Best choice ram for gaming

Hi guys. lil confused. I can buy either 3000mhz ram at 16cl or 3200 at 22cl.
I was going to go for 3000 at 16cl. But I’m reading that faster ram with higher cl number is “not the true cl number” and it’s actually lower in reality.

I’ve seen videos where all ram speed equal. The lower cl was made that the clear winner. However when all speeds are different and bigger cl number, the faster ram ultimately gets better results.
I’m buying based on gaming as the sole factor. So I’d appreciate advice and why if it can be explained.

Thank


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Read the link about memory testing in my post here http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ers-welcome-too.810490/page-596#post-10921154

Slightly higher ram clock speed vs lower timings is the choice between Pest and cholera. Only testing (both) in your workflow will determine what’s best for you.

 

3000MHz CL16 is better.

 

rough rule of thumb estimate on actual performance: divide Mhz by CL, higher resulting number wins.

in your case:
3000/16 = 187.5
3200/22 = 145.5

3000 CL16 wins

 

Thanks for the reply. I did try that rule till I realised there’s a little bit more than to it in regards to “true latency”
But elsewhere I’m also getting the opposite answer. I’ve added a screen shot of a part explanation. See if you agree or disagree.




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in general, yes. higher bandwidth is more important than lower latency. but this is only true for a specific range. once u go overboard with latencies, the higher bandwidth doesnt give u much, if any, real life performance benefits. and thats where the quick and dirty calculation above comes in i originally got it from anandtech, so it cant be all that bad

 

I might buy both. Do few benchmarks and decide.
I know there won’t be much in it.
I’ll try firestrike, timespy, in game benchmarks in: GTAV, R6 Siege and Division 2. It should give me very result.
It’s not what I wanted to do. But I suppose in the future with laptops I will know whether the high latency with higher clock speed outweighs lower clock speed and lower latency.
I just find it to inconclusive to pick the one without being 100% certain based on two different post where you agree with each other despite primarily selecting opposite answers.



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This wouldnt be for your AW 13 R3 would it?

Because that platform only works up to 2666Mhz so most of us just look for the tightest timing kit at that speed.

 

The bottom line Memory performance is all about the relationship between speed and latency. For optimal performance, install as much memory as possible, use the latest memory technology, and choose modules with as much speed as is cost-effective and/or relevant for the applications you’re using.

What notebook you want to upgrade? Remember not all notebooks out there is able to handle the memory sticks speed you have chosen. And there is nothing that say the faster sticks will perform better than the sligtly slower with better timings.

Why speed matters more than latency...
Download the full whitepaper

Second and last. You'll need test it!

Yeah, 22cl for only 200 MHz higher ram speed is a huge difference (downside) vs. the slightly slower sticks running 16cl.

 

Thanks guys. No the laptop I’m now using Lenovo y740 but with 8th gen 8750h. Says 3200mhz is its top speed ram


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why not just go for 3200 mhz with tighter timings? best of both worlds

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I would but I’m a cheap skate. Lol no, I’m a guy that goes nearly top end but not max. So Bang for buck is king and my wallet appreciates that lol.
So I’ll buy xx60 or xx70 laptops but not xx80 coz it starts making no sense the price gap from xx70 to xx80.
So basically I can get the 3200 cl22 for £71.
Cl18 for £146 and cl16 for £226.
Where as the 3000 cl16 is £88.
So you can see what I’m doing why I paired the 3000 cl16 vs 3200 cl 22. I can’t imagine it’ll be that much superior to get a 3200 cl16/18 for 2 or 3 times the cost of what I selected.



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that i can understand

there is always the chance that u might be able to OC the 3000 sticks to 3200 or tighten the timings on the 3200 kit to CL18. naturally, you can only rely on the advertized XMP speeds & timings (sometimes not even that, but just SPD!) and any OC would be based on pure luck of the silicon draw.

RAM is finicky that way, much more so than CPU/GPU/storage...

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Yeah there’s always that. I always try to stay clear of tweaking. The moment we start that, We start to get pedantic chasing figures.
After a while of getting it right. Rather than playing games in it when it’s perfect, You kinda get bored and want something else (that has happened numerous times back in the early days here of around 2007-2017, only I’ve slowly grown out of doing it keeping things pretty much stock). I’d upgrade my model to 9750h and 2080 to contradict myself because I really like everything with this laptop. If only it had 1440p OLED.


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CL22 is ridiculous, don't get that one! Jaybee gave you a good answer with his quick & dirty calculation where you divide Mhz by CL, get the 3000 CL16.

 

Divided MHz by CL doesn’t always work perfectly. But yeah, CL22 is awful vs. 16 and the 200MHz faster ram speed will probably go down the drain due this.

I get better performance from 2800/16 vs. 2666/15. But the Timings is so close each other that the faster 2800MHz ram speed is still preferable

 

@sisqo_uk Can you post current SPD of your 2667MHz RAM used by Lenovo?

 

Assuming your laptop has the capability, you can always manually set timings to get higher performance so you could get say 3200 at CL 17 or something, though that really wont go far if going by the true latency value, or the 3200/17 math.

No one here has said it yet, but Make sure above all that your ram is dual rank, and functionally dual channel, and remember to use two of the same sticks, not one. Some laptops have a hard time being stable with 3000mhz ram and as a result a number of resellers or odms dont usually mess with anything past 2666mhz. HidEvolution no longer has it in their configurations for instance. If you want to save yourself money, I would go for the 8gb dual rank crucial ballistics. https://www.amazon.com/Ballistix-Single-PC4-21300-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B06XC4W1LQ/?th=1

3200 at cl 22?? Try 18 at 3200: https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/N82E16820232726 Maybe that extra 200mhz will make a difference, depending on the program.

 

That’s how I saw it myself. But seeing faster ram but higher cl on slower ram but lower cl on the desktop. It still favoured the faster ram so I had to ask the question cos I’m seeing one thing and hearing one thing. But ideally fast ram and lower timings is better (if cost is not a factor of course)


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Yeah, dual rank can make quite a difference, especially in gaming, I read a review on it once where a dual rank kit got significantly more fps (or was that measurably more, can't remember, but it was significantly different anyway). Yep, dual rank is not the same as dual channel, each individual RAM stick is either single rank or dual rank, and then you put 2 sticks of RAM together in a system to make dual channel - yeah so dual rank sticks in dual channel mode is a good combination. I think a lot of modern RAM, especially the highly clocking Samsung B-Die RAM is often not dual rank though, but you get the trade off of higher frequency with B-die. B-die is more expensive though - cheap Dual Rank sticks in Dual Channel mode at a half decent latency and Mhz is probably the best way forwards.

 

its not different things ure hearing

inside a specific range it is true that higher clocks beats higher CL values. but if you go bonkers on the CL and up it reaaaaally high while at the same time only gaining 200 mhz in clocks, the higher bandwidth cannot compensate anymore! so its only a relative trend, not an absolute answer!

Huh? why would dual vs. single rank make any difference in performance whatsoever?! I'd like to see that review please...

Rank doesnt make any difference whatsoever, as long as we are talking same clocks and timings. single rank can be generally overclocked higher if all else (including number of dimms) is the same. but it doesnt give u any performance benefit by itself.

on the other hand, dual channel is absolutely necessary, no argument there. huge difference in tangible performance.

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Our analysis of dual-rank DIMMs showed that Intel’s mainstream platforms work best with at least four ranks employed, and that getting there required either four single-rank or two dual-rank DIMMs

Regardless. I would use single ranked sticks on a laptop platform you don’t know how easy they are to tweak. Laptops ain’t as easy vs. desktop who have better ram support.

 

hmmmm... i am skeptical. i suspect that the majority of that performance difference can be lead back to tertiary timings. cant imagine that single/dual rank would have such a big impact?!

 

Crucial's new 3200MHz is single ranked version. On BGA laptops w/o unlocked BIOS its better to choose Samsung OEM or HyperX for max performance. If max performance isn't a concern then Crucial standard RAM or even Hynix will do.

 

Since the OP is trying to go price to performance, I think then the ballistix's I linked are probably the best bet to those ends. Your really scrounging it up past that, though I would like to see some benches comparing that to say gskill 3000mhz at CL16. Aside from b-die going higher in frequency, it can also go much lower in CL, which Is where hyperx 2666 chips really shine.

 

It can be clocked higher, though for many reasons people usually never go past 3000 or even 2800mhz with a dual rank or even single rank setup. As a result, b-die isnt always necessary, as micron can do something similar. you can buy chips rated for 4000mhz @cl 19 on newegg that are single rank, but good luck getting anything to run with them. https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007609 601322217 - The ultimate true latency winner.

 

mmm nope. the g.skill 3800 mhz are actually better in latency AND bandwidth at stock XMP settings and can be overclocked a bit higher than the corsair 4000 mhz sodimms. thats the reason i went with the 3800 g.skill kit

link: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-vengeance-ddr4-4000-sodimm-32gb-kit-review,5436.html

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I could be wrong, but I remember @Mr. Fox discovering dual rank SODIMMS from G.Skill provided a noticeable performance bump some years back.

Early on, Corsair used multiple sources for their LPX Vengeance 3200 DDR4 sticks. Some were Samsung Dual Rank B-Die and the others were Hynix. I ended up with both sets when I attempted to order another set to bump my system from 16gb to 32gb to achieve 4 rank. I then discovered they did not work with XMP timings when paired together from different sources and dual vs single rank, but testing each set individually with all things being equal, my low to mid frame rates gaming definitely increased with the 2x8GB dual rank kit so I kept that one.

As for laptops, I agree with @Papusan. I tend to stick with single rank modules.

 

Awesome. I've never seen anyone able to get those working. Despite Dram drastically droping in price, those chips have avoid that :/

So was it b-die or hynix that worked the best for 2x8gb Dual rank? Prema mod got a set of dual rank chips working at 3400mhz with a CL of 17 I believe, though I dont remember what chips they where.

 

This was for desktop memory

The Hynix 2x8gb was single rank
The Samsung b-die 2x8gb was dual rank

Both kits were Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16

They refused to play nice with each other for XMP but ran fine independent of each other with their XMP settings.

The dual rank kit was better in every way especially for low to mid frame rates so I ended up keeping that one.

 

haha indeed. the big wall seems to be around 3000-3200 Mhz for RAM in laptops. a few like me and @Prema manage to do 3400 Mhz and only the OC King @Johnksss managed to do 3700 Mhz. that's the highest i've seen so far with SO-DIMMs in a laptop

 

Its possible only in Non-Jokebooks.