PC Gamer Presents - PC Hardware Handbook - May 2018

Our test bed consists of an Asus X370 Crosshair VI Hero for Ryzen, and an Asus X399 ROG Zenith Extreme motherboard for Threadripper. All memory tests were

performed with either 8GB or 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DIMMs, with a CAS latency of 16.

8GB DDR4 Cinebench R15 Single/Multi

(Index)

AIDA 64

Memory

Read

(MB/s)

AIDA 64

Latency (ns)

Total War

Warhammer II

(Low and

Avg fps)

Middle Earth

Shadow of War

(Low and

Avg fps)

10GB WINRar

Archive Time

(Seconds)

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 2,400MT/s 156/1,607 37,299 91.4 32/42 18/51 344

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 2,666MT/s 153/1,615 41,307 87.3 33/42 22/50 340

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 3,000MT/s 154/1,632 46,202 79.9 37/43 28/51 316

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 3,200MT/s 155/1,638 48,473 76.5 35/43 31/51 308

16GB DDR4 Cinebench R15 Single/Multi

(Index)

AIDA 64

Memory

Read

(MB/s)

AIDA 64

Latency (ns)

Total War

Warhammer II

(Low and

Avg fps)

Middle Earth

Shadow of War

(Low and

Avg fps)

10GB WINRar

Archive Time

(Seconds)

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 2,400MT/s 153/1,607 36,523 93.7 30/41 17/51 345

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 2,666MT/s 149/1,612 40,436 88.9 30/41 18/50 336

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 3,000MT/s 150/1,620 45,717 80.6 37/43 29/52 319

Ryzen 7 1800X @ 3,200MT/s 154/1,632 47,850 75.1 35/43 27/52 311

32GB DDR4 Cinebench R15 Single/Multi

(Index)

AIDA 64

Memory

Read

(MB/s)

AIDA 64

Latency (ns)

Total War

Warhammer II

(Low and

Avg fps)

Middle Earth

Shadow of War

(Low and

Avg fps)

10GB WINRar

Archive Time

(Seconds)

Threadripper 1950X @ 2,400MT/s 141/2,891 56,524 113.7 38/43 24/55 532

Threadripper 1950X @ 2,666MT/s 138/2,902 62,712 106.2 31/43 25/54 505

Threadripper 1950X @ 3,000MT/s 140/2,939 71,961 97.0 39/43 24/53 472

Threadripper 1950X @ 3,200MT/s 139/2,945 74,992 94.3 39/44 23/53 464

BENCHMARKS

Memory Matters

FEATURE

MEMORY MASTERY FOR TEAM RED

AMD

Ryzen is an oddity when it comes to memory.

For the first time in eons, memory speed

impacts processor performance. Simply going

from 2,666MT/s to 3,200MT/s can equate to a

performance increase of around 10 per cent in

rendering tasks. Combine that with an

overclock on your Ryzen CPU, and you can net

yourself almost 25 per cent more grunt. Why

is this? It’s all down to how AMD has crafted

its Infinity Fabric. This is the interface that

connects all the core complexes in the

processor together, enabling them to

communicate with one another. The Infinity

Fabric is directly controlled by the IMC

(integrated memory controller), so the higher

the speed of the memory, the faster the IMC

operates, and the quicker the processor can

transfer bits of data across each core complex.

It’s a smart solution, but it does mean that

Ryzen is somewhat bound by its dependency

on faster memory – not so good when the

memory market is priced as high as it is today.

So, best bet? If you’re heading toward Team

Red’s Ryzen platform, get the highest

frequency memory you can, at a capacity that

best suits you. While this may make things

more expensive in the memory stakes thanks

to the current overinflation of RAM prices

(thanks, crypto miners), there is a trade off in

that AMD chips are typically a bit cheaper

than Intel’s offerings. Gamers especially may

find that they’ll be laying out more cash going

for AMD over Intel though, because of the

minimum RAM requirements for AAA games.