Q: 12&13700 both have a memory limit of 3200 MHz, what does this mean?

[Bombastinator]

Looking at this one and kind of wondering:  

the stated memory limit of both the 12700 and 13700 is apparently 3200mhz. Does this mean

A) the thing won’t run if memory faster than 3200mhz ddr4 or 5600 ddr5 is put in it?

 

B) that any memory faster than that will simply run at that speed. (Which is an aregument for k cpus on b660s I guess. Not a great one, but it’s there) 

 

C) that it won’t report the speed as being higher but it will actually run faster?

 

The ARK.intel thing I read wasn’t specific on this one and I’m having trouble getting specific answers on this on the internet.

 

 

[porina]

That's the maximum officially supported speed, assuming standard timings too without that XMP stuff.

 

Assuming the chipset/BIOS doesn't limit you, you can run it slower, you can run it faster. The things is, if you run faster and it doesn't work, you're on your own. You can blame the mobo, bios, or the ram, but not the CPU.

 

BTW this is no different than CPUs have run for a very very long time. Zen 3 Ryzen CPUs also only supported 3200. AMD suggests 3600 as a sweet spot for performance, they don't promise it'll run at that speed.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, porina said:

That's the maximum officially supported speed, assuming standard timings too without that XMP stuff.

 

Assuming the chipset/BIOS doesn't limit you, you can run it slower, you can run it faster. The things is, if you run faster and it doesn't work, you're on your own. You can blame the mobo, bios, or the ram, but not the CPU.

 

BTW this is no different than CPUs have run for a very very long time. Zen 3 Ryzen CPUs also only supported 3200. AMD suggests 3600 as a sweet spot for performance, they don't promise it'll run at that speed.

so C sort of. it can use memory faster than 3200 or 5600 and it will even display that speed but whether it works or not is my lookout?  If I got that right what are the common real world numbers?  Not what a few people have gotten it to.  That number is often wildly high, at least for OC.  So many people bought K chips thinking “oh MY cpu should be able to do 5ghz too” or whatever, and wind up sorely disappointed.  The impression I get is that some years down the road I’m going to have to either stuff the fastest memory I can into this motherboard or sell it.   How fast is that usually?

Edited December 18, 2022 by Bombastinator

[porina]

8 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

so C sort of. it can use memory faster than 3200 or 5600 and it will even display that speed but whether it works or not is my lookout?  If I got that right what are the common real world numbers?

I'm not up to date on what people get in DDR5. In DDR4 we have much more general experience. Just looking at recent years, given DDR4 is very mature now it generally works quite well at higher speeds. Both Intel and AMD officially support to 3200, but running ram at 3600 is pretty easy and in many cases not priced that differently from 3200. But it is still not 100% certain it will run. You might lose the silicon lottery somewhere, but this is not a fault since you are asking the CPU to work outside what the manufacturer intended. Speeds to 4000 and above are possible too, but you may have to be more selective in ram configuration e.g. limiting to two single rank modules only.

 

8 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The impression I get is that some years down the road I’m going to have to either stuff the fastest memory I can into this motherboard or sell it.   How fast is that usually?

I don't see DDR4 changing much now it is on the way out, efforts will be put into refining DDR5. As to how fast that gets, I can't claim to predict that. You can look at DDR4 for guidance for example. Mainstream DDR4 support came in with Skylake (2015) at 2133 speeds, but even then you could run 3200 ram if you paid a lot more for it. Today 3200 is standard and you can push higher still. Older systems may have trouble supporting future higher speeds anyway.

[Ebony Falcon]

It’s the maximum official supported frequancy, what does it actualy mean ? Fuck all