As you consider a RAM upgrade for your PC, one key decision is whether to opt for a mainstream 3200MHz memory kit or stretch your budget a bit for faster 3600MHz RAM. But with only a 400MHz difference on paper between these two tiers of DDR4 memory, you may be wondering – is it really worth paying extra for that additional speed? Will I even notice the difference in my day to day use?
These are great questions to ask! While benchmarks might show a 10-15% performance advantage for 3600MHz RAM under heavy workloads, real-world experience can often differ from test suite results. So let‘s thoroughly compare these two sweet spots of DDR4 memory to make sense of it all.
How Much Faster is 3600MHz Compared to 3200MHz RAM?
To understand if and when faster 3600MHz memory is worthwhile, we first need to outline the key spec differences that impact performance:
- Bandwidth – 3600MHz RAM boasts 12.5% higher maximum theoretical bandwidth compared to 3200MHz (3.6 billion transfers per second vs 3.2 billion per second)
- Latency – 3600MHz offsets some of its bandwidth advantage with looser timings resulting in higher CAS latency – often between CL16 to CL19, whereas quality 3200MHz RAM reaches as low as CL14
- Benchmark Results – In synthetic benchmarks and some real-world tests, 3600MHz pulls about 5-15% ahead of 3200MHz
So in essence, the 3600MHz memory spec offers moderate improvements to potential speed. But do those gains actually make your PC or applications feel noticeably faster or more responsive? Let‘s explore some usage scenarios to find out.
Performance Impact for Gaming
For gaming and other graphics-heavy workloads that are sensitive to RAM speeds, 3600MHz does provide a small but measurable bump over 3200MHz memory.
According to testing by Gamers Nexus across popular titles like CS:GO, GTA V and Far Cry, upgrading from 3200MHz to 3600MHz DDR4 improved average FPS by around 5-10%. Factoring in cost, they calculated about a 1.3% gain in FPS per dollar spent on the faster RAM.
So while noticeable for competitive gamers looking to extract every last bit of frame rate, for more casual gaming the difference would likely get lost amongst all the other variables that impact perceived experience. You‘d be hard pressed to feel the exact difference in responsiveness during actual gameplay.
Content Creation and Productivity Performance
While gaming sees modest improvements, professional creative workflows with heavy RAM requirements can benefit more substantially from 3600MHz memory.
For example, Puget Systems testing showed very sizable performance gains in Premiere Pro when moving from standard DDR4-3200 up to DDR4-3600 memory:
| Test Platform | Export Time (3200MHz) | Export Time (3600MHz) | Improvement |
| AMD Ryzen 5950X | 197 seconds | 168 seconds | 14.7% faster |
| Intel Core i9-10980XE | 138 seconds | 118 seconds | 14.5% faster |
So content creators working with high resolution video can expect to shave nearly 15% off export times by bumping up to 3600MHz memory. Similar performance uplifts would apply to other memory intensive applications like 3D rendering, computational fluid dynamics and even compiler throughput.
However, more modest productivity-focused tasks like web browsing, Office work and lightweight photo editing see very little gains from such memory upgrades. So 3600MHz is only warranted for more professional creative workloads.
What If I‘m Not a Hardcore Gamer or Content Creator?
For mainstream desktops and basic work PCs not used for gaming or creative professional work, springing for 3600MHz memory is frankly overkill. General web browsing, Office programs, media consumption and other common tasks will see at best a negligible experience difference versus standard 3200MHz RAM.
I know it can be tempting to chase those cutting edge specs and higher performance numbers you see on benchmarks. But for most day-to-day computing work, you would gain very little perceptible benefit from kits faster than 3200MHz.
So unless you have a clear need case around gaming or creative applications, I‘d suggest sticking with quality 3200MHz RAM as the better blend of great real-world performance, compatibility, and value.
The Bottom Line
Given current DDR4 memory pricing trends, my general RAM speed recommendations for most builders would be:
- 3200MHz – Ideal balance of price and performance for majority of users
- Exceptional sweet spot for mainstream and budget focused builds
- 3600MHz
- Worth 5-15% extra cost only for competitive/professional gamers, content creators and other memory bandwidth limited use cases
- Overkill for general office and web tasks given negligible experience uplift
There are also some other memory considerations like dual channel vs quad channel configurations, overclocking potential, and emerging standards like DDR5 that I‘m happy to explore further based on your planned usage and budget! Let me know if you have any other questions.
