Need help with RAM frequency compatibility

[Sammy Toss]

Can I put a ram that has a frequency of 3000mhz or 3200mhz to a motherboard that only supports up to 2666mhz? Will there be any disadvantages? Or should i just go with 2666mhz to avoid any issues? Thank you very much.

[WereCat]

Depends on what motherboard and CPU you have.

[sh4z]

Is for the Ryzen build?

[Sammy Toss]

1 hour ago, WereCat said:

Depends on what motherboard and CPU you have.

 

1 hour ago, sh4z said:

Is for the Ryzen build?

I will use an i7-8700 non-K with a MSI B360 Gaming Arctic motherboard. The motherboard only supports up to 2666mhz. I'm thinking of putting a 3000mhz ram. Will it be okay?

[WereCat]

3 minutes ago, Sammy Toss said:

 

I will use an i7-8700 non-K with an MSI B360 Gaming Arctic motherboard. The motherboard only supports up to 2666mhz. I'm thinking of putting a 3000mhz ram. Will it be okay?

Both the CPU and RAM need to support it. In your case, neither does support more than 2666MHz.

[sh4z]

Nice looking board. While the faster RAM can run at a slower speed, I personally wouldn't buy it since it's wasted performance, unless it was significantly cheaper than DDR4 2666MHz.

You can check the supported memory list here  . I can see some sticks rated at 3000MHz clocking to 2666MHz (Makes me sad)

 

While technically it should work. I'd get the DDR4 2666MHz to be safe.

[Srnewbee]

1 hour ago, sh4z said:

While technically it should work. I'd get the DDR4 2666MHz to be safe.

or you can always live dangerously and buy a ddr4 3600 and overclock it. I mean, MSI usually has good ocing support so I see no reason to stick to stock settings. From my experience, it seems that when they say 2666 is supported then its usually safe to assume 3600 may be supported as well. If not, it will at least support 3200.

[Sammy Toss]

6 hours ago, WereCat said:

Both the CPU and RAM need to support it. In your case, neither does support more than 2666MHz.

Thank you very much for that.

 

5 hours ago, sh4z said:

Nice looking board. While the faster RAM can run at a slower speed, I personally wouldn't buy it since it's wasted performance, unless it was significantly cheaper than DDR4 2666MHz.

You can check the supported memory list here  . I can see some sticks rated at 3000MHz clocking to 2666MHz (Makes me sad)

 

While technically it should work. I'd get the DDR4 2666MHz to be safe.

Nice looking indeed for a while build. Thank you very much for the link and suggestion, very helpful. I guess I should stick with just the standard 2666mhz.

[Sammy Toss]

3 hours ago, Srnewbee said:

or you can always live dangerously and buy a ddr4 3600 and overclock it. I mean, MSI usually has good ocing support so I see no reason to stick to stock settings. From my experience, it seems that when they say 2666 is supported then its usually safe to assume 3600 may be supported as well. If not, it will at least support 3200.

Thank you very much, that's interesting. The reason why I was wondering if i can use 3000mhz instead of a 2666mhz is that, i wanted the aesthetic of the Tforce Nighthawk which is 3000mhz compared to Tforce Delta which is only 2666mhz for the build i'm going to make(hehe) and they both have almost the same price.

[WereCat]

1 hour ago, Sammy Toss said:

Thank you very much, that's interesting. The reason why I was wondering if i can use 3000mhz instead of a 2666mhz is that, i wanted the aesthetic of the Tforce Nighthawk which is 3000mhz compared to Tforce Delta which is only 2666mhz for the build i'm going to make(hehe) and they both have almost the same price.

Yes, you can use the 3000MHz but it will just run at 2666MHz.

The only benefit of buying faster RAM than what you can actually run is that you can have tighter timings which will improve performance a bit but not significantly.

[Srnewbee]

1 hour ago, WereCat said:

Yes, you can use the 3000MHz but it will just run at 2666MHz.

The only benefit of buying faster RAM than what you can actually run is that you can have tighter timings which will improve performance a bit but not significantly.

really? I have a z77 board that supports only up to 1600. However, I run at 2133 stably. By the way, my zotac motherboard sucks so much that the trfc is limited to 255 (this basically caps me at 2133 and I should be grateful for this) and I had no control over QPI/VTT. So if my crappy board can pull this off, I am sure MSI boards can go above and beyond mine. I could be wrong tho since mine is z77, an ancient relic from the past.

[WereCat]

52 minutes ago, Srnewbee said:

really? I have a z77 board that supports only up to 1600. However, I run at 2133 stably. By the way, my zotac motherboard sucks so much that the trfc is limited to 255 (this basically caps me at 2133 and I should be grateful for this) and I had no control over QPI/VTT. So if my crappy board can pull this off, I am sure MSI boards can go above and beyond mine. I could be wrong tho since mine is z77, an ancient relic from the past.

a Z77 board supports RAM OC so...

[Srnewbee]

17 hours ago, WereCat said:

a Z77 board supports RAM OC so...

Fine. it was poor logic. z77 and his board is not related. I was merely trying to point out that overclocking is pretty much mainstream. Having said that his MSI 360 artic can overclock rams. So I guess "since my z77 board suports ram oc" (let me finish my sentence now) so his msi 360 artic supports it as well." And I was right about my hunch. People have oced it to 3000+. You offended me slovakia dude.

[WereCat]

47 minutes ago, Srnewbee said:

Fine. it was poor logic. z77 and his board is not related. I was merely trying to point out that overclocking is pretty much mainstream. Having said that his MSI 360 artic can overclock rams. So I guess "since my z77 board suports ram oc" (let me finish my sentence now) so his msi 360 artic supports it as well." And I was right about my hunch. People have oced it to 3000+. You offended me slovakia dude.

RAM and CPU OC are allowed only on Z motherboards combined with K CPUs.

That is a B360 motherboard which doesent support RAM OC and the CPU is i7 8700 which does not support more than 2666MHz because anything above JEDEC spec is for intel considered as OC.

[Srnewbee]

18 hours ago, WereCat said:

RAM and CPU OC are allowed only on Z motherboards combined with K CPUs.

That is a B360 motherboard which doesent support RAM OC and the CPU is i7 8700 which does not support more than 2666MHz because anything above JEDEC spec is for intel considered as OC.

I apologize. You are right.