Does memory speed effect overclocking a lot

[davidst99]

Hi, I'm looking at buying an MSI X992 Gaming 7 X99 and G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400. Newegg has a combo deal where you can save $120 buying the two together. I also plan on getting an Intel Core i7-5820k 3.3 CPU. Will I able to overclock the CPU around 4.4 GHZ with this RAM or do I need to invest in faster RAM? Thanks.

David

 

[Shehriazad]

Faster ram only really benefits a few CPUs.

For most CPUs the benefit of higher MHZ is nullified by terrible timings. This is still true for DDR4. 2400 will likely work just fine. Get Ram with tighter timings over "moar mhz". But still..in most cases the difference is something you only see in benchmarks. The ram also shouldnt have a huge effect on your max overclock if anything it is only going to hurt your stability if you go too far beyond the supported speed.

If you had one of those FM2/+ AMD CPUs without L3 cache you would be seeing a big(ger) difference...but Intel 4XXXX and 5XXX? naaaah.



P.s. I see sites using anything ranging from 2133 to 2666 for their tests on that CPU...and they all reach about the same OC values. You really shouldnt worry about this...either you get a chip that can do it...or you get a chip that can't. How far you can push it first depends on how good the exact chip you got is.
Some just don't OC as others even if its the same model...so yea. Get lucky first on that part. xD (Also... GPUs are still the "bottleneck" for most games. The strong 4K and 5K chips from Intel almost never end up being the reason for the fps not going any higher..and that's not going to change too soon. So even if you get unlucky and can't push 4.4 GHZ...don't worry about it.)

 

[davidst99]

Faster ram only really benefits a few CPUs.

For most CPUs the benefit of higher MHZ is nullified by terrible timings. This is still true for DDR4. 2400 will likely work just fine. Get Ram with tighter timings over "moar mhz". But still..in most cases the difference is something you only see in benchmarks. The ram also shouldnt have a huge effect on your max overclock if anything it is only going to hurt your stability if you go too far beyond the supported speed.

If you had one of those FM2/+ AMD CPUs without L3 cache you would be seeing a big(ger) difference...but Intel 4XXXX and 5XXX? naaaah.



P.s. I see sites using anything ranging from 2133 to 2666 for their tests on that CPU...and they all reach about the same values. You really shouldnt worry about this...either you get a chip that can do it...or you get a chip that can't. How far you can push it first depends on how good the exact chip you got is.
Some just don't OC as others even if its the same model...so yea. Get lucky first on that part. xD

Hi, thanks for the explanation. It really explains a lot.

 

[Spungo]

I gave up on overclocking memory. It just doesn't seem to work. It's like the memory is already within 99% of its limit, so overclocking it just leads to stability problems with no gains.

If it makes you feel better, know what most of my computer is actually underclocked. CPU is overclocked by 20%, but the HT, northbridge, and memory are all underclocked by a few percent so I get numbers like 1900mhz instead of 2000mhz for the HT.

Something similar applies to video cards. I'll OC the GPU all day, but I never touch the video RAM. Why? Because it never seems to help.

 

[ikjadoon]

Hi, I'm looking at buying an MSI X992 Gaming 7 X99 and G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400. Newegg has a combo deal where you can save $120 buying the two together. I also plan on getting an Intel Core i7-5820k 3.3 CPU. Will I able to overclock the CPU around 4.4 GHZ with this RAM or do I need to invest in faster RAM? Thanks.

David

Err, it's the other way around. With Haswell's relatively finicky IMC, you can get your maximum CPU OC or your maximum memory OC: just not both at the same time. Meaning, depending on your IMC (if it's shit), you won't be able to overclock your RAM (which is anything over 1600MHz). Usually, they aren't that bad, but keep that in mind.

"With Haswell, that has all changed. Memory is a strange beast with Haswell. With your CPU clocked at stock, the Haswell IMC is a beast. Some chips will be able to do DDR3-3000+ without so much as batting an eye. Others not so much, but DDR3-2400 isn’t a stretch at all.

But – and this is a big, bold, italicized, very notable but - overclocking a Haswell CPU at the same time as overclocking the RAM will reduce your IMC’s ability to overclock or reduce your CPU’s ability to overclock. You have to choose one or the other, which is why the CPU came first in this guide. Core speed is king; remember that. If it comes down to choosing which to push farther, the CPU should always win in your calculations.

This will not only be heavily depending on the particular CPU you get, but also on the motherboard you choose. For instance, the Intel motherboard used for the Haswell review couldn’t run greater than DDR3-2133 at 4.8 GHz. However, using the same chip and the same memory, the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme for a future review had no problem running DDR3-2600 at 4.8 GHz."

Linky (http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-i7-i5-haswell-platform/)

 

[soccerballtux]

I gave up on overclocking memory. It just doesn't seem to work. It's like the memory is already within 99% of its limit, so overclocking it just leads to stability problems with no gains.

If it makes you feel better, know what most of my computer is actually underclocked. CPU is overclocked by 20%, but the HT, northbridge, and memory are all underclocked by a few percent so I get numbers like 1900mhz instead of 2000mhz for the HT.

Something similar applies to video cards. I'll OC the GPU all day, but I never touch the video RAM. Why? Because it never seems to help.

your only notable underclock there is the northbridge. the HT and memory make almost no difference, the memory only in a few games.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Haswell isn't the only uarch with a funky IMC. Kaveri seems to be the same way.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Hi, I'm looking at buying an MSI X992 Gaming 7 X99 and G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400. Newegg has a combo deal where you can save $120 buying the two together. I also plan on getting an Intel Core i7-5820k 3.3 CPU. Will I able to overclock the CPU around 4.4 GHZ with this RAM or do I need to invest in faster RAM? Thanks.

David

Faster ram hasn't been needed for cpu overclocks for quite a while.

With quad channel memory and 15 MB cache I don't think you'd get any real world performance out of it either.

 

[Shehriazad]

Haswell isn't the only uarch with a funky IMC. Kaveri seems to be the same way.

Wut? Both my 7850K and 860K have been running 2400 MHZ ram at CL10 with a slight overclock to the CPU and the NB.

If something for Kaveri has a problem...it's the chipset. Getting an A88 Chipset board is like playing lotto...and we all know how many people win when playing lotto.


Either way...that's kinda off topic.

It's been established that he shouldn't be trying to push for "too fast" ram to avoid stability issues for now. Not to mention it's the 1st generation of multiple things he is getting there...kinks are expected. CPU, DDR4 and the chipset kinda are all brand new...so you better know your limits xD

 

[DrMrLordX]

Wut? Both my 7850K and 860K have been running 2400 MHZ ram at CL10 with a slight overclock to the CPU and the NB.

Key word being "slight".

I can run my 7700k at 4.5 ghz / 1.4vcore (it's actually 1.4125 in the UEFI, with 20% LLC, which shows 1.4v under CPU-z/hwmonitor) if I leave the NB at 1800 mhz and the memory at DDR3-1600. It might fly with DDR3-2400 too, but I haven't tested it extensively, and I still need to fix my relid problem, but that's another story.

Anyway if I push 4.5 ghz CPU, 2 ghz NB, DDR3-2400, and 1028 mhz iGPU, the CPU becomes unstable even in things like Prime95 SmallFFT which is almost entirely immune to NB/RAM instability. 4.4 is doable, sort of, but 4.5 is not stable.

If I push the memory speed up to DDR3-2640 (bclk 110mhz), the max OC I seem to be able to get is around 4.1-4.2 ghz on the CPU. That's with the NB hanging around ~1900 mhz and the GPU at some indeterminent speed below 1 ghz (I forget exactly what, but it's close to 720 mhz).

It may not be as pronounced as Haswell, but it's still there.