Questions about DDR4 speeds on the Asus Z170-Pro

otacon1

Commendable
Feb 18, 2016
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0
1,530
I bought an Asus Z170-Pro mobo here's the product's newegg page

Anyway, near the top it shows the various supported RAM speeds. My question is will it support ALL those speeds listed WITHOUT overclocking the ram? I just want to know if there is a caveat with this board that isn't disclosed in the product page. What I mean by that is, is there a limit to the ram data transfer speed (hz) that it can use (at the normal ram speed, without over clocking the ram)?

Or will it support 3866 MHz by default with no changes to any settings whatsoever? The reason I ask is all those speeds have an asterisk with overclocking next to them, so I find that ambiguous.

Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
The mobo itself can support the data rates listed, the key though is the true determining factor of what data rates you can run, and that's determined by the MC (memory controller) of the CPU. To run the higher data rates may require an OC of the CPU/MC not the DRAM itself, if you buy a set of 3000 sticks - then those are rated at 3000, but to run them you may need to OC your CPU basically... Many 6600Ks and 6700Ks can run up through 32 at stock (no OC) though some may have problems with even 2800 and lower, just depends on how strong a CPU you get (silicon lottery)

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
The mobo itself can support the data rates listed, the key though is the true determining factor of what data rates you can run, and that's determined by the MC (memory controller) of the CPU. To run the higher data rates may require an OC of the CPU/MC not the DRAM itself, if you buy a set of 3000 sticks - then those are rated at 3000, but to run them you may need to OC your CPU basically... Many 6600Ks and 6700Ks can run up through 32 at stock (no OC) though some may have problems with even 2800 and lower, just depends on how strong a CPU you get (silicon lottery)
 
Solution

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Tolerance yes, which is why they test sticks to ensure they play before packaging and why often say a 4 stick set costs more than a pair of 2 stick sets, since it takes more testing to find 4 that will all play nice than to find two that will, ditto and even more on 8 stick sets quite often. Also over time they may change the specific components of a stick, all of which play in, the individual chips, even the PCB and solder can affect them. Wrote an article that touches on this and more here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2741495/ddr3-faqs-fiction.html
 

otacon1

Commendable
Feb 18, 2016
35
0
1,530
Yes, I've had that also. I would see that from time to time when I was a pc technician back in 2010. I enjoyed the work, but it was the most stressful job I ever had, so I had to leave it. I gained knowledge and experience, though. I've also had ram sticks that just seemed to stop working one day, even though they worked with other sticks before that.

Like you said, I put them in another computer, and they worked :lol:

I think a chip, or maybe the voltage or small capacitor might have went bad, changing the module configuration on them, and making them incompatible with certain other modules and MCs. That's my best guess.