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Hey everyone,

I'm in the process of building a new PC with a Ryzen 7 7700X and an ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F motherboard. I'm trying to figure out the best DDR5 RAM to pair with it. I've seen a lot of conflicting advice online about optimal speeds and timings.

Is 6000MHz CL30 the absolute sweet spot for Ryzen 7000, or can I get away with slightly slower speeds (like 5600MHz) to save some money without a noticeable performance hit? I'm mainly using it for gaming and some light content creation (video editing).

Any recommendations on specific kits or brands would be greatly appreciated!

Hi JohnDoe,

For Ryzen 7000, 6000MHz CL30 is indeed widely considered the "sweet spot" due to how AMD's Infinity Fabric scales. Running your RAM at 6000MHz allows the Infinity Fabric clock (FCLK) to run at 2000MHz (a 1:1 ratio with the memory controller), which generally provides the best balance of performance and stability.

While 5600MHz will still work and be perfectly fine for most tasks, you might notice a slight dip in CPU-bound scenarios or games that are sensitive to memory latency. The price difference between 6000 CL30 and 5600 CL36 (a common timing for 5600) is often not that significant anymore.

I'd recommend looking at kits like G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo, Corsair Vengeance, or Kingston Fury Beast. Just ensure they are EXPO certified for easy setup with your AMD board.

Echoing SilentKnight here. 6000 CL30 is the way to go for Ryzen 7000. I upgraded my 7600X with a 2x16GB kit of G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 6000 CL30, and the difference was noticeable, especially in benchmarks and multitasking. Make sure to enable the EXPO profile in your BIOS!

For content creation, more RAM capacity can be more impactful than minor speed differences, so if you're on a budget and considering 32GB vs 64GB, that might be a bigger decision point. But for general gaming and moderate editing, 32GB of 6000 CL30 is fantastic.