Question Can RAM run at a higher speed than the motherboard supports ?

[ovelionnn]

Hi!

I have an B450M Steel Legend and it only supports max 3200Mhz RAM. I wanted to upgrade my system a bit and maybe buying 3600 RAM but will it work with 3600Mhz on this motherboard?

I may be dumb but i read somewhere that it can still go higher then the motherboard supports with XMP.

Or another question, is it worth to buy 8gb extra when i have 2x 8gb already ? coz then it won't work in dual channel.

 

[Lutfij]

The B450 chipset couldn't go higher than DD4-3200MHz. in fact you couldn't get to those speeds with Ryzen 1000 series processors, it was only after Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series whereby you could see DDR4-3200MHz on a B450 chipset board. If you wanted to see DDR4-03600MHz speeds, you'd need;
1| a B550 chipset or an X570 chipset board
2| a 5000 series processor
3| a ram kit that is advertised to go DDR4-3600MHz.

Don't mix and match rams, if you want to upgrade, pick up the same ram kit you currently have or replace them with a higher spec'd/capacity am kit.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Even though the IMC is on the CPU, from my experience if it's not listed just assume it won't work. Ryzen can be pretty fussy with RAM, 3600Mhz on anything less than Zen 2 won't work anyway. Even on the latter it can be hit or miss, what CPU do you have?

Also there is very little difference between 3200Mhz and 3600Mhz, you won't notice any improvement.

Or another question, is it worth to buy 8gb extra when i have 2x 8gb already? coz then it wont work in dual channel

Don't buy 8GB, just buy 16GB.

 

[ovelionnn]

I have ryzen 5 5600

 

[Nighthawk117]

I have ryzen 5 5600

2 sticks of 3600Mhz should be fine with that but the board may give you issues. Personally if you've already got 3200Mhz I wouldn't bother.