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@ 2008/09/11We've posted information regarding Intel's Nehalem platform and its support for various DDR3 memory clock frequencies in the past. We've come across some more now, actually a lot more. As stated in the previous reports, the Nehalem platform will officially support only DDR3-800 and DDR3-1066, but there is still a strong buzz that there will be official support for DDR3-1333 memory, but it has not been decided yet.
There have been some confusion as to why Intel Core i7 would not support DDR3 memory clocked at higher frequencies and the first thing you need to be aware of is that it is not the frequency of the memory that is the culprit.
The problem is rather that the memory and the processor internals are fed synchronized voltages. Previous reports have stated that anything above 1.65V would fry a Nehalem processor and it would certainly be hard to get any of today's DDR3 memory modules to any kind of decent speeds at this voltage. But, these stories are exaggerated, but the fact remains that Nehalem processors are not going to like voltages above 1.7V.
There have been some confusion as to why Intel Core i7 would not support DDR3 memory clocked at higher frequencies and the first thing you need to be aware of is that it is not the frequency of the memory that is the culprit.
The problem is rather that the memory and the processor internals are fed synchronized voltages. Previous reports have stated that anything above 1.65V would fry a Nehalem processor and it would certainly be hard to get any of today's DDR3 memory modules to any kind of decent speeds at this voltage. But, these stories are exaggerated, but the fact remains that Nehalem processors are not going to like voltages above 1.7V.
Kingston made DDR3-1375MHz 5-7-5-15 RAM but it required 1.8v.