I was looking at the specs for the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 motherboard. This is from the Supported RAM section:
Dual channel memory architecture Support for DDR3 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz memory modules Support for non-ECC memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
What I wanted to know is if (O.C.) next to the bandwidth means overclocked, then does it have to be the processor or the RAM or both that have to be overclocked. I don't understand this. Why is there no (O.C.) typed next to !600 / 1333 MHz?
Secondly, there are RAM kits available with higher bandwidths than 1600, so, for example a kit with a bandwidth of 2400 MHz will also need overclocking or will it just run fine by using one of the XMP profiles in the BIOS?
One more question, I think (correct me if I'm wrong) I heard Linus say (when he did the Haswell unboxing/review) that the IMC on the Haswell chip allows RAM of higher bandwidths to be run without overclocking, so why is this motherboard supporting higher bandwidths with overclocking only?