P870KM1 memory speeds

Apparently there is a slight difference in how the KM1 (true Kaby Lake version of the P870) works with memory when compared to the earlier versions of the P870 platform that were based on Sky Lake. I include the firmware upgraded versions of the earlier P870 as they still use the Z170 chipset while the KM1 uses the Z270.

What brought this up was a vendor who could not support 2666 MHz DDR4 and stepped back to 2400 MHz on their offering. While I see other vendors are offering 3000 MHz DDR4.

Maybe this is a tuning/timing issue or maybe they are running Prema BIOS (IDK). Does anyone have a P870KM1 that is running 3000 MHz (or higher) DDR4? What are your settings? I would like to try it out.

Being forced back to 2400 MHz is like buying a Ferrari and putting Goodyear tires on it.

 

The IMC on the 7700(K) natively supports DDR4 - 2400, max. An XMP profile might do the trick, though I think you'll need the PREMA BIOS for that.

 

All DM skylake laptops should be able to run 3000mhz ram at ease, don't think Kaby version is any different. It may depend on the vendor of the ram or one of the sticks could just be bad.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

The 3000 MHz. RAM from G.Skill is not stable. The first batch which I had was, but not the new batch. G.Skill are aware of the problem and are working on it. Get the 2800 MHz. RAM it's stable.

You won't feel one bit of a difference other than a few more points in memory benchmarks....

this video is old, but will show you how diff. RAM speeds really affect your experience.......

 

Phoenix; thanks for that heads up. It probably explains some of the challenges that integrators are facing. Even if they are "gaming enthusiasts" they cannot make every build a custom tweak and hand-craft each laptop to very specific parts. It has to work every time in a production environment or they would be eaten alive by playing the silicon lottery with dozens of components all contributing or limiting performance in mostly unpredictable ways.

I am not suffering right now, I had been aware that the differences are minute and essentially just move any benchmark by the 1/10th of a unit in actual measurement (variability in the test environment causes more fluctuation). I am happy to wait six months or so for it to be flushed out.

I would rather have an integrator give me the answer that they did "2666 MHz is not stable right now, engineering suggests using 2400 MHz modules" than to give me a >$7K laptop that blue screens at the most inopportune times. (like when I am running a radio coverage analysis with 250,000 points and even on a fast machine it takes three hours to execute at 100% processor load)

 

that's exactly why I chose the stock 2400 MHz. RAM on my MSI laptop although HIDevolution offers 2666 MHz. Because on this laptop, to access the other 2 SODIMMs, you need to dismantle the motherboard so if I did run across any issues in the future, I certainly am not capable of doing that nor do I have the patience so I played it safe. The slower 2400 MHz Kingston RAM even has lower CAS Latency than the G.Skill 2666 MHz. RAM

 

You can get some nice improvements when pushing a pair of 1080s in some games but it's not earth shattering.