Higher clock speed or lower latency

happyguy82

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Hello all,

Similar articles on this subject seem to cover the older DDR3 memories. The DDR4 playing field seems to be a little different, thus I would like some advice on this specific example.

Which would be a better option of the following two?

Btw, assume the chipset is Z270 and CPU is 7700K. Thank you.

1) [Trident Z] F4-3400C16Q-64GTZ

DDR4-3400 (PC4-27200)
64GB (16GBx4)
CL16-16-16-36
1.35 Volt


2) [Trident Z RGB] F4-3600C17Q-64GTZR

DDR4-3600 (PC4-28800)
64GB (16GBx4)
CL17-19-19-39
1.35 Volt


I don't now if I'm doing this right but:

1) 3,400 / 16 = 212.5

2) 3,600 / 19 = 189.4

The math implies that the 3,400 Mhz with lower latency achieves more operations per second, thus Option 1 seems more logical. I'm not sure whether this analysis is flawed.

Please advise.

Thank you.
 


(CL/(freq-in-MHZ) * 1000) = timing in ns

(16/3400 * 1000) = 4.705
(17/3600* 1000) = 4.722
Very close. The lower CL actually has a larger impact on speeds.
(14/3200*1000) = 4.375

Really as long as the actual timing comes out below 5 - you're in a good place.

The closer you can get to 4 the better. I don't believe DDR4 will be going below 4ns any time soon.
 

happyguy82

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Hello,

Thanks and sorry I'm a bit confused by the 1st bit as I thought XMP takes care of OC automatically?

Thanks for the URL, I'll read up over dinner.


Cheers.
 

happyguy82

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Hello mate,

Thanks for the correction. Ahh this is even more confusing because the fastest (3200 Mhz) based on your calculation appears to be the cheapest of the 3; so why would one buy higher speed RAM modules?

Thanks again.
 



Not all 3200 has a CAS/CL of 14, usually it is higher.
I love my Team Dark Pros though.
 

happyguy82

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Ahh OK so then how would I know whether it's required? How can I tell whether it's running at full spec and what does that mean? Thanks again.
 
Enable XMP, see that it has the correct clock - lets say 3200.

PC boots up, doesn't crash - then it worked.
PC doesn't boot, or boots but crashes- you need to adjust some stuff.

You can use HWMonitor to see what things are running at from within windows.
 

happyguy82

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Hello,

Thanks again. So you're saying given your example the 3,200 would be the fastest option of the 3 right?

Thanks.