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.
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... ;)