DDR4 speed questions

[Freddie98]

Just a quickie; if I brought a mobo that states it supports let's say up to DDR4-2133 Ram, and you buy DDR4-2666.

1. Will it even work

2. Does that mean that the 2666 Ram will never be at 100% load as it will be capped at 2133

3. Can I OC the memory past 2133 if I'm using the 2666 stick

 

Thanks

[johnno124]

yes it will work but the ram will only run at 2133MHz, however it may be unstable and no you cannot OC it

[SnowyMus]

4 minutes ago, Freddie98 said:

Just a quickie; if I brought a mobo that states it supports let's say up to DDR4-2133 Ram, and you buy DDR4-2666.

1. Will it even work

2. Does that mean that the 2666 Ram will never be at 100% load as it will be capped at 2133

3. Can I OC the memory past 2133 if I'm using the 2666 stick

 

Thanks

1. Yes. It'll just run at 2133 MHz without any problems.

2. No. It only means that it runs a little slower.

3. Yes if you are using a motherboard that has a chipset that supports RAM overclocking such as the Z170 or X99 chipsets.

[Freddie98]

1 minute ago, Kavawuvi said:

1. Yes. It'll just run at 2133 MHz without any problems.

2. No. It only means that it runs a little slower.

3. Yes if you are using a motherboard that has a chipset that supports RAM overclocking such as the Z170 or X99 chipsets.

Interesting thanks  

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, Freddie98 said:

a mobo that states it supports let's say up to DDR4-2133 Ram

AKA anything that's not Z170 / X99.

2 minutes ago, Freddie98 said:

and you buy DDR4-2666.

1. Will it even work

2. Does that mean that the 2666 Ram will never be at 100% load as it will be capped at 2133

I'll explain how RAM works and then you'll be able to answer this yourself.

 

Here's the deal: there's no such thing as "2666mhz RAM". That doesn't exist. There's only one thing: 2133mhz (for DDR4). All of those 2400, 3000, 2666mhz kits you see are nothing more than regular 2133 that the manufacturer tried to OC and realized that the kits were stable at overclocked frequencies.

 

Knowing that, YOU tell me: if the mobo can't OC, will it work with "2666mhz" RAM that's in reality only a regular stick of RAM, just like any other? Will your mobo be able to use 100% of that regular, identical to any other stick of RAM?

6 minutes ago, Freddie98 said:

Can I OC the memory past 2133 if I'm using the 2666 stick

If you are willing to up the volts and relax timings, maybe. Or you might not even need to do that if you are lucky. Depends on the lottery.

[Freddie98]

2 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

AKA anything that's not Z170 / X99.

I'll explain how RAM works and then you'll be able to answer this yourself.

 

Here's the deal: there's no such thing as "2666mhz RAM". That doesn't exist. There's only one thing: 2133mhz (for DDR4). All of those 2400, 3000, 2666mhz kits you see are nothing more than regular 2133 that the manufacturer tried to OC and realized that the kits were stable at overclocked frequencies.

 

Knowing that, YOU tell me: if the mobo can't OC, will it work with "2666mhz" RAM that's in reality only a regular stick of RAM, just like any other? Will your mobo be able to use 100% of that regular, identical to any other stick of RAM?

If you are willing to up the volts and relax timings, maybe. Or you might not even need to do that if you are lucky. Depends on the lottery.

Dam, you learn something new everyday  thanks for this, useful stuff

[SnowyMus]

51 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Here's the deal: there's no such thing as "2666mhz RAM". That doesn't exist. There's only one thing: 2133mhz (for DDR4). All of those 2400, 3000, 2666mhz kits you see are nothing more than regular 2133 that the manufacturer tried to OC and realized that the kits were stable at overclocked frequencies.

Yeah. Higher-clocked RAM is basically just binned and usually left with an XMP profile with settings for voltage, timings, and frequency to achieve X MHz. Anything higher than 2133 MHz is considered an overclock as far as Intel is concerned, unless you're using Broadwell-E processors which support both 2133 MHz and 2400 MHz speeds.