RAM MHz does it matter?

[Firegoose]

i have a question about ram and the mhz that go with it. Do they really matter? I wanted to get an i7 6700k that supports DDR4 2133mhz and pair it with a ASUS z170A mobo that supports up to 3400mhz. Is there any benefit from paying for more mhz or with the cpu just bottle neck it to 2133 and i would be wasting money?

[Sakkura]

There is some benefit up to around 2800-3000 or so. It tapers off, so typically the sweet spot is around 2666 depending on pricing.

[SeanAngelo]

5 minutes ago, Firegoose said:

i have a question about ram and the mhz that go with it. Do they really matter? I wanted to get an i7 6700k that supports DDR4 2133mhz and pair it with a ASUS z170A mobo that supports up to 3400mhz. Is there any benefit from paying for more mhz or with the cpu just bottle neck it to 2133 and i would be wasting money?

get 2400 instead

[SteinerW]

Really depends on the application. Some times memory speed matter, some times it doesn't. It really won't be more than 1-2% difference though.

[smokefest]

1 hour ago, Firegoose said:

i have a question about ram and the mhz that go with it. Do they really matter? I wanted to get an i7 6700k that supports DDR4 2133mhz and pair it with a ASUS z170A mobo that supports up to 3400mhz. Is there any benefit from paying for more mhz or with the cpu just bottle neck it to 2133 and i would be wasting money?

In gaming, not really, in Rendering application, yeah,

Usually ram speed makes the biggest difference when the cpu is @ 100% usage.

But with a z170-a You will not get bottlenecked, you will be able to run it @ 3000 mhz 

I personnally run my 6700k @ 4.5 ghz @ 1.335 Vcore and 3000 mhz Ram on XMP profile

[TheSuspect]

To an extent. Certain scenarios benefit more than others. Games will give you a 1 - 3fps increase as you increase ram speed, if you're lucky. Other applications like video editing could bring a bit more noticeable differences. 2133 - 2400 is all I'd really go for with any application in general. If your work benefits from high speed ram, go ahead. As far as I know, cpu doesn't directly bottleneck the memory speed, it's the board that handles that.