Does Ryzen REALLY benefit from faster RAM?

[RainOfPain125]

The motherboard I want to get (ASRock A320M micro atx) says on the store page that



Ryzen series CPUs support DDR4 3200+(OC)/ 2933(OC)/ 2667/ 2400/ 2133 *

Assuming that means I need to somehow force my RAM to run at 3200 mhz / overclock it? Not sure, but main question is would a Ryzen 5 1400 benefit from faster RAM (namely DDR4-2133 versus DDR4-3200) and is it worth forcing / overclocking my RAM to run at 3200 mhz?

 

[chemmajorp53]

Yes Ryzen benefits from it because the speed of the Infinity Fabric connecting the 2 dies runs at the speed of the memory. For gaming it will be somewhat noticeable, for anything else it won't be. You're not going to get 2133MHz RAM to run at 3200MHz without higher voltage than is supported for the sticks and I'd be surprised if you could get any RAM to 3200MHz on that motherboard, either buy more expensive RAM or don't worry about it.

 

[RainOfPain125]

Yes Ryzen benefits from it because the speed of the Infinity Fabric connecting the 2 dies runs at the speed of the memory. For gaming it will be somewhat noticeable, for anything else it won't be. You're not going to get 2133MHz RAM to run at 3200MHz without higher voltage than is supported for the sticks and I'd be surprised if you could get any RAM to 3200MHz on that motherboard, either buy more expensive RAM or don't worry about it.

Nono, the RAM I am getting is 3200 MHz

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zgJkcf/gskill-memory-f43200c16d8gvk

It's just that I thought the motherboard would make it run at a lower speed or something... idk.. nvm.

 

[chemmajorp53]

If you're buying high frequency RAM then why would you buy a motherboard that can't overclock? CPU speed is going to make a lot more of a difference than RAM speed. I agree with the choice of an R5 1400, but I'd rather have a b350 mobo and 2666MHz ram than an A320 board and 3200MHz RAM

 

[RainOfPain125]

If you're buying high frequency RAM then why would you buy a motherboard that can't overclock? CPU speed is going to make a lot more of a difference than RAM speed. I agree with the choice of an R5 1400, but I'd rather have a b350 mobo and 2666MHz ram than an A320 board and 3200MHz RAM

Because I didn't particularly want to deal with all the overclocking and picking an aftermarket cooler. If I'm gonna go out and get a good aftermarket cooler, and possibly replace the stock thermal paste, I might as well just ditch the idea and get a Ryzen 5 1600 (which is only 30$ or so more, AND with the bigger wraith cooler I could possibly overclock a good bit without having to get an aftermarket cooler - not that I know anything about overclocking, again)

 

[chemmajorp53]

You can get 3.8GHz comfortably on the stock cooler with the R5 1400

 

[RainOfPain125]

You can get 3.8GHz comfortably on the stock cooler with the R5 1400

My main problem with overclocking is there must be a reason the creators of the chip didn't intentionally make the GHz higher, if it can withstand it.

If the CPU can withstand 3.8GHz with the stock cooler, then why does AMD make the CPU run at 3.2 GHz and sometimes at 3.4GHz (if the CPU is "cool" enough for turboboost)

 

[chemmajorp53]

Because they want to meet power consumption goals and increase the yield meeting QC requirements, which reduces the price at which they make a profit. A 4 core 3.4GHz chip at 65W and $120 sounds a lot better than a 4 core 3.9GHz chip at 90W and $200. Zen isn't exactly a refined architecture so they're being conservative, future architectures based on Zen are supposed to have higher clockspeeds.

 

[mdd1963]

No reason not to get a basic B350-based board....

Later, you can take the few hundred extra MHz you can achieve with just a few key strokes in BIOS....

 

[Bungle11]

Can you overclock on a A320 chipset board?? And will you be overclock on XMP profiles? higher frequencies are are achieved through overclocking. You are better off with a b350 MB

 

[scout_03]

i use a ryzen 1600 and with only the axmp on in with my board already have it run at 3.4 without any other overclock and voltages settings ,

 

[Bungle11]

Just going from 2133 to 2667 on ram speed results in the same cinebench score between a 1700x@3.9mhz (2133) and 1700x@3.8mhz (2667) on my system. So yes it does help.

 

[RainOfPain125]

I've decided to just get some 2400 MHz RAM, since I'm on an extreme budget and the 3200 MHz equivalent of the RAM if around 30$ more

 

[scout_03]

then you will be limit to 2400 ram speed .