donta1979

Mienko
I'm using the 6400CL32 G.Skill.  While I can run it at 6400, I have noticed occasional instability so clock it back to 6000 for everyday use.  In hindsight, I should've gone with the Dark, but it wasn't in stock, and I was desperate to move away from Asus.
 

Gear 1 or 2?
The board may not even matter know people with 700-1k dollar ASUS boards and cannot run 6400-6600mhz part of it is the board the other is the CPU's memory controller.

donta1979
Yeah that is what I am wondering about you really need a crazy board, and really premium CPU memory controller to go past 6ghz+ Know a few people with 6600mhz kits they have to downclock the ram to 6-6.1ghz, and are forced to use Gear 2.

My thing is this how many of you are always actually in Gear 1? As I am seeing it on some of the modrigs setups with a 3090 TI Kingpins, I'm betting those I am beating GPU score wise with a similar system using DDR5 6000-6600mhz with my DDR4 4000mhz B-die's is due to my Gear 1, as it seems my GPU picks up some extra performance from that as I have seen in my bench scores and games with gear 1 2T vs gear2 1T. That is the only conclusion I have come to with the scores and rigs that are actually up.

donta1979

rjbarker
 
 
I did read somewhere (have read through so many threads when /i first started seriously playing with RAM in my Apex Board), the the first gen of Apex Boards definitely have issues pushing higher than 6000 Mhz. this is why I figured I couldnt seem to go higher ....my first DDR5 Dominator kit were 5600 C32 and they easily OC'd to 6000.
From what I understand the post Jan 2022 Apex Boards are far better for higher RAM speeds, but at this point im certainly not tearing down my loop to replace a $800 Z690 Board with another Z690 Board....the next tear down will be to replace my Apex Z690 with possibly a Z790 n Rocket Lake...or I may just ship Rocket Lake altogether....
Currently my Alder Lake 12900K is rocking along nicely at an all core 5.2 Ghz...DDR5 @6000 cas 32 ...3080Ti +135 / 725....for 24/7 gaming Im quite happy with the speeds...BUT, we always want a bit more right... ;)

Sadly the DDR5 in its current state is not really worth it will help with the cpu score but not as much as it should if it could run in gear 1. Then it sort of takes some points away from your gpu no matter what speed you have with it being stuck in gear 2.

yeah I am on a 12900kf, no issues runs cooler than most people on air or water just cooled with the best aio on the market. I believe the reasons for a lot of the price drops on DDR5 memory and boards is partially for the reason I am describing. 
Yes always want a bit more but some of us do so within reason. I wont ever go all out on a pc again especially parts at full price or over msrp like we saw the past couple years. I managed to pay at and below MSRP. 
Just kind of bummed and glad I didn't act on impulse, or I would be a good deal annoyed once they get ddr5 and the boards for it right, plus having to have a near perfect cpu to run 6600mhz. My whole goal is can I play CP 2077 smoothly at 3440x1440 with all the eye candy. Finally achieved that goal.