Is OC the RAM before the CPU okay?

Solution
There's no right or wrong way to do this. But, the reason we say CPU then RAM is because:

Sometimes, at your given core OC, you wont even be able to reach your rated XMP settings on the RAM. However, the core OC will greatly effect performance across a multitude of programs and applications. moving the memory from standard DDR3 or DDR4 settings usually yields much less.

Now if you had OC your memory first, you may get unstable and think you have reached your maximum OC on the core, when i reality you could have went farther. In this case you would have your memory OC and a mild CPU OC. The problem with this scenario is that in most games and applications, lowering the memory and boosting the core will yield more performance


There...

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
In general, higher CPU clock has a much bigger impact on performance than memory clock. Since higher memory clocks may reduce attainable CPU clocks due to the increased memory controller power and heat, finding the frequency your CPU is comfortable at first is usually best.
 

TheFluffyDog

Honorable
Oct 22, 2013
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There's no right or wrong way to do this. But, the reason we say CPU then RAM is because:

Sometimes, at your given core OC, you wont even be able to reach your rated XMP settings on the RAM. However, the core OC will greatly effect performance across a multitude of programs and applications. moving the memory from standard DDR3 or DDR4 settings usually yields much less.

Now if you had OC your memory first, you may get unstable and think you have reached your maximum OC on the core, when i reality you could have went farther. In this case you would have your memory OC and a mild CPU OC. The problem with this scenario is that in most games and applications, lowering the memory and boosting the core will yield more performance


There are a lot of other complicated OC techniques that take into account memory speed, buss speed, core frequency and multipliers all working together to get the most out of the chip, but most people are dealing with core and memory, and in that situation, "core is king"
 
Solution

QwerkyPengwen

Splendid
Ambassador
Yeah. OC the CPU first before RAM.
Now if you are setting the RAM to it's rated speed that is technically an overclock and it is possible that putting it back down to default bios settings can give you more overclockability on your CPU but then again it may not. You'll never know unless you test. But usually not clocking your RAM above it's rated speed is the best option along with whatever OC you can get on your CPU while your RAM is at that speed. This is typically the most balanced option that most overclockers go with.
 
Ack! I guess I tried answering the thread that was merged into this one.


IMHO, saying you have to OC the CPU before the RAM is nonsense in a sense. Let me explain: You can overclock the RAM before or only if you want to. Just be aware that it probably will need to be adjusted if you overclock your CPU after, so to save extra work/fiddling you will probably want to OC the CPU first if you're going to overclock it. Also, you usually see the best results by overclocking the CPU compared to overclocking RAM.