Mobo and memory compatibility

[HellRiderX]

So, this is my first time building my own PC and although I've gathered a lot of knowledge from watching LTT on YouTube, I seem to be learning more as I'm figuring out which parts to buy. 

 

That being said, I have a question regarding motherboard and memory compatibility. 

I have an i3 6300 and want to use 2666 memory with it. I found a very cheap one on Amazon (http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0123ZASHO) but then I noticed that board manufacturers include memory compatibility lists on their product page. So I took a look at the compatibility for a board I was interested in (ASRock Z170A-X1 - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170A-X1/?cat=Memory). 

 

Firstly, am I right in using the module P/N (CMK8GX4M1A2666C16R for the one from Amazon) to check for compatibility?

Secondly, what if memory modules are released AFTER the motherboard? Does the board manufacturer constantly update their compatibility list? 

And lastly, is my memory and board compatible? I'm thinking no based on the P/N but...

 

Yeah, help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[shadowbyte]

why the hell do you want 2666 memory with an i3?

it makes no sense

go for some cheaper supported RAM

[HellRiderX]

Because of this: 

 

 

He benchmarks several games with faster memory here:

 

Both videos are time stamped to the point I'm trying to make.

 

[HellRiderX]

Bump.

[MageTank]

22 hours ago, shadowbyte said:

why the hell do you want 2666 memory with an i3?

it makes no sense

go for some cheaper supported RAM

Guy buys a Z97 board with a locked 4590 in his sig, is against the use of faster memory, claims it makes no sense. Thank you for that laugh, I needed that.

 

22 hours ago, HellRiderX said:

So, this is my first time building my own PC and although I've gathered a lot of knowledge from watching LTT on YouTube, I seem to be learning more as I'm figuring out which parts to buy. 

 

That being said, I have a question regarding motherboard and memory compatibility. 

I have an i3 6300 and want to use 2666 memory with it. I found a very cheap one on Amazon (http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0123ZASHO) but then I noticed that board manufacturers include memory compatibility lists on their product page. So I took a look at the compatibility for a board I was interested in (ASRock Z170A-X1 - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170A-X1/?cat=Memory). 

 

Firstly, am I right in using the module P/N (CMK8GX4M1A2666C16R for the one from Amazon) to check for compatibility?

Secondly, what if memory modules are released AFTER the motherboard? Does the board manufacturer constantly update their compatibility list? 

And lastly, is my memory and board compatible? I'm thinking no based on the P/N but...

 

Yeah, help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Your ram will work just fine with that board. While your specific ram capacity is not listed on the QVL, ram that uses the exact same IC's at the exact same frequency are. Since the traces on the board can handle much higher clocked memory, 2666mhz memory should work just fine. My G Skill 3200mhz C14-14-14-35-2 kit is not listed on my motherboards QVL list, yet XMP loaded just fine. In fact, i pushed it to 3500mhz CL14-14-14-28-1 manually without any issues. 

 

If you are still worried, you can just switch to a kit that is on the list, but I assure you, the ram will work fine.

[shadowbyte]

1 minute ago, MageTank said:

Guy buys a Z97 board with a locked 4590 in his sig, is against the use of faster memory, claims it makes no sense. Thank you for that laugh, I needed that.

there's no need to be a dick about it.

I wanted a black and white motherboard, and MSI's Z97 krait was perfect.

I couldn't afford a 4690k at the time, and still won't buy one as I don't see a tangible performance increase.

Note as well that I have standard speed 1600 memory, and multiple tests have proven that faster memory makes marginal differences, not worth the extra investment.

[MageTank]

Just now, shadowbyte said:

there's no need to be a dick about it.

I wanted a black and white motherboard, and MSI's Z97 krait was perfect.

I couldn't afford a 4690k at the time, and still won't buy one as I don't see a tangible performance increase.

Note as well that I have standard speed 1600 memory, and multiple tests have proven that faster memory makes marginal differences, not worth the extra investment.

"Multiple tests". Let me guess. The two LTT videos on the subject, and a few charts and graphs that lack testing methodology and actual ingame footage/screenshots? Sorry, but I beg to differ. My own personal tests (in my sig) and tests done by others show quite the improvement on minimum framerates. Enough to justify the purchase of faster memory.

 

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1487162/an-independent-study-does-the-speed-of-ram-directly-affect-fps-during-high-cpu-overhead-scenarios

 

People often ignore frametime and minimum FPS in their testing methodology, and it's probably the single greatest boon of overclocking memory. Far more important than average FPS. Yes, memory speed matters less as GPU becomes a bigger part of the bottleneck, but it still helps in situations where a game is CPU bound, or programmed badly to where the CPU is struggling to keep the GPU fed. I can name plenty of games with this issue (technically, could just link the Ubisoft wikipedia page).

 

Point is, faster memory is not a bad idea. Would I pay a fortune for faster memory? No. It's simply not worth spending that much on. However, with DDR3, the difference between 16GB of 1600mhz memory, and 16GB of 2400mhz memory is $8. With DDR4, the difference between 16GB of 2133mhz memory and 16GB of 3000mhz memory is $15. Not exactly breaking the bank, is it? Sure, Z platform tends to cost extra, since H platform boards (outside of the ASRock Hyper series) can't overclock memory, so you have to include that too, but you still get additional features on top of memory overclocking that still has value to it. From a price:performance standpoint, investing in faster memory is no worse an investment than spending a ton of extra money for exotic cooling solutions, to overclock a CPU for an extra 10% more performance in CPU bound titles. 

 

And sorry for my sarcasm earlier. This is probably the 6th post today that said "memory speed doesn't matter" without really explaining why. 

[shadowbyte]

32 minutes ago, MageTank said:

And sorry for my sarcasm earlier. This is probably the 6th post today that said "memory speed doesn't matter" without really explaining why. 

alright m90

I am defeated

[HellRiderX]

On 07/04/2016 at 9:06 PM, MageTank said:

Your ram will work just fine with that board. While your specific ram capacity is not listed on the QVL, ram that uses the exact same IC's at the exact same frequency are. Since the traces on the board can handle much higher clocked memory, 2666mhz memory should work just fine.

Thanks for the reply. I kinda figured that it would be compatible because the board can handle higher clocked memory but just wanted to make sure. 

 

But, I ended up going with a different board for some extra features I'm interested in and went with different memory too.

 

Hope to have the whole thing assembled and ready next week... can't wait.