I have a friend who's getting back into PC gaming after some recent console price hikes. Back in the day when he built his PCs, RAM used to look like this Crucial 16GB DDR4 3200MHz CL22. Given the current sky-high prices for RAM that looks more appealing, can someone explain to my friend why this seemingly reasonable DDR4 RAM is viewed as subpar? It's not DDR5, but is it still a decent upgrade over the 16GB he's currently using?
3 Answers
If you already have 16GB at 3200MHz, adding that RAM might just downgrade your speed to 2133MHz, especially if your current sticks are higher quality. It's better to stay with what you have unless you're really hitting that memory limit.
Most consumers look for RAM with heatspreaders. The RAM you mentioned is pretty basic without extra cooling features, which can be a concern during heavy use since it might overheat, although that's rare. The speed is fine, but the higher latency could slow things down a bit.
The DDR4-3200 you're looking at has a latency of CL22, which is quite high. Typically, CL16 is standard for that speed, meaning this RAM could potentially have slower response times which may impact performance.
Totally agree! CL22 is a red flag, but not necessarily a performance killer for everyone.
Gotcha! I mainly game, but I also like to have YouTube running. Sounds like I might be okay sticking with 16GB.