RAM: Difference between Native and OC speeds and support

[devbox]

I am thinking of buying a new motherboard and it says this line in the specs:

1. Support for DDR4 3200 (O.C.) / 2133 MHz memory modules

I was told that I would need to use native 2133 MHz modules and OC them up to 3200 MHz to get those speeds. Basically I could not use native 3200 MHz.

Is there any reason for this? Why can't I use native 3200? 

The board in question is: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5485#sp

[LaP]

I'm not familiar with the new architecture as i've not build a pc in a while but from what i know of past architectures maybe you understand it wrong.

If the ram is not rated for 3200 then ocing it to 3200 would probably be dangerous.

I think what it probably means is the mb supports natively up to 2133 ram but you can go up to 3200 if you overclock using 3200 ram.

For example i have a core i5 750 with a p7p55 mb. Natively my system support up to 1333 ram. Even if i use 1600 ram the system will natively run the ram at 1333. But i can oc the ram up to 1600 using 1600 ram.

[n_K]

As far as I know there is not native 3200MHz DDR4 RAM out yet there is 3200MHz DDR4 RAM out so it should work. I checked the manual to look for 3200MHz DDR4 RAM support but the manual they have uploaded is for the DDR3 version, which is daft of them. I've got a z170 ASUS motherboard, in my manual it shows support for some 3200MHz modules, but the only module support it shows is 4GB*4 (not sure why), so yes native 3200MHz should work in this motherboard. You could overclock 2133MHz to 3200MHz but personally I wouldn't.

I got 2400MHz DDR4 RAM and its speedy enough for me.

Edited August 9, 2015 by n_K

[+PeterUK MVC]

Your not likely going to see a performance use with 3200 best go with 2666 or 2800.

Not all CPU's will allow you to run at high speeds and be stable Intel lists DDR4 2133 for i7-6700K

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

You can't use RAM that runs at 3200 MHz without overclocking because Intel's CPUs don't support it. The Core i7-6700K, for example, only supports DDR4 2133. Anything higher requires overclocking via XMP profile. I use DDR3 2400 RAM and by default, it ran at 1600 MHz. I'm not sure if consumer RAM that runs at 3200 MHz natively even exists.