Asus X79 Memory Compatibility

[PRIME686]

Hi I have an ASUS X79 motherboard its the standard one, my question is this, Can you overclock your memory to different speeds?

[Tam3n]

The simple answer would be "yes"

[Izaya Orihara]

Yes. 

[PRIME686]

I was looking in the BIOS and it has different speeds, my motherboard actually goes up to 2666MHZ speeds, but do you just get lets say 2400mhz ram, stick it in and change the speed or is there more to it?

[Oshino Shinobu]

I was looking in the BIOS and it has different speeds, my motherboard actually goes up to 2666MHZ speeds, but do you just get lets say 2400mhz ram, stick it in and change the speed or is there more to it?

There's much more to it than that. You have to consider the timings and voltages as well. If you overclock RAM too much, you can get really bad timings and end up making it worse because of latency. 

[PRIME686]

And is there a noticeable difference between lets say 1600mhz and 2400mhz?

[PRIME686]

There's much more to it than that. You have to consider the timings and voltages as well. If you overclock RAM too much, you can get really bad timings and end up making it worse because of latency. 

Did you notice a difference between different speeds personally?

[Oshino Shinobu]

And is there a noticeable difference between lets say 1600mhz and 2400mhz?

Depends what you're doing. In gaming? No, basically no difference at all. In video editing and rendering? Yeah, it can make a difference, but it probably won't be so much that you'll notice it unless you're benchmarking. 

[Fred Castellum]

And is there a noticeable difference between lets say 1600mhz and 2400mhz?

Yes there is, but there is a point of diminishing returns, to get a higher mhz speed you have to loosen timings. To get tighter timings you need to lower mhz speeds.

Going too high one way or the other ends up being completely pointless, because not real improvement is seen,  

[PRIME686]

Depends what you're doing. In gaming? No, basically no difference at all. In video editing and rendering? Yeah, it can make a difference, but it probably won't be so much that you'll notice it unless you're benchmarking. 

Thanks I have 32GB of 1600MHZ Ram So I think I'll stick with that I don't want to create problems for myself, Cheers

[Oshino Shinobu]

Thanks I have 32GB of 1600MHZ Ram So I think I'll stick with that I don't want to create problems for myself, Cheers

No problem. I'd always go for better timings over fast RAM. It makes it better overall, rather than just in a few things.