DDR4 memory selection for z170 system

[RussianSensation]

Another site - Hexus also shows hardly any improvement with non-gaming benchmarks and predictably no gaming improvement after testing with a single GTX980 with 2133 and 3200 ram speeds.

GTX980 is much weaker than GTX980Ti SLI that TechSpot uses.

Here is another review:
http://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_ram/te...pamieci_ram_wybrac_do_intel_skylake?page=0,11

In any case, those who bought SKL last year when DDR4 memory was expensive can just upgrade later on when DDR4 3466-4000 is cheaper. Those buying a new gaming rig now shouldn't buy anything slower than DDR4 3000-3200.

16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200 = $77
16GB Team DDR4 3466 = $80

I don't see a particular need to pay more $ for 1.2V vs. 1.35V memory. At the same time, the premium for these kits is fairly reasonable against DDR4 2133-2400 memory.

 

[bloodandsoil]

Hey guys, I see lots of votes for the 3200Mhz option. In the QVL for my motherboard--an Asus Z170-Pro--it says quote "When running XMP at DDR4 3200 MHz or higher, the system’s stability depends on the CPU’s capabilities".

Here is the QVL if you want to see: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/Z170-PRO/Z170-PRO_DRAM_QVL_20160316.pdf

So this is the only thing really making me consider getting DDR4-3000 instead, since I don't want to deal with any chance of system instability and I don't want to overclock my CPU either. What do you think?

 

[MTDEW]

Hey guys, I see lots of votes for the 3200Mhz option. In the QVL for my motherboard--an Asus Z170-Pro--it says quote "When running XMP at DDR4 3200 MHz or higher, the system’s stability depends on the CPU’s capabilities".

Here is the QVL if you want to see: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/Z170-PRO/Z170-PRO_DRAM_QVL_20160316.pdf

So this is the only thing really making me consider getting DDR4-3000 instead, since I don't want to deal with any chance of system instability and I don't want to overclock my CPU either. What do you think?

Technically any memory over 2133mhz is overclocked, so running 3200mhz ram (or any ram over 2133mhz) is going to be harder on your Skylake CPUs IMC. (Internal Memory Controller)

But as you can see, Skylakes memory controller has been proven to be pretty robust, scaling all the way past 4000mhz.

I'd say the chances of you having a 6700k CPU that cannot handle 3200mhz on the IMC is pretty much Zero.

If you google and find anyone with a 6700k having issues running memory at 3200mhz on the Z170 chipset, you'll find that its usually because they were early adopters and running motherboards with very early bios's, that were later fixed with more mature bios updates and memory timing tweaks to ensure compatibility.
(ie: the X99 chipset had been out for awhile before the Z170 chipset/Skylake were released so early DDR4 timings were "tuned" for the X99 chipset (quad-channel) and had to be "tweaked" for better compatability with Skylake/Z170 (dual-channel).
SO those early adopter issues were simply because of memory and motherboard bios incompatibilities rather than related to the CPUs IMC not being able to cope with 3200mhz.

That is why if you look on Newegg you'll see memory that is specified to be compatible with the Z170 chipset to assure you that the memory timings are "tuned" to be fully compatible with the latest Z170 bios's.

The Asus Z170 Pro mobo you are looking at should have no issues running DDR4 3200.
If it helps your piece of mind at all, on my Asus Z170-E motherboard, I've already had my DDR4 3000 ram running fully stable at 3200mhz speeds passing Memtest86, Aida64 & Asus RealBench tests with no issues at all.
(But keep in mind my rams timings aren't as tight as the memory you're looking at, mine are 15-16-16-35, you're looking at 14-14-14-34 )


I'm willing to bet you'll just select the rams XMP profile in the bios and have no issues at all....or at worst you'll have to update your mobo to the latest bios if it doesn't ship with it already.
(The absolute worst case scenario would be you'd have to loosen those 14-14-14-34 timings a bit)

If you're still worried, Its easy enough to check, just search around for someone running the same memory on the same motherboard.
It shouldn't be too hard, you are choosing a very popular motherboard (Asus Z170) and very popular ram (G.SKILL TridentZ Series) and a 6700k.
If anything you're choosing one of safest cpu/mobo/ram combos you can get for the best compatibility IMO.
Now that G.SKILL TridentZ ram you're looking at has some of the best DDR4 3200 timings ive seen so far at 14-14-14-34 so finding others with that exact memory with those timings may take a bit of searching though.

 

[bononos]

What about that DigitalFoundry YouTube video showing what I thought appeared to be tangible framerate increases on modern games with Skylake and faster RAM.

This is the first time I'm seeing it after your post.

GTX980 is much weaker than GTX980Ti SLI that TechSpot uses.
Here is another review:
http://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_ram/te...pamieci_ram_wybrac_do_intel_skylake?page=0,11
........

That could be the reason, a much faster gpu would widen the gap alot more. I don't know what the setup DF is using but seeing the high framerates at around 100 suggests something very fast.
Are there any issues with using faster memory (ddr4-3000) on non-oc'ing motherboards compared with previous generations?

 

[Carfax83]

If you google and find anyone with a 6700k having issues running memory at 3200mhz on the Z170 chipset, you'll find that its usually because they were early adopters and running motherboards with very early bios's, that were later fixed with more mature bios updates and memory timing tweaks to ensure compatibility.
(ie: the X99 chipset had been out for awhile before the Z170 chipset/Skylake were released so early DDR4 timings were "tuned" for the X99 chipset (quad-channel) and had to be "tweaked" for better compatability with Skylake/Z170 (dual-channel).
SO those early adopter issues were simply because of memory and motherboard bios incompatibilities rather than related to the CPUs IMC not being able to cope with 3200mhz.

Well put, and this mirrors my experiences as well. The kit I am running actually a Skylake kit, even though I have an X99 build. After I installed it the first time, I noticed that I actually had inferior performance compared to my previous RAM kit which had looser timings.

In the end, it was because G.Skill had optimized the RAM's secondary and tertiary timings to work with Skylake's new IMC which runs at 4.1ghz by default, a blistering speed compared to Haswell-E's which runs at a mere 3ghz.

So I had to tighten my secondary and tertiary timings to boost the RAM performance for Haswell-E, since my uncore is set to 3.5ghz. Anything above this, and my system is unstable.

Now that G.SKILL TridentZ ram you're looking at has some of the best DDR4 3200 timings ive seen so far at 14-14-14-34 so finding others with that exact memory with those timings may take a bit of searching though

To the OP, I can vouch for that kit, as I have it in my personal rig. Works very well, and is exceptionally scalable and tweakable if you like to mess with RAM timings like me