DDR4 decisions decisions

[Cuddle Bunny]

This topic is way more complicated than I initially thought. I've got 6 pages open In my browser and I ain't getting very far!

I'm not sure what speed Or brand to get. I don't mind overclocking but it's not a fun pastime. These following units get mentioned a lot:

Viper steel 4400
Corsair vengeance
G-skill trident neo
Crucial ballistic 3600

Intel i7 10700, 3080 card, mobo Asus-something.

[r.linder]

If it's 10700K and Z490 then opt for the highest frequency and lowest timings (best quality silicon basically) because Intel can benefit from it

Otherwise if it's a locked board there's no point in getting anything faster than 2933~3000 because H410 and B460 are locked to a maximum of 2933, so even if you buy super fast RAM, you're going to be limited to 2933 no matter what you do

[Monk]

Not sure about the crucial, but the patriot (viper), corsair and gskill all use the same samsung b-dies which are your best option, the difference is that the vipers are much cheaper.

Go with 4400 and just set the xmp to as fast as your board allows.

[Ionut aka Dile]

yyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Cuddle Bunny]

Thanks for the replies.

So I started reading Amazon reviews and it seems that a large number of users are upset at the viper steel 4400.

Faulty, failing sticks, and speeds that can't match the advertised ratings.
It seems like it's a bit of a lottery.

Is viper such a good deal that the lottery is worth the chance? Is there a contender that comes close to viper's offerings?

+

And do the slower rated kits have better timings?

Will a 4000 kit have better timings than a 4400 kit?

[dOBER]

Cuddle Bunny lähetti viestin:

Thanks for the replies.

So I started reading Amazon reviews and it seems that a large number of users are upset at the viper steel 4400.

Faulty, failing sticks, and speeds that can't match the advertised ratings.
It seems like it's a bit of a lottery.

Is viper such a good deal that the lottery is worth the chance? Is there a contender that comes close to viper's offerings?

+

And do the slower rated kits have better timings?

Will a 4000 kit have better timings than a 4400 kit?

I think most of these people have no clue. You need 3 parts:
1. Ram with for example 4400mhz
2. A board which supports this kind of ram
3. Very inportant a cpu which supports it

3rd is lottery not ram itself. If they sell this ram as 4400 you can assume it works as it should.

For exanple i bought 4800mhz ram and my cpu ram controller can do max 4600cl18. Its not about my mainboard because it support 4800mhz and my ram which works with 4800mhz, its about my cpu which cant do 4800mhz. This doesnt mean every 10900k is like mine. Some can do 4800mhz and some can do only 4400mhz. Its luck aka silicon lottery.

[Monk]

The memory is the exact same samsung b-die that corsair and gskill use.

As dOBER pointed out, it's very fast memory, your system needs to support it, also 4 sticks at high speed is harder to do than 2 most of the time, which is why I suggest to get the kit then set the speed to match your cpu/mobo's maximum.

Oh and amazon reviews tend to be written by people who don't actually know what they are doing and most of the time.

[dOBER]

Ah yes 2 or 4 dimms is huge part aswell.

[AbedsBrother]

Usually a good idea to check your motherboard's memory QVL list when shopping ram.

[_I_]

qvl is pointless, there are too many kits/mobos for the mfgs to test them all together

get the best speed/cl you can afford
3200/16 = 200 is good performance
<170 is often generic
>220 is performance/oc

[r.linder]

It's as dOBER said.

A lot of people are going into Ryzen now, and Ryzen does not support 4400 MHz;

Ryzen 1000 often will not run above 2933~3000 MHz and hardly gains anything going any higher.
Ryzen 2000 may or may not run above 3200 MHz, and will hardly gain anything going any higher.
Ryzen 3000 can potentially run up to 3800 MHz, but going any higher is rare to run stable and has horrible latency due to the IF not supporting more than 1900 MHz FCLK. (Which translates to 3800 MHz RAM as it's double data rate)
Ryzen 5000 can potentially run up to 3800~4000 MHz depending on BIOS, but like 3000 series, going above that will incur bad latency that defeats the purpose.

Most motherboards also do not support 4400 MHz either, and if they do, they're expensive boards that support overclocking, like X570, Z490, etc.

The 4400 MHz kit is basically intended for memory overclocking/tweaking. People just don't know what they're doing.

[Grimy_RIck]

Get the Viper and set the speed/timings yourself, had the same decision to make a while back and was very impressed with the Viper 4400mhz that i eventually went with.

[dOBER]

Escorve lähetti viestin:

It's as dOBER said.

A lot of people are going into Ryzen now, and Ryzen does not support 4400 MHz;

Not 100% true. Roman got a 5000mhz kit for ryzen 5950 from gigabyte and it runs flawless. Even faster in async Mode then 4000 in sync mode. Right this doesnt work with every ryzen 5000 but still possible.

[r.linder]

dOBER lähetti viestin:

Escorve lähetti viestin:

It's as dOBER said.

A lot of people are going into Ryzen now, and Ryzen does not support 4400 MHz;

Not 100% true. Roman got a 5000mhz kit for ryzen 5950 from gigabyte and it runs flawless. Even faster in async Mode then 4000 in sync mode. Right this doesnt work with every ryzen 5000 but still possible.

You CAN run it faster if you jack up the FCLK high enough but it's more stressful for the IMC and is difficult to pull off under normal conditions. Most people wouldn't be able to do that.

We're better off sticking to what runs the most stable without losing performance, Ryzen is a bit unstable as it is. Jacking up DRAM and FCLK just makes it worse.

[Monk]

Doesn't matter the speed you can get the ram to on ryzen, it works vest set 1 to 1 with the fabric and the vast majority won't go beyond 1800MHz so 3600 RAM, good chips will let you get to 1900MHz and very very few can go beyond that.

The thing with the vipers us, it's the same memory the other top sticks use, they just have a very cheap and basic heatspreader, no advertising to speak of and no rbg.

I have corsair dominator platinum and corsair vengeance rgb Pro ram in my systems and I swapped out the vengeance for vipers and honestly, it feels cheaper, but, it is, at the time equivalent ram from corsair or gskill was 50-100% more expensive and I'm likely to watercool the ram anyway.

[Cuddle Bunny]

Excellent, thank you for the help!


One more thing....16 vs 32gb, for Gaming.

I know 16 is enough for today. But I Wana futureproof this PC.

Should I get 32gb, just in case?
I'd rather not spend anymore $