Why does DDR4 have slow timings but rediculously high speeds?

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Ro-Tang Clan

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I'm upgrading to the X99 platform and I was going to choose the Panram Ninja V memory kit, but I noticed in the comments it got slated for slow timings[http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/panram-ninja-v-series-ddr4-3300-mhz-dimm-kits.html]. However, even looking at the G Skill Trident Z and V models the timings aren't much different [http://hexus.net/tech/news/ram/85151-gskill-trident-z-extreme-ddr4-4ghz-designed-skylake-s/]. Yet both brands offer their kits in 3000MHz and above.

So what gives? Why bother going for a 3000MHz kit if the timings are 17-18-18-38? Will this not hamper performance or does DDR4 work differently?
 
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Tradesman1
Basically No, it's simply the onward continuation of DRAM they sarted laying out specs for DDR4 about 10 years ago, it was simply to follow DDR3 (which originally was to top out at 1600, then DDR4 would come and pick up at 1866, except, JEDEC dragged things out and the DRAM manufacturers listen to the users, and came out with faster on the DDR3 footprint, they had 2400 and 2666 sticks out before JEDEC even printed specs for 1866 and 2133 in DDR3. The big change is lower voltage which is why the CAS runs higher, though you can often raise the DRAM voltage with DDR4 and lower the timings.

If your look at the DDR4 Trident Z they have a CAS of 15, back to DDR3 my Trident X 2800 run on a CAS of 12
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robax91

robax91

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Depends on your workload. Usually you'll want lower timings instead of higher speed though (like if you can get a lower cas timing instead of a 200mhz higher stick). Here is an article that explains it. http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/understanding-ram-timings/
 
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Ro-Tang Clan

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Many thanks to for the reply and the link - I was aware of what the timings do and what the clockspeed does, but it was a really interesting read and I learned a lot more actually.

However, I wanted to know if DDR4 was fundamentally different to DDR3 in a way that it processes the data. If it's based on the same principles, why are memory manufacturer's pushing really high clock speeds but have terrible timings? Isn't this counter intuitive?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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Basically No, it's simply the onward continuation of DRAM they sarted laying out specs for DDR4 about 10 years ago, it was simply to follow DDR3 (which originally was to top out at 1600, then DDR4 would come and pick up at 1866, except, JEDEC dragged things out and the DRAM manufacturers listen to the users, and came out with faster on the DDR3 footprint, they had 2400 and 2666 sticks out before JEDEC even printed specs for 1866 and 2133 in DDR3. The big change is lower voltage which is why the CAS runs higher, though you can often raise the DRAM voltage with DDR4 and lower the timings.

If your look at the DDR4 Trident Z they have a CAS of 15, back to DDR3 my Trident X 2800 run on a CAS of 12
 
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