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.
