[SOLVED] Why is this ram so cheap?

Solution
It's a competition thing. 3200MHz kits have flooded the market thanks to Ryzen popularity, even being cheaper than 2400MHz kits. But with 3rd generation Ryzen sweetspot being 3733MHz, the push to sell the overabundance of remaining 3200MHz stock bought under contract a while back is getting even rougher, so prices are really tanking. That's great for 1st/2nd Ryzen buyers and a performance hit to 3rd gen whom are looking at 3600+ and it's considerably higher prices.

Bdie wasn't the best, it's just the most compatible. With 1st gen issues, Bdie C14 had far and above the least amount of problems getting 3200MHz, so Ddie C16 would normally have no issues with 2933MHz, but 3200MHz was a maybe. Micron based were almost as good, but SkHynix...
The tighter C14 (CAS) timings makes them a tad faster than the Flare X at C16 timings but in the grand scheme of things you will not really notice the difference for gaming or normal day to day use....if you can afford the C14 timings then great but the difference will not be great enough to notice.
 

Karadjgne

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It's a competition thing. 3200MHz kits have flooded the market thanks to Ryzen popularity, even being cheaper than 2400MHz kits. But with 3rd generation Ryzen sweetspot being 3733MHz, the push to sell the overabundance of remaining 3200MHz stock bought under contract a while back is getting even rougher, so prices are really tanking. That's great for 1st/2nd Ryzen buyers and a performance hit to 3rd gen whom are looking at 3600+ and it's considerably higher prices.

Bdie wasn't the best, it's just the most compatible. With 1st gen issues, Bdie C14 had far and above the least amount of problems getting 3200MHz, so Ddie C16 would normally have no issues with 2933MHz, but 3200MHz was a maybe. Micron based were almost as good, but SkHynix had major issues getting over 2666MHz. Almost all of that was resolved by 2nd gen, so now anyone stands a good chance of compatability, but that still affects prices, especially on kits from Corsair like the LPX that need to play catch-up. They'll do that by selling lower than most, just to capture market shares. So the competition drops prices to retain market shares.

That puts plenty of cheaper 3200MHz out there, good news for you.
 
Solution
Ok.

I am leaning towards the G.skill aegis since its $55 with no rebate. Are these better than the Patriot, or about the same

I am hoping it will work with my existing kit since they are both g.skill with identical mhz and timings, but if not I will just sell the old kit.
 

Karadjgne

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Ram is made of chips that are made from sheets of silicon. Each sheet has different levels and kinds of impurities and while this has little affect on the 5 primary timings you see, it can have a serious effect on the 40+ secondary and tertiary timings you don't normally see. When the factory makes a kit, 2 or 4 sticks, it tests all the ram and will replace any that's not compatible until it gets all the sticks compliant. Factory guarantees the kit is compatible, not that different kits will be.

So you can buy identical ram, from the same store, at the same time with 1 kit right behind the other on the same peg, and have them totally incompatible. The color, paint job, brand on the heatsink has nothing to do with what the chips are actually like and the compatability of the silicon batch.

So mixing kits is always a gamble, they'll either work as is, need adjustments of some sort or not work at all. The only guarantee about mixing any ram, is that there are no guarantees at all.
 
The brand of RAM doesn't matter much. The ICs do. The Samsung Bs are popular and more expensive because they can run tighter secondary timings with Ryzen and scale nicely with voltage and frequency.

I personally would rather save $75, so I bought some G.Skills with Hynix D dies and clocked them to 3333CL14 on r
Ryzen 1600 on x370.
 

Karadjgne

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I'm running Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 1866MHz in my pc. Stock 10-11-10-30 2T. I've had it up to 2400 12-13-12-39 1T or down to 1600 7-8-7-24, no real discernable difference, but it'd do it stable. Patriot ram mostly is very decent, as is gskill, but a lot depends on the model. The Aegis is on the lower end of the gskill scale, usually no issues with rated speeds, but can get a little trixy in with manual settings.

Personally I've never had any issues with either Patriot nor gskill, in amd or Intel platforms, so I'd go for the look you want because performance wise there'll not be any real difference.

It's less money difference than 1 cup of home brewed coffee every day for a month, stop quibbling over nickles and dimes and get what would make you happy.
 
After seeing this and worried we would have another DRAM shortage, I finally made my decision.

I went with the G.Skill AEGIS 2x8gb DDR4 3200mhz CL16 for just $55 + tax. Very good deal, and if the ram just runs stable with XMP enabled i will be satisfied.
https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232884?Item=N82E16820232884
 
If prices hike the way they were a year ago you could get more.

I paid $178.00 plus tax for the
G.skill royal gold 2x8
Thaiphoon burner confirms samsung b die.
Sept of last year i paid $229 for my
Flare x 3200cl14 2x8 at M C Now i have seen that kit going for $140.ish

But $55.00 is a good price for ram.
Let us know how well it scales.
 

Karadjgne

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Doubtful the prices will hike, much if any. Samsung gets stiff competition from SkHynix especially, and Micron to some extent, and a contract is a contract, so they have to fill the orders as is. If Samsung tries hiking prices for new contracts, SK will just underbid and Samsung will be SOL. You'll end up seeing Trident's and RipJaws back running SK chips like they used to instead of the Sammy's. Bet that SK or Micron would be all to happy with minimal profits if it means kicking Samsung to the curb.
 

Karadjgne

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Dunno either, afaik only the RipJawsV and Trident's are Samsung (reports in '17 say gskill clammed up on OEMs with a move for the 15/16 3200 to SK) , the others maybe not, the older RipJawsIV used SkHynix.

You'll have to break out the Taiphoon Burner and let us know.
 
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