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- Jul 9, 2008
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The need for speed! Is it worth it? 
Let's do a little testing to find out.
Corsair recently released their CMS16GX3M4A2666C11 4X4GB 16GB 2666 Dominator Platinum RAM kit, so thought it would be fun to see how it worked in the Z77 GD80. To reach 2400 on 1.642v's with all 16GB didn't take much effort as shown here;
2666 with 16GB was another story. Tried an endless number of timing scenarios without any success. Removing two sticks to an 8GB configuration was very easy to get working as this screenshot reveals;
Tried all kinds of ways to see if the system would falter running at this RAM speed. No problem at all! Timings and DRAM V. were set to the exact specifications on the RAM labels. The 2666 speed did require that I raise the DRAM V. on step. It reads steady at 1.651v's at the V-Checkpoint by DMM.
Summary: Note that the difference between 16GB at 2400 and 8GB at 2666 in 7-Zip is rather small. The RAM runs as advertised, the MSI mainboard can obviously handle these speeds, but the CPU IMC, IMHO, can't handle this speed when using 16GB and all the DIMM's filled. As with any test, results may vary greatly on another similar system.
Let's do a little testing to find out. Corsair recently released their CMS16GX3M4A2666C11 4X4GB 16GB 2666 Dominator Platinum RAM kit, so thought it would be fun to see how it worked in the Z77 GD80. To reach 2400 on 1.642v's with all 16GB didn't take much effort as shown here;
2666 with 16GB was another story. Tried an endless number of timing scenarios without any success. Removing two sticks to an 8GB configuration was very easy to get working as this screenshot reveals;
Tried all kinds of ways to see if the system would falter running at this RAM speed. No problem at all! Timings and DRAM V. were set to the exact specifications on the RAM labels. The 2666 speed did require that I raise the DRAM V. on step. It reads steady at 1.651v's at the V-Checkpoint by DMM.
Summary: Note that the difference between 16GB at 2400 and 8GB at 2666 in 7-Zip is rather small. The RAM runs as advertised, the MSI mainboard can obviously handle these speeds, but the CPU IMC, IMHO, can't handle this speed when using 16GB and all the DIMM's filled. As with any test, results may vary greatly on another similar system.
At 2400 with 16GB, the FPS was 159.5, Scores: 4018. 2666 with the 8GB resulted in a small increase, FPS 161.0 and Scores: 4057.
but I saw in 3DMark 2011 at Physic score for CPU stressing, the higher RAM frequency especially 2400 - 2600MHz makes this score goes higher than 2133MHz. But in real life application like gaming is not much different 
perhaps DDR4 would bring something new 
is 1.55Volt your stock RAM voltage? or is it 1.50 Volt at stock? At the same volt that RAM can run well from stock to 2600MHz that is just great 
I guess this Platinum Dominator is exellent RAM