Ryzen

LunarMist

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Maybe the latency is a little less, but It's not worth double to me.
 

Handruin

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Are you comparing the Corsair to G.Skill or Geil RAM? What do you recommend that is comparable at 2 x 16GB DDR-3200 CAS 14 or better?
 

LunarMist

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I don't see any specs for that on the AMD site. What are the timing requirements?
 

Stereodude

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Are you comparing the Corsair to G.Skill or Geil RAM? What do you recommend that is comparable at 2 x 16GB DDR-3200 CAS 14 or better?
It looks like 3600 CAS16 is a better performer than 3200 CAS14, but not even all the different sites' tests of Ryzen 3xxx for memory performance come to the same conclusions.

 

Handruin

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3600 CAS16 makes sense, the timings are very close to 3200 CAS14 which is why I was looking at 3200 C14 modules.
3200C14: 8.75ns
3600C16: 8.88ns

My interests wasn't to get the performance to the nth degree, I'm mainly interested in stability and maybe a chance that the XMP profile might work for once.

This might be the cheapest I've seen for a 3600C16 in 2 x 16GB for $160:

Not sure how comfortable I am with gskill for stability.
 

LunarMist

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±2% means little to me compared to other factors. I'll probably get Venegance. Those goofy, LED, tall RAM modules might hit the heatsink. :(
 

Stereodude

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This might be the cheapest I've seen for a 3600C16 in 2 x 16GB for $160:

Not sure how comfortable I am with gskill for stability.
I wouldn't have any concerns myself. They have two different CAS16 options (16-16-16-36 & 16-19-19-39). I don't know which CAS16 flavor is representative of what was used in those articles.

Here's the other CAS16 kit:

According to PC Parts Picker no one else makes 2x16GB kits of CAS16 DDR4-3600 other than G.Skill.
 

Handruin

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Maybe I'll have to give them a shot and see how good their RAM is. I agree, I didn't see any other 2x16GB kits of that spec and didn't have time to shop around at other sites to see what else is available.
 

LunarMist

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Me and my buddy both ordered the ASRock Taichi x570 while it's on sale at Newegg. This is the lowest I've seen it so far at $259.99 with an additional $20 rebate. If I can find a 3950X I'll go that route.

Would you consider anything less? :)
I don't understand where the M.2 SSDs are located? Are they hidden under the board? It seems that a lot of breakdown/reassembly would be needed every time they are swapped.
 

Handruin

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Would you consider anything less? :)
I don't understand where the M.2 SSDs are located? Are they hidden under the board? It seems that a lot of breakdown/reassembly would be needed every time they are swapped.
I would rarely replace an M.2 SSD so I'm not worried. I have an existing Samsung 970 EVO that I never did anything with from last year that will go in there. All three M.2 slots are located under the metal shroud per the docs.

X570 Taichi-m2location.jpg
 

Handruin

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I have a partially working Python script to poll my local Microcenter for the 3950X and alert me when it comes in stock. Probably a little overkill but it is fun to write.
 

Stereodude

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I have a partially working Python script to poll my local Microcenter for the 3950X and alert me when it comes in stock. Probably a little overkill but it is fun to write.
I don't think you'll be able to buy it online though, so your plan is to head to the store ASAP after getting the alert?
 

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In the past I have been able to buy my parts and then do their in store pickup. I don't know if this cpu would be any different.
 

Stereodude

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In the past I have been able to buy my parts and then do their in store pickup. I don't know if this cpu would be any different.
I'm pretty sure it will be different. High demand items aren't available for purchase online even if they're in stock in store. Like right now for me the 3900X is in stock in my local store, but I can't buy it online. The Rpi 4 was that way too when it first came out.
 

Handruin

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Well, maybe that's true now for the 3950X but it wasn't true the day it released. I had one in my shopping cart to buy for pickup but got distracted by other stuff before ordering and it sold out. That's why I was going on the premise I should be able to do the same now.

If it does show up in stock, I could drive over during a lunch break and see if I can snag one.
 
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Handruin

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That is intriguing for sure. Would have been nice to have a fourth comparison of the G.Skill Trident 3200 CL14 in 2 x 8GB rather than just the 2 x 16GB. It's unclear if the system test advantage is due to the increased capacity or possibly something to do with the CL14 (8.75ns) very tiny latency advantage versus the 3600 CL16 (8.88). I do doubt that a difference of that amount would make this kind of difference.

The size difference may be more a factor of how the Windows OS deals with compression/page cache management, etc from the software running the tasks when there is excess free memory whereas the synthetics may be built to avoid using those OS benefits to keep things more consistent.
 

sdbardwick

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16GB modules might be dual-rank; I know that in memory intensive situations that can make a measurable difference. IME under Prime95 dual-rank is worth more than reducing CAS by 2.
 

Stereodude

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16GB modules might be dual-rank; I know that in memory intensive situations that can make a measurable difference. IME under Prime95 dual-rank is worth more than reducing CAS by 2.
You're saying dual rank is better for performance vs. single rank?
 

sdbardwick

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Yes. DR is better than SR.
At least in memory-bottlenecked situations. Prime95 is memory bound (since AVX instructions appeared), so the hardcore users spend much effort on memory optimization. Some trustworthy users report gains >10% with DR vs. SR (in an application where single digit percentage gains are considered worthwhile); I have noted increases >5% with no effort beyond replacing SR with DR (I am no longer one of the hardcore Prime95 users :)).
For additional gains, using 2 DIMMs per memory channel (2DPC) also improves throughput.
 

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That's surprising DR is faster than SR in your example. I thought dual rank memory had to share the data bus, one per rank which seems to imply a bottleneck. Is the DR performance benefit only when multiple channels are used?
 

sdbardwick

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As it was explained to me, DR enables what amounts to low-level interleaving, like in channel level interleaving.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_rank
The wiki article states there may be a performance penalty with multiple ranks, just after it describes a performance benefit; I think that means the effect of SR vs. DR will be workload/memory access pattern dependent.

I can't answer the single vs multiple channel question; always on multiple channels.
I now wonder if the 2DPC really only provides benefits with SR modules, as they become the functional equivalent of a single DR module.

ETA: All of my comments are concerning DDR4 only. I have no idea if they apply to DDR3 and earlier, as DDR4's interface/protocols are significantly different. And I never personally tested various rank or DIMM combinations back then.
 
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Handruin

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Not surprising that I got an alert Newegg has the 3950X in stock...they want $900 for it. lol Good for them for trying but hell no.
 

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Handruin

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I have been, yes. I got a Bestbuy alert today and had it in my cart to checkout but went out of stock within a minute. The Nowinstock didn't have one for Microcenter which is why I wrote my own. Maybe they have one now.
 

Stereodude

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The Nowinstock didn't have one for Microcenter which is why I wrote my own. Maybe they have one now.
I don't think they do.

Probably the best solution is to make friends with the Microcenter employee who checks in new inventory and get them to set one aside for you or give you a heads-up that they're entering them into their system (when they get them) so you can basically be there waiting for it when you can buy one.
 

Handruin

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B&H is selling the 3950X with a nice up charge of $1100. 🖕 My Now In Stock alert doesn't even alert me it's that bad.
 

LunarMist

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AMD is full of it. They launched a product with very limited stock. :rolleyes:
 

Handruin

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Intel has done the same numerous times in the past and likely in the future. This isn't unique to AMD.
 

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Apple laptops and desktops currently use Intel CPUs and their mobile and tablet use their own silicon design fabricated by TSMC.
 

Stereodude

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AMD is full of it. They launched a product with very limited stock. :rolleyes:
That's one way to look at it. We have no idea how much stock they had. Lots of products sell out at product introduction. Even things from really big companies like Apple.

You could also take the alternative perspective that they are just selling it far too cheaply.
 
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