My G.SKILL TridentZ Neo DDR4-3600 CL16 kit failed in both sticks, so I sent it in for an RMA and received a brand-new replacement. While waiting, I bought a Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 kit for €207.82, and I have been using it for about a month.
Now I need to decide which kit to keep and which to sell. The unused G.SKILL replacement could sell for around €280, while the lightly used Corsair kit would probably sell for about €180. My system has a Ryzen 7 5800X3D and a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and it is primarily used for gaming.
Is the performance difference between DDR4-3200 CL16 and DDR4-3600 CL16 significant enough to justify keeping the G.SKILL kit, or should I sell the more valuable one?
3 Answers
For gaming, either kit should work well with the 5800X3D. I would sell the kit that gives you the higher return, which in this case appears to be the brand-new G.SKILL replacement. The faster kit may be somewhat more desirable to buyers, but it is unlikely to provide €100 worth of extra performance in your own system.
The G.SKILL kit is the better-performing option on paper. DDR4-3600 CL16 is close to the ideal memory speed for Ryzen 5000 because it can usually run with the memory and fabric clocks synchronized. That said, compared with DDR4-3200 CL16, the real-world gaming difference is generally very small—often around 1% and difficult to notice. Since the replacement is unused and worth more, selling the G.SKILL kit and keeping the Corsair kit is the financially sensible choice unless you specifically want the extra memory headroom or overclocking potential.
If you prefer to keep the technically stronger kit, keep the G.SKILL DDR4-3600 CL16 memory. It is closer to Ryzen 5000's usual sweet spot and may have more tuning headroom. However, do not expect a dramatic difference from the Corsair DDR4-3200 CL16 kit in normal games.
That makes sense. I was skeptical because the price difference between 3200 and 3600 kits is much larger than the performance difference, but the market prices seem out of proportion.