2666mhz RAM bought. Did I make a mistake?

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taskdask

taskdask

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Hi! I recently bought a pair of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 8GB 2666mhz RAMs for my new build. I will run i7 7700K on an ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 motherboard with the Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Super Jetstream. The motherboard, however, only has 2133mhz and 2400mhz listed as native RAM frequencies and 2800mhz, 2933mhz, 3200mhz and 3600mhz listed as overclocked RAM frequencies.

Did I make a mistake here by purchasing these? I can still return them and buy a pair of others if that'd be a better idea..
 
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Sakkura
No that's fine, it's just technically considered overclocking of the memory controller in the CPU. But it's as easy as enabling XMP and selecting the profile for the memory to run at 2666. There's really no risk or complications involved, and you do get a bit more performance from the faster memory.
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Sakkura

Sakkura

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No that's fine, it's just technically considered overclocking of the memory controller in the CPU. But it's as easy as enabling XMP and selecting the profile for the memory to run at 2666. There's really no risk or complications involved, and you do get a bit more performance from the faster memory.
 
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Dunlop0078

Dunlop0078

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Why would you? Personally I would have gotten faster ram if it wasn't that much more expensive, I have 3200mhz ram in my 7700k build. Just enable the XMP profile in the bios and it should run at 2666mhz no problem. 2133mhz is standardized speed for ddr4, however your Z270 system can easily run ram much faster than that.
 
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taskdask

taskdask

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Thanks! Eased my mind quite a bit! :)
 
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taskdask

taskdask

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Initially, I planned on running i5 7600K in the setup but I've since moved towards i7 7700K. I bought some of the parts for the build before I started leaning towards the 7700K and these RAM sticks happened to be some of those parts lol.. I could always return them and buy a pair of higher clocked ones. A better idea in your opinion? :)
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Tou did fine, assuming your 8gb is a 2 x 4gb kit.

All DDR4 ram will boot at the stock 2133 and 1.2v.
Ram faster than 2400 needs to be overclocked with higher voltage to run at faster speeds.
This is done via XMP settings if the motherboard bios supports it. All Z270 motherboards support XMP.

But...
Faster ram comes with higher latencies, negating much of the real performance benefit.
Here is more info on that:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1478-page1.html
 
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Dunlop0078

Dunlop0078

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Up to you, not sure if its worth the time and annoyance of sending something back. Faster ram can yield tangible fps gains in some games. But there likely wouldn't be much of a difference between 2666mhz ram and say 3000mhz ram in the majority of games, ram timings can also play a factor in performance.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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You said a pair of 8gb rams.
Does that mean a single kit of 2 x 8gb or a pair of individual 8gb sticks.
If the latter, beware.
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
It is safer to get what you need in one kit.
But, it is a bit more expensive because of the added matching of all the sticks to insure compatibility.

I see little value in looking for higher speed ram.
In fact higher speed may be counterproductive if you are overclocking.
I found that the higher than 1.2v needed reduced my max overclock by one multiplier.
lpx is very good, it will clear air coolers.
 
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Sakkura

Sakkura

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That article is wrong. The timings are not the real latencies in nanoseconds, they're the latencies measured in clock cycles. But clock cycles get shorter at higher clocks, which is why the timings are higher on faster RAM. Usually the actual latency in nanoseconds is the same if not lower.

It's also using very outdated benchmarks, which are not realistic for modern usage. The original Crysis? Even Crysis 3 is several years old now. Just Cause 2? Old console port from the last console gen. And the resolutions used are also outdated. 1366x768, 1680x1050, 1600x900.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Perhaps you might inform SPCR of the errors in their report so they can redo them.
 
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Sakkura

Sakkura

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It's a little late to re-test Skylake.

For more relevant results, here's the Core i7-7700K tested in modern games with DDR4-2133, 2400, and 3000. There are notable gains in several titles. The Division seems to be the only tested game that really doesn't care about memory speed.
 
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taskdask

taskdask

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It is a kit fortunately. Just moments before reading your reply I saw a video that described exactly what you brought up lol! Both the point about kit/pair and speeds. Your reply is much appreciated nevertheless! :)
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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A good read.
They used corsair ram with 15-17-17.. latencies, a common kit.
Strange that they use a 4 x4gb kit which is more expensive than a 2 x 8gb kit.
Kaby lake is dual channel only.
Nor did they detail the latencies at each of the tests.
You can buy 2400 speed ram with 10 latency.

My takeaway from the article is that there is more value from a I7-7700K compared to an equally clocked I5-7600K than I thought.
 
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