Increase performance by upgrading to faster memory options.
Increase performance by upgrading to faster memory options.
Hey! With your current setup of DDR4 at 2133MHz and an i5-8600K, there aren’t any strict limits on adding faster RAM. The Intel docs mention speeds like 2133MHz and 2666MHz, but they don’t say you can’t upgrade—just that the performance gains depend on your workload. If you want better speed, you can still add faster memory, though it may not always noticeably improve performance.
The 2666Mhz speed is the officially recognized base clock by JEDEC. RAM that runs faster than this is considered an overclock, only confirmed by the manufacturer—meaning a 3600Mhz DIMM can be pushed to that frequency, not that it naturally operates at that rate. This overclocking is called XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile), and you must turn it on in your BIOS to activate it. For Z motherboards, you have more flexibility, but results depend on the specific model. The guaranteed figures remain the JEDEC specifications of 2166Mhz and 2666Mhz, as advertised.
This allows boosting memory speed past the original limits. The same holds for non-K CPUs on Intel, and it should improve game performance.