Choosing memory speed for Ryzen 7 1700

[timtylor]

I'm trying to choose RAM for a Ryzen 7 1700 processor on a Gigabyte GA-AB350-GAMING 3 board. AMD's site gives the Ryzen 7 1700 Max System Memory Speed as 2667MHz, but I've seen reviews showing it working fine with RAM up to DDR4-3200 (with the Ryzen overclocked to 4.0 GHz).

What does the Max System Memory Speed figure mean, and do I need to pay attention to it when choosing RAM? If I installed DDR4-3200 RAM without overclocking the processor, would it run at full speed or lower speed or just fail?

One of the reviews mentioned above: http://www.legitreviews.com/ddr4-memory-scaling-amd-am4-platform-best-memory-kit-amd-ryzen-cpus_192259

 

[MeanMachine41]

Your MB officially supports up to 3200MHz OC RAM however OC RAM generally requires Bios tweaking to obtain their SPD.
Best is to choose a kit of RAM thats listed on the MB QVL that have been tested.

Go here and download the QVL for Ryzen: http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/GA-AB350-Gaming-3-rev-10#support-doc From the list, choose the size you require, frequency and manufacturer.

You have more guarantee they will work out of the box at their rated speed if you stick to 2400MHz.

If confused, I can recommend a good kit for you. Just state your intended purpose for your PC and budget. 16GB is plenty enough for gaming and 32Gb if rendering large files or video editing.

Also ensure your Bios is up to date to address new RAM that comes on to the market each month.