[SOLVED] Fastest Ram for I7 7700k

[tlavanway3]

Hello I have a i7 7700k paired with some 2400mhz Ram, and i'm gona be honest with you. I regret buying a 7700k system when I did because when I got this PC the CPU was $350, and the reason I regret that is because not even a year later the 8700k came out for the same price so I felt pretty cheated not going to lie. I cant afford to go out and buy a CPU and even if i did it would be the 9700k not the 8700k but anyway. I am trying to upgrade my PC to is maximum potential without replacing any Major parts like GPU and CPU so I am starting with the RAM then I am moving to Removing the Two 1tb Hard drives I have and replacing them with a 1TB SSD or even a M.2 1tb.

I come here today to discus Ram speed and what is the Maximum Speed that my i7 7700k supports. If you look at the actual Specs of the CPU it will say it supports 2133mhz and 2400mhz ram. but from what people tell me that you can go a lot higher then 2400mhz Ram if you have a Z270 Motherboard, which I do have (Asrock Z270 Extreme4) they never Clarified just how much more speed you can get, iv seen ddr4 ram go up to 4000mhz, So i have no idea what speed of ram is actually Available to me. i would love to get 4000mhz ram but for 16gb of 4000mhz ram it will run me about $200 so I want to know for sure that it will work. Also should I go for Quad channel 4000mhz or should I settle for Duel Channel? Remember I want the best of the best for my system without replacing major hardware like CPU and GPU, yes I know i could just save another $100 and get a 9700k but I would really rather not so please don't bring it up. THANK YOU!

CPU: i7-7700k 4.50ghz
AIO: Cooler Master master Liquid lite 240
GPU: GTX 1080TI Founders
RAM: 16gb XPG 2400mhz 2x8 (Duel Channel)
PSU: Corsair CX650M
HDD: 2x1tb 7200rpm
SSD: Western Digital Green 120gb (with windows 10)
MOBO: Asrock Z270 Extreme4

 

[Third-Eye]

The product page for your motherboard states 3866Mhz as the maximum supported overclock for memory but it could probably handle 4000. The Patriot Viper Steel Series DDR4-4000 2x8GB kit I bought for my Ryzen system, has a second XMP setting for 3866. I'm only stating this, because I know for a fact these modules use Samsung B-die which will allow for "easy" overclocking.

You are confusing dual channel and quad channel modes with the number of ram slots and modules. Your motherboard supports up to dual channel mode only, in 2 or 4 slots with 2 or 4 modules installed. Unless you have need of more than 2x8GBGB, the only reason to buy 4x8GB is if you run games that can take advantage of dual rank memory configurations (2x16/4x4/4x8/4x16) like with Battlefield 5 which specifically can have a 20-40% increase in fps at the same speeds of a 2x8GB kit. Not many games can actually gain fps with dual rank configurations and most often it's better to use 2x8GB in a gaming PC for stability at higher memory speeds like 3866Mhz.

Lastly, I would suggest not spending much money on anything other than ram and an SSD. Save toward upgrading to a Ryzen 4000 or whatever Intel comes out with this year if it's faster than Ryzen 4000 with 8 cores 16 threads. You will need a Z390 motherboard to support a 9700K as it's not compatible with your Z270, so you would have had to spend closer to $550-600 for that upgrade, not $100. Keep at least one 7200rpm HDD for storage.

 

[LordVile]

Hello I have a i7 7700k paired with some 2400mhz Ram, and i'm gona be honest with you. I regret buying a 7700k system when I did because when I got this PC the CPU was $350, and the reason I regret that is because not even a year later the 8700k came out for the same price so I felt pretty cheated not going to lie. I cant afford to go out and buy a CPU and even if i did it would be the 9700k not the 8700k but anyway. I am trying to upgrade my PC to is maximum potential without replacing any Major parts like GPU and CPU so I am starting with the RAM then I am moving to Removing the Two 1tb Hard drives I have and replacing them with a 1TB SSD or even a M.2 1tb.

I come here today to discus Ram speed and what is the Maximum Speed that my i7 7700k supports. If you look at the actual Specs of the CPU it will say it supports 2133mhz and 2400mhz ram. but from what people tell me that you can go a lot higher then 2400mhz Ram if you have a Z270 Motherboard, which I do have (Asrock Z270 Extreme4) they never Clarified just how much more speed you can get, iv seen ddr4 ram go up to 4000mhz, So i have no idea what speed of ram is actually Available to me. i would love to get 4000mhz ram but for 16gb of 4000mhz ram it will run me about $200 so I want to know for sure that it will work. Also should I go for Quad channel 4000mhz or should I settle for Duel Channel? Remember I want the best of the best for my system without replacing major hardware like CPU and GPU, yes I know i could just save another $100 and get a 9700k but I would really rather not so please don't bring it up. THANK YOU!

CPU: i7-7700k 4.50ghz
AIO: Cooler Master master Liquid lite 240
GPU: GTX 1080TI Founders
RAM: 16gb XPG 2400mhz 2x8 (Duel Channel)
PSU: Corsair CX650M
HDD: 2x1tb 7200rpm
SSD: Western Digital Green 120gb (with windows 10)
MOBO: Asrock Z270 Extreme4

Wouldn't really bother that much. Intel really isn't RAM speed sensitive like AMD is, or at least not to the same extent and performance improvement rapidly declines past 3200Mhz. Also you can't run quad channel because your board doesn't support it. You'd be running 2 sets in dual channel which isn't worth the effort.

 

[hftvhftv]

I would save every penny for a new motherboard and CPU upgrade. A memory speed upgrade simply isn't going to increase your performance dramatically enough to justify selling your current memory and buying new faster memory. I'd wait for Comet Lake 10th generation CPUs so the i7 10700K will be literally twice the cores and threads leading to the most bang for buck. Also Ryzen 3000 series chips are on sale right now throughout the US so that's a pretty sweet option too, but then you'd need to upgrade your memory anyways so it might be worth waiting for Comet Lake to avoid a memory upgrade.

 

[rickypicky5]

Your Motherboard's Memory QVL.

There you go. QVL = Qualified Vendor List.

 

[mdd1963]

You feel 'cheated' because only a year later... the 8700K came out? (I'm sorry, but that's just funny)

A hypothetical 7700K-based system's gains in gaming performance past 3200 MHz RAM are normally smallish...and certainly likely not worth the cost of 4000+ MHz RAM. (One could hypothetically blow $400 on 4600 MHz RAM, and gain nothing or very little over 3200 MHz RAM, making a plan to stick with a CPU and mainboard rather dubious given that one could get a R5-3600 and B450 mainboard for ~$300 total....

M.2 NVME drives are indeed great for quick boot/shutdown times, but, compared to normal SATA SSDs, shaving game load times to 29 seconds from 30 is hardly noteworthy)

If you have a decent cooler and a Z270 chipset, many wonder why you've not mentioned overclocking yet? (My own 7700K with MCE enabled does 4.7 GHz on all cores at default 1.27V core voltage at about 75C under Prime95/small FFTs, with only 63-65C under gaming loads, Yours might do the same... )

 

[tlavanway3]

You feel 'cheated' because only a year later... the 8700K came out? (I'm sorry, but that's just funny)

A hypothetical 7700K-based system's gains in gaming performance past 3200 MHz RAM are normally smallish...and certainly likely not worth the cost of 4000+ MHz RAM. (One could hypothetically blow $400 on 4600 MHz RAM, and gain nothing or very little over 3200 MHz RAM, making a plan to stick with a CPU and mainboard rather dubious given that one could get a R5-3600 and B450 mainboard for ~$300 total....

M.2 NVME drives are indeed great for quick boot/shutdown times, but, compared to normal SATA SSDs, shaving game load times to 29 seconds from 30 is hardly noteworthy)

If you have a decent cooler and a Z270 chipset, many wonder why you've not mentioned overclocking yet? (My own 7700K with MCE enabled does 4.7 GHz on all cores at default 1.27V core voltage at about 75C under Prime95/small FFTs, with only 63-65C under gaming loads, Yours might do the same... )

i felt cheated because intel has been useing 4 core i7s for the Longest Time ever, and the first time i build a high end system they come out with 6 core i7s for the same price as the previous gens.

 

[tlavanway3]

i felt cheated because intel has been useing 4 core i7s for the Longest Time ever, and the first time i build a high end system they come out with mainstream 6 core and 8 core i7s for the same price as the previous gens, and i have really bad anxiety so i stay away from Overclocking. i do turbo the 7700k to .4.50ghz and thats all i am willing to do. because if anything happens to my CPU i cant afford to replace it, and i suppose the cooler i have is decent its a Cooler master Master Liquid lite 240. * shrug* it gets the job done. I don't regret buying it.

 

[Phaaze88]

i felt cheated because intel has been useing 4 core i7s for the Longest Time ever, and the first time i build a high end system they come out with 6 core i7s for the same price as the previous gens.

That's because Intel purposefully stagnated the market due to no competition at the time - it allowed them to rake in higher profit margins.
Then AMD came back, and suddenly, 6 and 8 core mainstream? They could've done that a while ago, but chose not to, because profits - plus, some people are just that gullible.

It's a simple, perhaps standard, business practice. It's one of the reasons monopolies are bad for us as customers.
Like how Nvidia practically owns the high end gpu market. Pricing for their 2080 Super and 2080Ti are horrible, and they can do that, because there's no one to oppose them there.

 

[gtarayan]

I would not touch your system except migrate those 1TB drives to a cheap SSD.

 

[mdd1963]

For 3 years you've had a fast system, it having gone from 'nothing faster' status in early 2017 to 'still quite darn fast' 11 months later (relative to the 8700K) to 'still runs everything quite well' for even the latest games today.

The 4c/8t CPU designs are indeed falling behind in minimum FPS in some titles compared to some higher clocked 8 core rigs, or even the 8700K....but they are hardly in 'barely playable' status just yet, IMO.... (as long as no streaming or 144 Hz monitors are in the picture, anyway)

Edit: is your 7700K running completely stock speeds? ('stock' defined as Intel standards as intended, i'e, a single core at 4.5 GHz, or all 4 cores at 4.2 GHz...)