RAM running at a frequency motherboard doesn't support. Is it fine?

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i-am-L

i-am-L

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Okay today I bought the Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB 1866Mhz [red colored :D ]

My board is Gigabyte 78LMT-S2PT rev. 4.0 [AM3+ socket.]
which means XMP is not supported for my system.

my board supports freq. upto 1333+mhz(O.C)
and according to this: http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-78lmt-s2pt.pdf
any ram above 1600mhz freq. will be underclocked to 1600mhz
BUT, currently my pc is running the ram at 1866mhz only!

I am amazed but worried too that it may not decrease the life span of the board.
[I am sounding stupid but my father doesn't understand these things and will put all the blame on me, my ram and my games :( ]

Also the task manager now doesn't show other RAM details like freq.
It used to show it when it was on 4GB 1333mhz ram.
http://imgur.com/zxQMk9X

Still how can the RAM run at its stock clock when the board itself doesn't support it?
I hope for a proper explanation and best wishes and hopes for motherboard's life.

And no one liners please.

Thank you :)
 
Solution
R4lNM4N
OK, did some research.

Update CPU AGESA 1.5.0.0 is the latest BIOS from Gigabyte. They where nice enough to not list what this really does for us but on other forums, I have found that it supposedly broadens the scope of CPU's and RAM it supports.

If you have an up to date BIOS, it may have support for faster RAM and XMP. I also noticed that in the FAQ's on Gigabyte's website, they have listed a RAID (storage) subject under a memory type question soooo - again, maybe their "technical writers" are simply not listing things correctly (this happens all the time.)

Download CPU-Z and see what it reports, if it's 1866 - great. Maybe the BIOS really does support XMP (which is actually on the RAM anyway.) Whatever the reason...
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R4lNM4N

R4lNM4N

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XMP is just a feature that allows users to overclock their RAM. How do we know that your computer is running this memory @1866? Your system is not going to automatically overclock RAM modules, and even if it did - it would only danger the RAM and not the board.

The Resource monitor in Windows does not display RAM speeds. Download CPU-Z and look under the SPD tab for your true speeds.

Don't worry about your Dad - that's just what they do when they can't explain what really happened. I got blamed big time once when my dad accused me of breaking a VCR with my Sega Dreamcast....then he noticed the video cable came undone. Womp womp ;)

Motherboards rarely "just go bad." As long as you installed the RAM correctly and it's now in there and working, it should continue to just work
 
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i-am-L

i-am-L

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I just checked the BIOS, the frequency shown is 1866MHz
Even on the POST screen, it shows as 1866MHz
On POST it always shows the RAM frequency on which it is currently running.

 
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R4lNM4N

R4lNM4N

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You're right, the POST always shows the speed that the memory is running at. I see that Gigabyte offers a BIOS upgrade. Did you upgrade the BIOS? It's also conceivable that the "technical writer" who wrote the specs for Gigabyte got it wrong - wouldn't be the first time trust me
 
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R4lNM4N

R4lNM4N

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OK, did some research.

Update CPU AGESA 1.5.0.0 is the latest BIOS from Gigabyte. They where nice enough to not list what this really does for us but on other forums, I have found that it supposedly broadens the scope of CPU's and RAM it supports.

If you have an up to date BIOS, it may have support for faster RAM and XMP. I also noticed that in the FAQ's on Gigabyte's website, they have listed a RAID (storage) subject under a memory type question soooo - again, maybe their "technical writers" are simply not listing things correctly (this happens all the time.)

Download CPU-Z and see what it reports, if it's 1866 - great. Maybe the BIOS really does support XMP (which is actually on the RAM anyway.) Whatever the reason, it's not going to damage the motherboard because it's voltage has not been adjusted from what the motherboards system bus can handle.
 
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