Ram Upgrade - 2666 vs 3200?

landedgiant1

I have a p03-600 predator orion.  It came with 16 GB DDR4 2666 ram.  Are you only able to use 2666 ram to upgrade?  

brummyfan2

Hi,
Yes, you have up to 2666MHz frequency support for your motherboard, CPU also supports only a 2666MHz module.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/186604/intel-core-i7-9700k-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html

brummyfan2

Hi,
Yes, you have up to 2666MHz frequency support for your motherboard, CPU also supports only a 2666MHz module.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/186604/intel-core-i7-9700k-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html

aphanic

Yes... and no.

Faster RAM is likely to have a profile to run at 2666 MHz as well which is what the processor expects (from what I could see you have a i5 8400 right?). So if you were to plug RAM that is rated for 3200 but has profiles to run at lower speeds great, you'd be able to use it. Mixing it with 2666 MHz RAM could prove difficult, because we enter a territory of timing compatibility and sh¡t which is why if at all possible I always recommend getting matched sets. You get the compatibility headaches out of the way (mostly).

The thing is, you currently have 2666 MHz memory, and you can see any profile it has by running Thaiphoon Burner for example:



The screenshot is from laptop RAM, but it applies just as well, it's that frequency table down below, frequencies are halved by the way, the first D in DDR stands for double so what you're seeing is a stick of 2666 MHz laptop RAM. But because of that table you see it has profiles to be ran at 2400, 2133 and 1866 MHz as well, with different timings.

Companies tend to specify the most important timings (CAS, RCD, RP and RAS) in their spec sheets but only for the primary profiles, for those that the card is rated at. The rest you only see once plugged in. So If I were to find a matching one for this one at 2666 I'd need one that was capable of running at CL15, 16, 17 or 18 when ran at 2666, and it's blind luck. I must also tell you it's not that grim, memory controllers nowadays are rather permissive, something they don't tend to like is mixing value RAM with enthusiast level stuff though.

So... can 3200 MHz work in your system? Most likely, it might downclock to 2666 MHz though. What about at 3200 MHz? Not without overclocking, and I don't know if your firmware would allow you to do that out of the box. Maybe through XMP profiles, maybe. That is kind of sanctioned overclocking, it works without much problems in some systems, but requires BIOS configurations in others.

landedgiant1

@aphanic - My processor is a i7-9700k.  I already upgraded the RAM with 3200 but it is only reading it at 2133.  I found a few posts showing that the 3200 only runs at that if it is overclocked to run at that otherwise it is going to run at 2133.  It seems like I'm stuck with the 2666 RAM and the 3200 is useless.  Does this sound right?

aphanic

Unfortunately didn't change much, just checked it's spec sheet and its memory controller expects DDR4-2666.

I find it odd that it's running at 2133 MHz, maybe there's no profile for it to run at 2666? Could you download Thaiphoon Burner (the free version suffices, and disregard the warning when opening it) and post a screenshot of all of the RAM chips you have installed right now? I'd like to take a look at their specs: