[SOLVED] Speed of ram for Intel 10th gen non-K

[Dat Le]

I come from Vietnam. Computer shops here often choose ram with speeds of 3000mhz or higher for their computers, but I often see that B460 motherboards only support up to 2666mhz. So which ram speed should I choose?

 

[tennis2]

Correct, 10th gen Intel CPUs only officially support DDR4-2666 (i3 or i5) or DDR4-2933 (i7 or i9). So when paired with a non-Z series motherboard, even if you buy DDR4-4400, the board will only run it at DDR4-2666 if you have an i3 or i5 for example.

 

[Zerk2012]

I come from Vietnam. Computer shops here often choose ram with speeds of 3000mhz or higher for their computers, but I often see that B460 motherboards only support up to 2666mhz. So which ram speed should I choose?

A lot of times the 3000 memory is lower priced than the 2666 so yes the shop would choose the 3000 memory even if the board could only run it at 2666.

Example in US dollars the 3000 cost less than the 2666 and the closest 2666 have very poor timings.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#U=4&Z=16384002&S=2666,3000&sort=price&page=1

 

[punkncat]

Thing is that no matter what the suggested XMP speed on the stick is, it's going to run at the lower speed without issue. In many cases as time goes on the higher speed RAM will actually be cheaper than the lower speed due to supply and demand. In practice it's not going to matter if it's not supported.

 

[Dat Le]

Correct, 10th gen Intel CPUs only officially support DDR4-2666 (i3 or i5) or DDR4-2933 (i7 or i9). So when paired with a non-Z series motherboard, even if you buy DDR4-4400, the board will only run it at DDR4-2666 if you have an i3 or i5 for example.

but I don't know if it is a waste to buy a pair of 3000mhz ram when using B460 motherboard because I love RGB leds but the 2666mhz ram here are all without RGB leds

 

[Third-Eye]

but I don't know if it is a waste to buy a pair of 3000mhz ram when using B460 motherboard because I love RGB leds but the 2666mhz ram here are all without RGB leds

If it costs you the same or close in price for the DDR4 3000, why would you not get the faster ram? Yeah sure you wont get the full speed when using an i5 10th gen, but if you were getting an i7, you would get just about the full speed. I doubt you would notice more than 5-10% difference in games between 2666MT/s and 2933/3000MT/s.

 

[tennis2]

I agree, no use spending more on slower RAM. DDR4-3000 is almost always the cheapest. And yes, if you want RGB, then that seals the deal. Even DDR4-3000/3200/3600 RAM has JEDEC profiles down in the 2666/2933MHz range anyway.

A DDR4-3000 CAS 16 kit would probably have a DDR4-2666 CAS 15 JEDEC profile.