DDR5-6000 Memory is the Sweet Spot For AMD Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 CPUs (update)

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 09/01/2022 08:54 AM | source: | 50 comment(s)

AMD's Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 CPUs appear to have DDR5-6000 as their sweet spot, allowing for a 1:1 IFC ratio. A 1:1 ratio indicates that the memory operates at the same frequency as the memory controller on the CPU, which should provide the best-case situation.

Intel has divided the memory ranks with Alder into two categories: a 2:1 mode known as Gear 2 that is the default for DDR5, and a 4:1 variant known as Gear 4. A 1:1 ratio has the advantage of allowing for reduced latencies and a balanced speed. In contrast, a greater ratio allows for better overclocking and quicker data transfer rates but also results in worse latencies.

AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" Sweet Spot - DDR4-3800
AMD Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" Sweet Spot - DDR4-4000
AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" Sweet Spot - DDR5-6000

DDR5-6000 for AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs already sounds amazing for AM5, with a default to DDR5-5600. Higher frequency DIMMs are supported, however, if you exceed the DDR5-6000 limit, you will be forced to use a 1:2 IFC. DDR5-6400 operating at 1:2 is said to offer poor results and is not advised if you want better gaming performance.

Update:

AMD announced DDR5-6000 as the "sweetspot" memory overclock for their next Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" processors in its Discord AMA. In AMD language, a sweet spot frequency is an inflection of performance, stability, cost, and ease. AMD's Robert Hallock, who led the Discord AMA, suggested that FClk be left undisturbed at "Auto" for the best results. Memory overclocking yields lesser results with dual-rank DIMMs, or two DIMMs per memory channel, as with both AMD and Intel currently. Some of the AMD EXPO-certified DIMMs launched in recent days use memory clocks higher than DDR5-6000.

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GREGIX
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#6040916 Posted on: 08/10/2022 04:06 PM

A C30 kit is about $100 USD more than a C36 kit. So the question is would a lower latency slower kit be better or should you stick with the C36 if trying to save money?

In most cases CL and other primary timings are not so significant to DDR5 overall latency and general performance as secondary and tertiary timings.
Yes, it nice to have 6000+MHz cl32 kit, but it will get destroyed left on xmp by tuned cl40 kit at same frequency.

cucaulay malkin
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#6040917 Posted on: 08/10/2022 04:06 PM

finally ddr5 will be worth it.

Zeblote
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#6040918 Posted on: 08/10/2022 04:08 PM

We really need to stop measuring by CL and start measuring in total latency. Every version of DDR gets significantly worse CAS latency but the total latency tends to improve. DDR5 at 6000MHz and CL36 is better than most options for DDR4, especially if you compare performance : price.

Kool64
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#6040921 Posted on: 08/10/2022 04:17 PM

If you're not depending on an iGPU and are doing dual-channel, I figure spending the extra $100 won't be worth it in real-world workloads. I suspect Zen4 isn't going to be held back as much by memory performance as Zen2, especially if you get a 1:1 gear.

Yeah I actually had that same conclusion when I bought my C18 3600 32gb kit for $100 or so less than the comparable C16.

In most cases CL and other primary timings are not so significant to DDR5 overall latency and general performance as secondary and tertiary timings.
Yes, it nice to have 6000+MHz cl32 kit, but it will get destroyed left on xmp by tuned cl40 kit at same frequency.

indeed but then you could theoretically tune the better kit even more for even more speed. Then again these days I personally don't OC stuff like I did back in the day so I'm more of a middle of the road drop in performance type.

schmidtbag
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#6040922 Posted on: 08/10/2022 04:18 PM

Sure. My current DDR4 kit is 3600 CL14. The best DDR5 I can buy is either 6000 CL30 or 5600 CL28. The "total latency" is almost 30% worse.

This will be a horrible "upgrade", especially in Unreal Engine games that spend lots of time chasing pointers.
Do you know what total latency means? Because where are you getting 30% worse from?
https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-ddr5-vs-ddr4-ram-memory-z690-12900k?page=2
While that chart shows CAS latencies higher than what we're talking about, it still tells a complete story: we're talking a couple nanosecond here and there, which is basically margin of error.
Meanwhile, note the major improvement in read/write performance of DDR5. Even if the total latency was worse (which it pretty much isn't), you would still have overall better memory performance.

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