[SOLVED] Does RAM modules with different speeds (XMP) differ physically?

May 8, 2021
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In other words, is it worth buying the top speed module or the lowest one and manually set the voltage with timings?

Let's forget about CPU and motherboard memory control capabilities (top speed not always will improve performance due to synchronisation pauses).

I just assembled PC, and bought RAM F4-3600C14D[/B]-16GTZNB-Overview]https://www.gskill.com/product/165/326/1569304048/F4-3600C14D-16GTZNB-Overview
I thought it would be native 3600Mhz speed, but I was naive... Native is 2166 (I just bought them on amazon and have not looked into the above link where SPD is shown). So right now I'm wondering if I could have the same (or even better) performance when I would buy set with
Does anyone have some experience?
 
Solution
I think the problem is that you're missing something key on how this fabrication process works. Our technology does not enable the fabrication of truly identical parts. No two CPUs or RAM modules or the like are truly identical. Instead, after the fabrication process, parts are binned to what they're able to do. And for RAM, sticks that are tested to work together are sold together as a unit.

You could theoretically overclock 2166 RAM to 3600, but it's very unlikely. If the sticks being sold as 2166 successfully work at 3600, they'd be sold as 3600 sticks for more money. Smaller overclocks are usually possible as companies want to be able to guarantee that particular sticks can reach specific clock speeds and not have to spend a lot of...

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
I think the problem is that you're missing something key on how this fabrication process works. Our technology does not enable the fabrication of truly identical parts. No two CPUs or RAM modules or the like are truly identical. Instead, after the fabrication process, parts are binned to what they're able to do. And for RAM, sticks that are tested to work together are sold together as a unit.

You could theoretically overclock 2166 RAM to 3600, but it's very unlikely. If the sticks being sold as 2166 successfully work at 3600, they'd be sold as 3600 sticks for more money. Smaller overclocks are usually possible as companies want to be able to guarantee that particular sticks can reach specific clock speeds and not have to spend a lot of money in RMA processes. Same goes for CPUs. To put it ultra-simply, Zen 3 CPUs all "begin life" as 5950X CPUs, but only the least defective CPUs are sold as 5950X chips while the more defective ones become 5900X, 5800X or 5600X.

Basically, RAM sticks sold at 2166 MHz were tested and judged as too defective to sell at higher clock speeds.

Really, no two items are truly identical. Your X brand clock radio isn't truly identical to the same brand/model next to it on the shelves. But the parts of a clock radio do not require enough precision that the variance in the parts doesn't matter. When talking PC components, however, you're talking about things on the scale where you can count the individual atoms. So you have to think in terms of the least defective parts.
 
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Solution
May 8, 2021
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@DSzymborski nice reply, could be a good point. I have 2 questions if you could answer.
1. You wrote 'Our technology...' what do you mean by our? Do you work somewhere with IT hardware manufacture? Or maybe you mean our as our all, technology of current times and entire human population ;P

2. This one is private, thus you can skip it. Based on your nick name, and probably surname Szymborski. Are you also from Poland?
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
I mean "our" technology in the general sense as in the level of technology that humanity has achieved. The ability to make identical things on the atomic level has not been achieved yet! I'm just a journalist who is a longtime PC hobbyist.

My father's father's family is Polish and came over by way of Saxony in the mid-1800s. So I have the last name, but there aren't any real ties to Poland left at this point; most of my living relatives are Germans in the Bremen/Bremerhaven area and in NE France and I don't think anyone's spoken Polish since my dad's grandmother died in the 1990s.
 
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It's also interesting that the ram you got has a native speed of just 2166. I wonder if it's an amazon fake or do all the real ones work this way too? It's because of the shady stuff and bait and switch on amazon that it's a terrible place to buy high fraud stuff like computer parts.