AMD Ryzen 7 Memory And Tweaking Analysis review - Performance - Game testing

Game Testing

Right, crunch time. What will be the effect of faster clocked memory with games at 1920x1080, and sure I'll throw in 2560x1440 as well. Now for our AMD Ryzen reviews I have already made the default memory clock frequency 2667 MHz, I am now considering to make 2933 MHz the new default baseline test frequency for memory in our reviews. And here is why:
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

Tomb Raider and Far Cry Primal are among the two worst performing games on Ryzen (in a CPU sensitive resolution). So from left to right you can see that the first four bars is Ryzen 7 at default clocks with the memory ranging from 2133 MHz up-to 3200 MHz. So let me once again reiterate what the values mean.  That alone in 1080p increases your average FPS by 9. That's 12% coming from 2133 MHz to 3200 MHz with the same processors clocks. Once we add our processor tweak towards 4.1 GHz on the Ryzen 7 processor, we gain another 14 fps (colored in black thus is the CPU overclock + 3200MHz memory). That's right, fast memory + the overclock brings in ~30% more performance in Far Cry Primal. These tests have been performed on the Geforce GTX 1080. And yes we hear you guys in the forums, once my schedule clears up a bit we'll do some additional testing with AMD Radeon cards as well. We need a Radeon RX VEGA dammit :)
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

 
Deus Ex also benefits from faster memory. In 1080p we rise 9 FPS when we reach 3200 MHz which is substantial. And another 11 FPS when the CPU is overclocked. I'll keep saying this though, everything is relative! We use a Ryzen 7 1700 processor, if we'd use an 1800X that margin would be smaller of course. But I am trying to show you where the best gain in perf is to be found with the best value eight-core processor. As when you buy that cheaper processor, you safe money for something else like faster memory or some nice liquid cooling :) BTW - at 2560x1440 as you can see, you are GPU bound in Deus Ex.  
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

 
Last week AOTS was updated with Ryzen specific optimizations. This boosted the overall framerate significantly at 1080p. But there's plenty of room left to deal with. In-between 2133 MHz and 3200 MHz there's already 15% performance to be found. Once you overclock towards 4100 MHz on the processor and combine it with 3200 MHz memory, you see a performance delta of 29%, which is massive.  Now to the left side I plotted the average CPU framerate. You'll notice that is matches the right side average FPS per frequency. Only once overclocked we see the CPU frame-rate (left) to be higher compared to the average FPS (right). That means at 4100 MHz CPU / 3200 MHz DRAM we just broke free of the CPU bottleneck (with a GTX 1080). 
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

 
We tested Hitman with the latest build, the new game patches from March have seriously increased overall performance. The benefits from faster memory is smaller, but it still is ~5%, add to that the overclock and you will have gained 16% in total at 1080p with Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4100 MHz and 3200 MHz memory.
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

 
Rise of the Tomb Raider is THE title that is hit the most in relative performance compared to Intel. The faster memory helps as we reach 104 FPS coming from 91. That's almost 15% extra performance. Then with the overclock you reach a much better 114 FPS in 1080p. It is still too little compared to what Intel is doing, but all the small steps surely do accumulate as from the first to the latest step in tweaking we gained 25% performance at 1920x1080. 
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

 
Battlefield 1 from day 1 was performing quite well with Ryzen. We can see that neither the memory or the processor tweak has a big enough effect on performance to be substantial.
 

Ryzen 7 1700 - 2133 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2133 MHx CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2400 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2400 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 2933 CL16	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 2933 MHz CL16
Ryzen 7 1700 - 3200 CL14	Processor at default clock frequencies - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14
Ryzen 7 1700 @ 4.1 - 3200 CL14	All CPU cores @ 4100 MHz - DDR4 3200 MHz CL14 (XMP enabled)

As synthetic as the benchmark can be, everybody loves it. Time Spy sees little increases with memory differentials as it is a GPU bound title. Still, from bottom to top we gain a good 211 points.