RAM Frequency

[Chromaa]

Hello everyone,

 

So I'm currently planing on building my first PC for my 18th birthday, I started from scratch and I had a lot of questions about how to choose my components, a lot of youtube videos and forums helped me out to find answers but there is still a very important question remaining to me : RAM frequency.

 

Before that, here is what I'm planning on buying, and btw, as I'm french this is a french website where everyone choose their components, so sorry if it doesn't work for NA but it gives a good overview of my choises : https://www.topachat.com/pages/configomatic.php?c=JjNz65WiExlUQAbJyiX3W8T0KTQUWWa7FIAWC%2FNbQrs%3D

 

If it does not work all you need to know :

 

- Motherboard, Asus Z170 PRO GAMING / AURA

-CPU, I7 6700K

-RAM, Corsair Dominator 4 x 4 Go, 3000MHz, CAS 15

 

I guess you get that I am a lover of RGB lighting (as I'm still a kid I suppose) and I chose to pay more to get a PC with a look that I like. The thing is, I love these "Corsair Dominator" RAM sticks but there are only > 2133MHz versions are avaible, at first sight I tough it was OK because my motherboard is compatible with up to 3,2GHz RAM sticks BUT when I looked at the CPU's specs I found out that "DDR4 : 2133MHz" was supported.

 

What does it mean ? That "2133MHz" is the maximum or lowest frequency for a RAM stick to fit with my CPU ? Or maybe it ONLY supports 2133MHz RAM sticks ? Can I put these sick RGB lighted RAM sticks anyway ?

 

Sorry if I did some mistakes or anything,

Looking forward for your answers, baguette fromage.

[HKZeroFive]

2133MHz is simply the JEDEC standard. Look at the supported frequencies on the motherboard instead.

 

In this case, the ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING does support 3000MHz RAM. Simply enable XMP in the BIOS and it should shoot straight to 3000MHz.

[Oshino Shinobu]

For the CPU, the stated RAM frequency support is the speeds it supports at default. Higher speeds are still supported, as long as the board and RAM allow it, you'll just have to enable XMP in the BIOS and set the RAM to a higher frequency. 

 

Even if it could only support 2133MHz RAM, 3000MHz would still work, it would just run at 2133MHz, which really doesn't make much difference in performance in most cases. 

[manikyath]

2133 is the "standard" frequency for DDR4, so that is what intel puts on the tin.

 

- your memory will gladly work at lower speeds.

- your cpu will gladly use memory at higher speeds (although that is considered an "overclock")

[AlTech]

30 minutes ago, Chromaa said:

Hello everyone,

 

So I'm currently planing on building my first PC for my 18th birthday, I started from scratch and I had a lot of questions about how to choose my components, a lot of youtube videos and forums helped me out to find answers but there is still a very important question remaining to me : RAM frequency.

 

Before that, here is what I'm planning on buying, and btw, as I'm french this is a french website where everyone choose their components, so sorry if it doesn't work for NA but it gives a good overview of my choises : https://www.topachat.com/pages/configomatic.php?c=JjNz65WiExlUQAbJyiX3W8T0KTQUWWa7FIAWC%2FNbQrs%3D

 

If it does not work all you need to know :

 

- Motherboard, Asus Z170 PRO GAMING / AURA

-CPU, I7 6700K

-RAM, Corsair Dominator 4 x 4 Go, 3000MHz, CAS 15

 

I guess you get that I am a lover of RGB lighting (as I'm still a kid I suppose) and I chose to pay more to get a PC with a look that I like. The thing is, I love these "Corsair Dominator" RAM sticks but there are only > 2133MHz versions are avaible, at first sight I tough it was OK because my motherboard is compatible with up to 3,2GHz RAM sticks BUT when I looked at the CPU's specs I found out that "DDR4 : 2133MHz" was supported.

 

What does it mean ? That "2133MHz" is the maximum or lowest frequency for a RAM stick to fit with my CPU ? Or maybe it ONLY supports 2133MHz RAM sticks ? Can I put these sick RGB lighted RAM sticks anyway ?

 

Sorry if I did some mistakes or anything,

Looking forward for your answers, baguette fromage.

Your CPU is completely compatible with DDR4 2133MHz, 2400Mhz, 2666MHz and 3200MHz.

 

You should have no issues with any of the above speeds.