Question how do you overclock your ram if you don't have xmp? new to building pcs

[canu]

hi there i am quite new to buildilng pcs and buying gaming pcs i am really confused on how overclocking ram works (i am thinking about getting a 4070ti pc with an i7 12700k cpu and also a ddr4 32gb ram with a 3600 mhz)

so i understand that the first time you turn on your pc the ram is set at its based speed which is usually 2133 mhz and in order to get the most value out of my 3600 mhz ram i need to enable XMP; but what if my motherboard does not support XMP?
can i just manually change the dram frequency to 3600 mhz or do i have to do more in addition to that such as adjusting the speed/rate/time of the ram?

also, is that something to look for when picking out a motherboard or a ram? do i have to look for motherboards AND ram that explicitly state they support XMP or do they generally all have xmp? does it depend on the manufacturer of the motherboard and ram?

lastly, as far as i know i think i7 12700k only supports up to 3200 mhz, how will that impact my ram when i am trying to overclock it or turn on xmp on a 3600 mhz 32gb ram? will xmp just simply not work or will it automatically cap out at 3200 mhz

any advice would be much appreciated thanks in advance!

 

[kerberos_20]

if mainboard doesnt support xmp, then it probably also doesnt allow any ram overclocking?

which mainboard btw

 

[canu]

if mainboard doesnt support xmp, then it probably also doesnt allow any ram overclocking?

which mainboard btw

i have not picked one out yet because i wasn't sure if that's what i should look for in a motherboard when picking one out but i was thinking about these two https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z690-A-WIFI/Specification for if i decide to buy a ddr5 ram
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B660-GAMING-X-DDR4-rev-10#kf for ddr4

does that mean that's something i should look for then when picking the boards out? if they explicitly state they support xmp?

and if i bought a board that did not support xmp would i be forced to run my ram at its based speed of 2133 mhz?

sorry very new to building pc this is a bit confusing

 

[DSzymborski]

hi there i am quite new to buildilng pcs and buying gaming pcs i am really confused on how overclocking ram works (i am thinking about getting a 4070ti pc with an i7 12700k cpu and also a ddr4 32gb ram with a 3600 mhz)

so i understand that the first time you turn on your pc the ram is set at its based speed which is usually 2133 mhz and in order to get the most value out of my 3600 mhz ram i need to enable XMP; but what if my motherboard does not support XMP?
can i just manually change the dram frequency to 3600 mhz or do i have to do more in addition to that such as adjusting the speed/rate/time of the ram?

also, is that something to look for when picking out a motherboard or a ram? do i have to look for motherboards AND ram that explicitly state they support XMP or do they generally all have xmp? does it depend on the manufacturer of the motherboard and ram?

lastly, as far as i know i think i7 12700k only supports up to 3200 mhz, how will that impact my ram when i am trying to overclock it or turn on xmp on a 3600 mhz 32gb ram? will xmp just simply not work or will it automatically cap out at 3200 mhz

any advice would be much appreciated thanks in advance!

You do have to check, but this is mostly a problem of prebuilt PCs, where they don't want people tinkering with their PCs, at least during the year or two its under warranty.

The vast majority of aftermarket motherboards will support XMP.

 

[canu]

You do have to check, but this is mostly a problem of prebuilt PCs, where they don't want people tinkering with their PCs, at least during the year or two its under warranty.

The vast majority of aftermarket motherboards will support XMP.

hello thank you for the clarification
so i would have to check the specs on the motherboard as well as the ram? or just the motherboard

 

[DSzymborski]

hello thank you for the clarification
so i would have to check the specs on the motherboard as well as the ram? or just the motherboard

You'll want to make sure they're compatible generally, but that has little to do with XMP.