I'm upgrading the memory in my system and am deciding between Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200 CL16 and G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-3600 CL18. The rest of the build uses a Ryzen 7 5800XT and an RTX 3060 12GB. Is the faster 3600 kit a better choice, or would the lower-latency 3200 kit be preferable?
3 Answers
Check whether the Ripjaws kit is CL18, confirm both kits are supported by your motherboard, and compare the prices. Since the Corsair is CL16 while the Ripjaws is CL18, their actual latency is fairly close. I’d personally favor G.Skill if it has the better price or warranty experience.
Go with whichever is cheaper, assuming both are from a reputable seller. The Corsair kit has slightly lower true latency—roughly 9.4 ns versus 10 ns—but the difference is minor and usually won’t justify paying much extra. You may also need to reduce the advertised memory speed slightly if the system isn’t stable with the default overclocking profile.
The difference will be pretty small in real-world use, but I’d lean toward the 3600 kit if the price is similar. It should pair well with a Ryzen system, and the RGB on the Corsair kit isn’t worth prioritizing unless you specifically want the look.
The Corsair kit is CL16, while the Ripjaws kit is CL18. They’re both DDR4.