Which Ram to pick? 6000CL36 vs 5600CL46

Hello,

I’m pretty new to the whole AM5 and DDR5 platform. I haven’t built a computer since 2021, so a lot has changed since then xD.

I recently built a new PC with 32GB of RAM, but I’m already looking to upgrade to 64GB. The problem is DDR5 is pretty expensive right now.

I’m currently running G.SKILL 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL36, but I’ve found some cheaper 64GB kits/listings around DDR5-5600 CL46.

How big of a difference would 5600 CL46 actually make for gaming compared to 6000 CL36? I know it’s slower in both frequency and latency, but I’m wondering if the real world difference is noticeable.

My specs:

* CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X3D
* GPU: RTX 5080
* RAM: G.SKILL 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL36

32GB honestly doesn’t cut it for what I do. I usually run a couple of servers at the same time, and I’m already sitting around 18–24GB of RAM usage on the desktop without even having a game open.

My old build had 64GB of DDR4, and it was way more comfortable for both my work and gaming.

I’ve also heard that having an X3D CPU makes slower RAM timings like CL46 less of an issue because of the extra cache, but I’m not sure how true that is because again this is my first time owning a new computer componets I used to have i7 8700k with 2070 so there wasnt all that fancy stuff xD.

Would you guys rather go with 64GB 5600 CL46 or stay at 32GB 6000 CL36 until I can afford a faster 64GB kit?

Would appreciate any opinions.

The 6000 MT/s kit has both higher bandwidth and lower latency (CL divided by memory clock rate). That’s the better kit.

Iirc the interconnect layer on Ryzen ticks in sync with the 6000 which makes it a sweet spot over higher or lower. 6000 with tighter timings being the performance lead. CL46 on 5600 is actually pretty rough timings, but I don't know the real world impact honestly. If you need the raw 64 GB capacity though, you need the raw capacity. What are you doing that needs that extra leg room, because 64 GB is well beyond any gaming scenario?

Not having enough capacity is a much bigger problem than having slightly lower bandwidth or higher latency. The difference in speed between different RAM kits is negligible compared to the difference between RAM and reading virtual memory from disk.

I do alot of heavy work like 3D editing sometimes, 4K-8k rendering, usually I have 2-3 game servers hosted running constantly pretty much.

Honestly, I'm not sure. It's going to be worse, but whether it will be significant will really depend on how memory intensive whatever you're doing is.

You might want to check the return policy and if it's lax enough, maybe you can try it and return it if it is a problem.

As far as X3D goes, it's sort of true, but mostly marketing. The whole point is having more cache, so you have a greater chance of getting cache hits, and every time that happens, you've bypassed the RAM, making the speed of the RAM inconsequential. However, it's still only 96MB on the CCD with the extra cache, and your here worrying about 32 GB not being enough RAM. Obviously, not everything is going to be cached, and any time you get a cache miss, you're still back to pulling from RAM, which is now slower. Again, it's one of those things that's impossible to predict. It very likely won't be an issue for gaming, or at least in most cases, but it also could be an issue, just as easily. X3D doesn't offer any guarantees that RAM speed truly doesn't matter.

I know for gaming, that can be anywhere from 2-10% drop in performance (depending on the game), but not sure about your workload use cases. Like u/jawhite said though, faster ram doesn't help if you don't have enough. That bottleneck will be significantly worse than a small dip in speed on the ram kit itself.

For the workloads you listed, I'd take 64GB at 5600 over staying at 32GB/6000—paging will hurt a lot more than that speed drop. The 9950X3D's cache should make the gaming difference less noticeable, but I'd check the board QVL first since 2x32GB can be fussier about EXPO. Which board are you running?

6000 CL36 all day.

If you just want it to play doesn't matter tune which ever kit down. You want best latency of two cl36 kit should be better bin.

gigabyte 870x motherboard wifi 6
Oh okay I was thinking just adding the 2x16gb on top of my current ones and it will automatically reduce to 5600 speeds, and matches. I wasn’t thinking of doing 2x32gb more like 4x16gb

I was thinking of adding a 32gb kit on top of my current 32gb kit not buying a whole new 2 sticks 64gb kit

If you’re needing 32+ then buy it

It’ll be a bit slower for 1080p gaming, but very useful for your other workloads

You can easily sell your 32G kit, and probably OC the 64G kit to 6000c40 with a bit volt bump and some airflow