can see if a price premium is worth it to you. Also keep in mind that some games are more sensible to RAM speeds than others. Furthermore it doesn't scale linear. you often spot huge differences between 2133/2400 MHz and 3000 MHz but above that the returns get smaller and smaller.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...33-mhz-vs-ddr4-3000-mhz-core-i7-6700k.231776/

https://www.techspot.com/article/1171-ddr4-4000-mhz-performance/page3.html

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/RAM-...Bestenliste-DDR3-DDR4-Arbeitsspeicher-681573/

https://www.wepc.com/reviews/thermaltake-toughram-rgb-ddr4-4400mhz-16gb-review/

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/9srhlg/fps_benchmarks_with_different_ram_speeds/


Also if someone could mildly explain how latencies work and how much of a effect it has, i'd be very grateful. Thanks !

think of it as moving into a new room or apartment. the MHz tell you how much you can carry for each run you're doing, whether you can carry 1 box or 3 boxes. the latency tells you how many runs you can do. so a CL19 timing means you can get another set of boxes to move once every 19 seconds, CL16 means you can get another set of boxes every 16 seconds. so higher clocked RAM always has higher timings than slower clocked RAM but can actually be slower if the timings are abmyssal. as said above, to complicate things, not every application has the same demands on RAM.
 
Solution