DDR3 Voltage Question

shady28

Platinum Member
Apr 11, 2004
2,520
397
126
Ok, so I was specing out a new build and ran into something I'm hoping someone can shed some light on regarding RAM choices.

I was looking at microcenter, and comparing the specs of some 'lower priced' DDR3-1600 (ie, Microcenter brand, generic PNY, vs some higher end memory sticks).

A general pattern I'm seeing is the 'cheap' DDR3-1600 runs at 1.65 v in the specs. The 'higher end' DDR3-1600 runs at 1.5v

Probably the easiest comparison was generic PNY DDR3-1600 / CAS 9 that runs stock at 1.65v, vs PNY Optima DDR3-1600 / CAS 9 that runs at 1.5v stock.

So my question is, does this stock voltage rating indicate quality / overclockability of the RAM? In the PNY case, it appears this way, but I'm not sure if this is truly a good indicator or not.
 

bryanl

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2006
1,157
8
81
True, but even 1.50V is not a guarantee against overclocking.