I’d see the same model ram sold at DDR4 3000 mhz, 3166 mhz, etc.
Is overclocking the 3000 mhz to 3166 the same? Or do vendors change something physically on the component?
Edit: Thank you all for the quick responses. It’s all been so informative and definitely helps my purchasing decision on my first personal build.
In: Technology
They make a batch of chips, test them and see what speed they can handle without errors, and “bin” them according to their top safe speed. There will be a range because sometimes the silicon happens to be particularly pure, and sometimes has more defects. The same is true for processor performance.
To raise the bar – to get better clock speeds for all the chips – usually means improving the manufacturing process to remove defects or making things smaller. Smaller electronic components work faster, because it takes less time for electrical current to travel through them.
Its about selecting the right part for the right stick
About 95% of all RAM is manufactured by just 3 companies – Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. Every company that sells you RAM sticks buys chips from these three companies, makes the little board, slaps some marketing on it and sells it to you.
The three main companies are trying to make the best RAM they can for the lowest price so they generally make a single chip for a given size (4 GiB, 8 GiB, etc) and then figure out how each chip ends up performing. If a chip ends up with ultra low capacitance transistor then they’ll switch faster and it can reliably send messages with higher frequency/lower latency and can be sold as DDR4 3866, but if its a bit higher capacitance than intended it won’t be able to reliably hit those speeds because the CPU will ask for data before everything is in just the right spot so those ones get marketed at DDR4 3000. There are differences within the chip but they’re the result of manufacturing variation rather than intentional changes, the gate oxide layer is generally 5-10 nm thick on transistors but one oxygen atom more or less can be a few percent variation in thickness which results in a transistor being a few percent faster or slower
The process gets better over time though and there isn’t a ton of demand for the ultra high performing chips which can end up with well performing chips being sold in the standard product which is why you can generally overclock your RAM a bit beyond its officially listed ratings, especially once the technology has matured.
Latest Answers