MOBO and CPU RAM Compatibility

Joined
July 31, 2007
Messages
6,252
Hello,

I've got an i7 4790K and the Asus VII Maximus Hero Mobo. And I'm planning on getting this Corsair ram kit: http://www.corsair.com/en-us/vengea...ram-2133mhz-c11-memory-kit-cmy16gx3m2a2133c11

And I find myself in a pickle.
The i7 4790K I have mentions it is compatible with ram with frequencies up to 1600 Mhz. So what gives? Which is the restriction? the CPU or the MOBO. The Mobo should support that ram kit, but I'm not sure about the CPU.

Thanks
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,252
Who told you that CPU can't work with RAM above 1600? They lied.

It'll work with anything. You'll probably have to enable RAM's higer speed in BIOS though.
If it doesn't work flawlessly, and there is no reason it shouldn't, the culprit is the motherboard and then you'll check if there is a BIOS update or contact the manufacturer support which in this case would be ASUS.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,252
Not CPUs in general, but the i7 4790K.
The official sheet says: http://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz

Memory Types DDR3 and DDR3L 1333/1600 at 1.5V

Does this mean I'll have to increase the voltage for something at 2133?

I ment that particular CPU, not CPUs in general. :)
Bad wording from my side… Sorry.

In any case that CPU IIRC will theoretically work even with 3200Mhz RAM.
All you'll do is enable XMP on your MoBo - that ASUS model has it. You don't need to increase anything, add wires or go engineering, just a setting in BIOS will do the trick.

Have to warn you that the performance gain will be generally irrelevant.
I'd keep good old 1600 and invest the cash in SSD or 9x GPU. Reasons? Unoptimized loadtimes/loadscreens recently and unoptimized CPUcores/graphics.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I ment that particular CPU, not CPUs in general. :)
Bad wording from my side… Sorry.

In any case that CPU IIRC will theoretically work even with 3200Mhz RAM.
All you'll do is enable XMP on your MoBo - that ASUS model has it. You don't need to increase anything, add wires or go engineering, just a setting in BIOS will do the trick.

Have to warn you that the performance gain will be generally irrelevant.
I'd keep good old 1600 and invest the cash in SSD or 9x GPU. Reasons? Unoptimized loadtimes/loadscreens recently and unoptimized CPUcores/graphics.

Yeah, I initially was thinking about a 2133 one, but I went for the 1866 version instead. I know improvement is not really significant with RAM frequencies.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,252
You will sometimes need to lower RAM timings if you have more DIMM slots filled. But that is where the QVL comes into play.
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,979
Location
Florida, USA
Trust me, there's no connection between RAM speed and CPU compatibility.

I've got the i7-4790K, and I'm using 2400 Mhz RAM. Here's the exact RAM set I've got.

And yeah… always go with less DIMMs if you can. It lessens the chances of getting a bad stick.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,138
Location
Florida, US
Back
Top Bottom