^ I agree and I ask the same. I have my memory at 2000Mhz 9-9-9-24 (still haven't checked memtest, honestly). I love that DDR4 is coming, but so far it looks like it's less significant than the jump from DDR2 to DDR3.

the fact that most systems like that will not be used for gaming. photo/video editing/rendering/server, will make use of all the ram and its speed.

Not really, it is used for benchmarks. That's about it. As for gaming, 2133 is the sweet spot now. Servers or workstations would benefit a lot more going with ECC memory rather than pure speed.

As for gaming it doesn't matter what speed. There is no sweet spot.

Yeah, I don't even think that 2133 or 1866 is the 'sweet spot'. I've seen test run DDR3 at 800mhz for games, and the most you see is a 1-3 frame drop compared to overpriced speedy RAM.

Looks like they are using a 125 MHz BCLK. I'm of the opinion that having a faster FSB is more important than pure RAM speed. I bench higher when I run my CPU at 125 BCLK (vs 100MHz standard) resulting in slightly slower RAM (2000MHz vs 2133 at same timings) and CPU speed (4250MHz vs 4300). But, as usual, I'm sure it varies based on your components and where your bottleneck is in your system.

Depends on the game. A quick Google search for BF4 shows this: http://cwsmgmt.corsair.com/media/Blogs/DustinImages/BF41920.png

That's a game a stock game taking advantage, I play my games at insanely high resolutions, maxed in game settings plus other profile hacks. When you are gaming sli/crossfire faster ram matters the most. I can tell a major difference between 1866 & just 2133 it can clear microstutter. I always say only poor people say stupid **** that defies logic like You can't tell the difference between 1866 and higher ram or just don't believe everything you read.

Linus tech tips has a video on YT showing tests of ram from 1333 -3000. There is no difference really, if you could get DDR4 down to 9-9-9-24 then maybe a small increase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4

^ I agree and I ask the same. I have my memory at 2000Mhz 9-9-9-24 (still haven't checked memtest, honestly). I love that DDR4 is coming, but so far it looks like it's less significant than the jump from DDR2 to DDR3.

It was always looking to be that way.. certainly shouldn't be any revelations here about it. That said, sellers gon' sell. They will push DDR4 every bit as hard as they did before with pretty shiny numbers on the package to get everyone to buy 32gb (still don't understand by anyone would buy over 16gb unless they are working in Unity/Autodesk/Heavy Adobe). And here I am sitting with 8gb of DDR3 feelin fine about myself 🙂

I strongly disagree with the test done on that linus tech tips vid above and I will tell you why that is. His using the same memory for all the tests so the quality of the memory people pay a premium for did not change and the performance of 1866 settings will be running @ a premium performance point. That's actually a fake result because 1866 memory isn't as good as 2400 so he cant do the test in this manner. The performance of 1866 will be greater on this 2400 MHz memory kit of a memory kit designed to run @ 1866. Its like me testing how good my car can stop using tires designed for a ferarri. Its daft and he should not of done the test that way All his showing is how good will 2400 MHz memory run @ 1866 mhz. He should of used memory rated @ 1866 because that's real life. No one runs 2400 MHz memory @ 1866 Make sense have I put my point across for you to understand ?

No, it does not make sense. Because that is not how reality works. There is no magical secret sauce on higher speed RAM, either it is capable of higher speeds and lower timing or it's not. In order to quell confusion, as you obviously are, we have a handy organization called JEDEC to create standards for us. All RAM must follow these standards, and regardless if it has a fancy heatsink or uses delicious gold plated tits, a piece of RAM sold at 2133mhz following JEDEC will perform identical to every other piece sold at the same speed. If we didn't do this companies could sell crap RAM with horrible timings but advertise as being something like 2400mhz. So yes, an awesome piece of 2400mhz RAM running at 1600mhz using JEDEC (your BIOS does this automatically unless you manually change it) will be identical in performance to a cheapo 1600mhz stick. Linus' video, while annoying (his voice, it's just nails on chalkboard), is accurate. Also as a side note, some people will underclock their faster RAM at slower spec, a RAM stick binned at 1866mhz is likely to run stable for longer will less errors at 1600mhz.

I strongly disagree with the test done on that linus tech tips vid above and I will tell you why that is. His using the same memory for all the tests so the quality of the memory people pay a premium for did not change and the performance of 1866 settings will be running @ a premium performance point. That's actually a fake result because 1866 memory isn't as good as 2400 so he cant do the test in this manner. The performance of 1866 will be greater on this 2400 MHz memory kit of a memory kit designed to run @ 1866. Its like me testing how good my car can stop using tires designed for a ferarri. Its daft and he should not of done the test that way All his showing is how good will 2400 MHz memory run @ 1866 mhz. He should of used memory rated @ 1866 because that's real life. No one runs 2400 MHz memory @ 1866 Make sense have I put my point across for you to understand ?

Nope, its much like how CPU's and GPU's are made. They don't make different SKU's for each variant of CPU and its speed. They create the architecture and aim for a clock speed with it. This is where yields come into account, some of these chips will be binned and not able to reach said speeds. They are not actually thrown in the bin, they are then clocked at lower speeds and sold as lower versions of the same CPU. Or in a GPU's case some of the CU's and other features are turned off in order to make them stable and then released as lower end models. So in reality those 5960X CPU's more than likely came from the same wafer as the lower models from its range. The same applies the memory chips, some can or can't reach said speeds so are binned as lower end models. But people like us like to alter settings and change voltages and multipliers to get our lower end chips stable at higher speeds 😉

Linus' video, while annoying (his voice, it's just nails on chalkboard), is accurate.

What is wrong with Linus? Sure he can be a bit arrogant sometimes but he can be, hes probably the biggest tech youtuber around that actually knows his stuff.

I did say the video is accurate. I don't like his voice. Also your explanation is incomplete. You don't explain how fast RAM can be underclocked to perform exactly like slower RAM due to standards. CPUs are a flawed example, there are aspects of CPU's specification that cannot be controlled or changed easily from CPU to CPU (certainly not from the BIOS) like for example cache amounts. With RAM there is even less uncertainty, and because of the simplistic nature of RAM and the specifications there can be many many manufacturers of RAM, where CPUs only have two.

I'm just abiding my time, watching as DDR4 matures... Seems like we're going to have to push serious speeds to get any serious gain over DDR3. Though when that happens it'll finally be time to upgrade my 2600K and get a system with DDR4. (not that I'm upgrading specifically for DDR4, but I like to be up to date when I buy a new motherboard/etc)

So according to you we never ever have to review memory from different manufacturers because they will all benchmark and perform the same.. Right ? That is what your saying in simple terms. You should edit your post because its oh so broken.

Nothing I said is incorrect. Good reviews for RAM will demonstrate XMP profiles if there are any, they will also overclock it to show the limits of the piece, and run the RAM on different platforms and CPUs. The latter can have a huge impact, apples to apples comparisons of ram running jedec spec will show no difference which is why most review places do not do that, and if they do its usually not apples to apples and will list the rest of platform the benchmark was run on. Motherboards being the most important. I dont think you have any interest in learning, but let me help you http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JEDEC_memory_standards#JEDEC_standardization_goals

This is ironic. Your dribble is hardly readable. Anyway, maybe this is a case of buyers remorse. Im sorry, but facts are facts, due to standards ram rated at certain speeds perform identical. This is why manufacturers use so much marketing for ram. Its not my fault you are too thick headed to understand this.

Because that is not how reality works.

agree, it depend of what you need... i was using super OC processor and ultra (expensive) fast ram... now i use normal speed Xeon and ECC ram... and it perform the same, for game. (of course for working it is much more fast thx to tesla).

I'm kinda anxious to see what AMD APU's will be capable of once they get DDR4 support. Should boost performance a fair bit.

There are actually benefits to higher speed RAM these days. If you've got the right platform for it. Haswell and Devil's Canyon* in particular really benefit from 2133 or 2400. Not all programs/games will show any difference, but there are definitely some that do.

Really? http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2014/march/haswellrealworld Yea, it's cherry picked benchmarks, but still shows benefits over +12% at times.