OK I think I have the right thread this time.

Does anyone know what are the effects of using slower RAM (e.g. normal 1333 Mhz) when overclocking e.g. a i7-2600K on this motherboard?

  • Is real-world performance like on games, video encoding, compression and compiling significantly affected if you use slower RAMs?
  • Will overclocking be limited if you use slower RAM e.g. unable to hit 5Ghz?


My understanding is that since memory is clocked independently of the processor, CPU overclocking should not depend on memory speeds, but it's also possible that slower RAMs = lower memory bandwidth, which may have an effect on overall performance - although my main concern is in daily usage rather than benchmarking.

Thanks in advance.