3570k with 1866mhz ram..do I have to OC?

[Martin84a]

Hi, I have a Gigabyte Z77X-D3H motherboard and I'm about to buy ram modules. If I buy 1866mhz instead of 1600mhz ram, do I have to overclock the CPU in order to use the extra mhz? Or do I just select 1866mhz in the bios, and then everything is fine? It's just that I don't want to OC the CPU

 

[blastingcap]

Just select XMP profile in BIOS. Also, 1866 RAM is unlikely to help you much in most applications.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/6

I got some just because it was on super-sale (I would have preferred 1.35v RAM at 1600MHz but figured I could just undervolt 1866@1.5v RAM myself and force it to 1600@1.35v manually, or at least 1333@1.35v... I eventually settled on 1600@1.425v to give myself more safety margin), else I would have gotten 1600 as well. Also, the cheaper 1866 RAM kind of takes back some of the speed if their CAS latency is higher. Avoid any RAM that is above 1.5 volts.

Mine is 1866MHz with CAS9 Crucial Ballistix RAM for what it's worth. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148560

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/6

 

[tweakboy]

Hey blastincap that is a sick KIT wow only 9CL @ 1866 wow. that will give you excellent latency,, probably 40ns or lower.

You don't need to overclock your RAM, OC the CPU.

What you mean by do you overclock, of course you can overclock every component pretty much.

Just make sure ram stays @ default frequency and timings are correct.. OC that Ivy bridge baby!!!!! take her to 1.4v only if you have super cooling @, 4.8Ghz possibly.

 

[Martin84a]

I know the difference isn't that big and often there is none, but the price is almost the same and xbitlabs found 5 extra fps for Crysis and 11 extra fps in Far Cry 2, so I figured..why not

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ivy-bridge-ddr3_4.html#sect0

Tiny question just to be sure...selection the XMS profile, that wont affect CPU clock speed, right?

And to tweakboy, it's just that when I had my P4 and used faster than standard ram, I believe I had to OC the CPU in order to use the extra MHZ. If that's still the case today, then I'll just stick with 1600mhz ram..

 

[blastingcap]

XMP, not XMS, is exactly what you want. Just go into BIOS and use the XMP profile. http://www.legitreviews.com/article/613/1/

I know the difference isn't that big and often there is none, but the price is almost the same and xbitlabs found 5 extra fps for Crysis and 11 extra fps in Far Cry 2, so I figured..why not

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ivy-bridge-ddr3_4.html#sect0

Tiny question just to be sure...selection the XMS profile, that wont affect CPU clock speed, right?

And to tweakboy, it's just that when I had my P4 and used faster than standard ram, I believe I had to OC the CPU in order to use the extra MHZ. If that's still the case today, then I'll just stick with 1600mhz ram..

 

[Martin84a]

I see, thanks a lot blastingcap