Normally I don’t pay much attention to e-mails that hit my inbox from manufacturers claiming that a certain motherboard can overclock a Skylake Core i7 processor the highest, or that they have claimed the 3DMark record. They are in my mind boring marketing tactics that mean little to nothing to the consumer.
Last month I received one such e-mail from Asrock that nonetheless caught my attention. It claimed their Z170M OC Formula was the only motherboard to support G.Skill’s Trident Z DDR4 4333 MHz modules. Initially I thought, how useful is that? Are there even any benefits from running DDR4 memory on the LGA1151 platform that high?
For the most part we test using DDR4-3000, as it occasionally shows some benefits over the more typical 2400 and 2666 MHz speeds. Going to 4000 MHz and beyond is a massive increase in frequency (and cost) and I struggled to imagine where this would be useful, particularly when gaming. Then again, curiosity had gotten the better of me...