So I’m about to build a new PC, my 1st. I plan on buying a Ryzen 5 2600X. The thing is that I want to pair it with 16GB, 3200MHz of RAM. The specs of the CPU say that the system memory is 2933MHz and from what I know (which is not much) the motherboard dictates the maximum speed at which RAM runs.

I have read a few forums and they confused me more than helping.

They claimed that the ram will be reduced to the 2933MHz and I also saw something about overclocking; as in its possible to use the full extent of the RAM even if exceeds the specified limit.

Again from what I know the motherboard is responsible for what the RAM does I just don’t know/understand what that 2933MHz of the CPU means in the context of the RAM.

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• 4 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory Dual channel memory architecture
• Support for DDR4 3600(O.C.)/3466(O.C.)/3200(O.C.)/2933/2667/2400/2133 MHz memory modules
• Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
• Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules
• Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

That is what the datasheet of the motherboard says, now, its obvious that the motherboard can take it, but the CPU's datasheet says:

"System Memory Specification 2933MHz"

Now, it might have nothing to do with RAM and I might just have misunderstood, if that’s the case then please explain what those 2933MHz refer to.

3 Answers

The 2933 MHz is the native speed that the CPU officially supports.

Nothing stands against being able to use faster sticks with no drawbacks. For faster speeds you just need a motherboard that can support the desired speed. In your case your motherboard and support 3200 MHz if it's overclocked just a bit.

In the event you don't overclock, your RAM would be basically the same speed. The speed reduction comes down to less than a nanosecond. To calculate the speed difference of the RAM you want, take the CAS Latency/MHz then multiply that by 1000. That will get you the time in nanoseconds.

6

Think of 3 people:

1. English-speaker/CPU
2. Spanish-speaker/RAM
3. Translator/motherboard (MOBO)

Now RAM/Spanish-speaker talks fast (3200MHz), but our MOBO/translator is quick (supports 3200MHz) so hears it all. MOBO/translator speaks to CPU quickly (3200MHz), but English/CPU says please slow down (2933MHz) so he can understand so they agree at that slower speech. Basically they are all reliant on each other & while one part of the chain |---|---| may go quick they all have to wait on the slowest part (common denominator)

2

The official support(by the CPU), and thus the default speed at which the RAM will run, is capped at 2933MHz. To run the RAM faster, you should enable a setting that will be called something like XMP(or A-XMP) in the BIOS of the motherboard which should automatically overclock the RAM to 3200MHz.

If you really want the most out of your RAM(or the system in general), you may be able to manually overclock it to run at even higher speeds(or better timings).