Questions on Ram

[Hisuoir]

Hey guys, I have a few questions regarding ram speeds and latency. I’m currently in the process of putting together my first build. The ram I am referring to are 16GB DDR3. Here are the questions I have:

1. Is anything above 1600mhz considered an overclock? So basically ram that are sold at 1866, 2133, and 2400 fresh from the kit box are all overclocked rams that the manufacturer overclocked prior to selling them?

2. I heard 1600 CL7, 1866 CL8, 2133 CL 9, and 2400 CL10 are all pretty much similar in performance, is this true?

3. Will my i7-4790k need to be overclocked in order to use 2400mhz CL10?

4. Will my Asus z97-A ATX need to be overclocked in order to use 2400mhz CL10?

5. Are 1600 CL7 kits and 2400 CL10 kits basically the same ram except the 2400 CL10 is just an overclocked version of 1600? Or is there a difference in architecture or something internally different between these two cards when sold at these speeds respectively?

Would love to have these questions be answered in this order, thanks a lot in advance!

 

[truth teller]

overclock? on dram sometimes some companies do it but its very rare, most of the times is just a different operational mode (relaxed timings [> cl, worse] = higher cadence [>mhz, better]). on vram its more common, i've seen gddr5 elpidas chips being run at almost twice their specs/safe speed with almost no latencies changes (cant remember which card it was but it was a powercolor branded one)
for instance, take the this 2133 mhz (pc-17000) memory kit popular a couple of years ago (cheap and performant), the chips driving it are h5tq2g83cfr-pbc and the official spec sheet for them states that it supports 2133mhz @ 14cl, while the memory kit claims to do it at 2133mhz @ 11cl (btw, i had a kit of these and they would do it at cl 10 just fine too). note that the spec sheet for those chips list various other operational modes like 800mhz @ 6cl and 1600mhz @ 11cl.
now if you want to call tweaking the clocks and latencies overclock i guess you can, but most people only refer to overclock when the memory is being run way outside of the factory recommended timmings/speed (in this case running that kit at 2400mhz @ 11cl could be called overclock)

will you motherboard handle the timming you want? no way to tell, it all depends on the cpu you have, since the memory controller is inside it and most intel cpus only claim max of 1333mhz memory support (which is bollocks, they will run @ 2133mhz without any problems). yours claims to support up to 1600mhz but im sure it can do at least 2133 fine. check which chips the memory kits you want/have and its specs/rated speeds, but the only way to know for sure is to try (bios reset to default button/jumper/guard is always there to help in case the pc boots no more)

overclocking/tweaking ram timmings is perfectly safe, as long as you dont touch the voltages, everything else is up for tweaking, if the pc fails to boot or starts to blue screen, reset the bios to defaults and try either higher cl values and/or lower mhz

gl & hf

 

[Jetster]

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Gone are the days of having to overclock your CPU to get faster ram or visa versa. And with DDR3 anything over 1600 is a OC but ram now has XMP profiles built in so its just a click and your OC ram. Z97 chipsets will do this H97 will not

 

[Hisuoir]

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Gone are the days of having to overclock your CPU to get faster ram or visa versa. And with DDR3 anything over 1600 is a OC but ram now has XMP profiles built in so its just a click and your OC ram. Z97 chipsets will do this H97 will not

I’ve been doing a bit of digging to decide whether to go 1600mhz CL7 or 2400mhz CL10. Whether or not there is a difference in performance between these two rams. If there are no performance gains then wouldn’t it be wiser to go with the lower voltage ram to preserve the lifespan of my cpu? Then there are posts where people say there are noticeable differences in performance like this one: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/16-gb-ddr3-1600-mhz-vs-8-gb-ddr3-2400-mhz.218198/

(post #13)


Should I even worry about 1.65V on the 2400mhz over 1.5V? 1.65V won't shorten the lifespan of my cpu too much right?

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I’ve been doing a bit of digging to decide whether to go 1600mhz CL7 or 2400mhz CL10. Whether or not there is a difference in performance between these two rams. If there are no performance gains then wouldn’t it be wiser to go with the lower voltage ram to preserve the lifespan of my cpu? Then there are posts where people say there are noticeable differences in performance like this one: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/16-gb-ddr3-1600-mhz-vs-8-gb-ddr3-2400-mhz.218198/

(post #13)


Should I even worry about 1.65V on the 2400mhz over 1.5V? 1.65V won't shorten the lifespan of my cpu too much right?

Dram voltages is fine up too 1.65. Hell some people even go a little higher if they are really overclocking.

 

[Jetster]

Ive ran both 1600 and now I have 2400 and other than higher bench testing I notice no difference

 

[AsRock]

1866 highest i will go as it's been proven pointless for gaming at this time.

 

[hat]

1. Is anything above 1600mhz considered an overclock? So basically ram that are sold at 1866, 2133, and 2400 fresh from the kit box are all overclocked rams that the manufacturer overclocked prior to selling them?

Yes, and no. Official memory support depends on the memory controller. In the case of the 4790k, it supports up to 1600MHz memory. In this case, when we talk about 'overclocking', you're not overclocking the RAM. The term overclocking comes from running memory faster than what your 4790k supports, so what you're overclocking is really the memory controller, not the RAM. (Only supported by Z97, H97 won't let you run higher than 1600MHz).

2. I heard 1600 CL7, 1866 CL8, 2133 CL 9, and 2400 CL10 are all pretty much similar in performance, is this true?

The difference will be measurable in specific benchmarks. You're not going to shit bricks by doing anything but running synthetic benchmarks if you install 2400MHz instead.

3. Will my i7-4790k need to be overclocked in order to use 2400mhz CL10?

Kinda, but not really. The memory controller is part of the CPU, but you're not going to need to run a higher CPU core clock or anything.

4. Will my Asus z97-A ATX need to be overclocked in order to use 2400mhz CL10?

No, see point 1.

5. Are 1600 CL7 kits and 2400 CL10 kits basically the same ram except the 2400 CL10 is just an overclocked version of 1600? Or is there a difference in architecture or something internally different between these two cards when sold at these speeds respectively?

Not really sure. It's possible that it's the same chips, but loaded with different profiles for running those speeds (settings tweaked for voltage, timings etc). Probably not worth worrying about... only if you're an extreme RAM overclocker should you be concerned about what specific chips make up your RAM.

It's worth noting that in some situations, extreme RAM frequencies can become noticeable. @cadaveca knows more than I... in fact all I know about this comes from reading his posts. If memory serves me right, in his testing Skylake became somewhat faster when pushing really high RAM speeds, however, maintaining stability in such speeds can be difficult.

TL;DR install 1600MHz DDR3, don't worry, be happy.