Can't get above 3200mhz with 3600mhz rated ram

mrbios

mrbios

mrbios

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Running 3600mhz (2x16gb) Patriot Viper steel ram
Ryzen 5600X
MSI B550 Gaming Edge Wifi board

I had this ram running in an intel setup (9700k) at 3600mhz ok prior to putting it in this, so i know that it can do those speeds at its XMP settings anyway...however in this I'm struggling.

I can't get the system stable, even with slightly increased voltage and laxed timings at anything over 3200mhz. If i set it to 2T i can make it stable enough to at least let me get back into the bios. I'm setting FCLK and infinity fabric to 1800mhz, UCLK to = memoryclk, power down enable is disabled and gear down mode disabled, as is bank group swap (i don't know what that does, just read recommendations to turn it off) and ram running at 1.36v (actual voltage was showing 1.33 when set to 1.35, 1.36v gives a better reading)

Any suggestions? I'm thinking i might just send this stuff back and get something else at the moment as I'm getting fed up :D

Edit: additional note, it's been years since I did anything beyond the most basic overclocking. Setting xmp to enabled was all the effort I went through on my last setup, fancy getting a bit more out of this one though. So I may be missing something obvious.
 
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Well that's kind of where my question is really, i know anything over 3200mhz is considered overclocking, so do i need to be adjusting anything other than speed, timings and dram voltage? Is there a memory controller voltage that needs increasing for this?
 
Cyber-Mav said:
can you not stick to 3200 but tighten timings up a bit?
Click to expand...

I tried but the ram doesn't seem to like anything tighter than relatively crap 16-20-20-38 timings, and even that's still at 1.36v. I've played around a bit with the sub timings but I'm very much a learner in that region going be recommendations on what to tweak by internet guides/forum posts. No idea if performancetest (the passmark one) is any good but my ram latency rating seems atrocious.

I don't really like this ram much so I've ordered 16GB of the 8pack CL14 stuff. Think i'll get more tweaking potential out of those, going to send these back as they're not filling me with much confidence. Think this Patriot stuff seems like a case of paying for cheapest, getting the cheapest.

Now that i've had a play around a bit, i miss the days of tweaking to get every bit of performance out of stuff, so i want to get back into that, it's been years since i really tried my hand at overclocking :)
 
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I had problems with Corsair LPX 3600 CL18 at XMP profile. Crashed at 1.350v fine at 1.40v. Never had any issues with the CL16 kits in the past, but I am no expert.
 
i bought cheapest kingston hyperx stuff since i knew id be running 4 sticks and high ram clocks on that will usually be very difficult.

with your 8 pack ram on the way you will find out if its your imc thats the limitation or the ram itself. but usually if ram is rated for 3600 speed it should do 3600. only thing to hold it back is the imc.
 
Cyber-Mav said:
i bought cheapest kingston hyperx stuff since i knew id be running 4 sticks and high ram clocks on that will usually be very difficult.

with your 8 pack ram on the way you will find out if its your imc thats the limitation or the ram itself. but usually if ram is rated for 3600 speed it should do 3600. only thing to hold it back is the imc.
Click to expand...

Is there anything that can be done if it is the imc? or is it simply a hard limit it might not go past? Any voltages that affect the imc i can tweak slightly?
 
soc voltage affects imc but it could be case where you hit the frequency wall and cant go any higher like with me most i can do with my 4 sticks is 2733mhz.
 
Cyber-Mav said:
soc voltage affects imc but it could be case where you hit the frequency wall and cant go any higher like with me most i can do with my 4 sticks is 2733mhz.
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Might try bumping that up to 1.1-1.15v based on what i've just read, and maybe look at setting ProcODT to 60? (seen different recommendations depending on 8gb and 16gb sticks)

Little bit out of date but i've been watching this as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT8BQaQmL1U&feature=youtu.be&t=31m58s
 
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PSA: Probable MSI X570 Memory Issues (past 3200) with Zen 3 : Amd (reddit.com)

Well that thread makes for interesting reading! An MSI bios issue perhaps.

EDIT: the more i look into that, the more i find people hitting a 3200mhz hard limit on specifically MSI boards with AGESA 1.1.0.0. Seems like too much evidence to be a coincidence. Going to play around with timings some more tonight and see if my ram really is as fussy as i think. More: Heads up- MSI X570 and B550 boards seem to be having trouble with Ryzen 5000 and memory speeds over 3200mhz : overclocking (reddit.com)

EDIT: had another play around with settings, tried adjusting SoC settings, ProcODT, DRAM voltage as far as 1.4. Can't get the timings to boot on anything at all lower than 16-20-20-38. In particular RCD and RP will not budge at all, really wanted to get to 16-18-18-38 but it won't have it.
 
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To test if it is the memory controller not liking the high fclk matching ram clock then use a divider to run fclk at a slower speed to the ram. This way you can isolate the limitation down to the imc itself or the ram.
Since your ram is specced to 3600 my guess would be imc being the limiter. But its surprising that you cant even get 3200 working stable with 2 sticks on a 5000 series ryzen
 
Cyber-Mav said:
To test if it is the memory controller not liking the high fclk matching ram clock then use a divider to run fclk at a slower speed to the ram. This way you can isolate the limitation down to the imc itself or the ram.
Since your ram is specced to 3600 my guess would be imc being the limiter. But its surprising that you cant even get 3200 working stable with 2 sticks on a 5000 series ryzen
Click to expand...


Will give that a go tonight and see how i get on, though it does seem strange, and very coincidental that there's a lot of MSI + 3200mhz+ issues out there highlighting similar to me. Though that doesn't really explain why i can't make the timings any better even at 3200mhz. Read one guy was happily doing 3800mhz+ with a 3000 series in his board, plopped a 5000 in and couldn't break 3200mhz. Of course that could still be an IMC issue but i have strong suspicions of a bios issue.
 
Ram clocks and also timings are almost always limited and held back by the CPU's memory controller and / or motherboard.

Usually motherboard specifications will list what speed ram they can go up to and provide a qualified vendor list of tested and verified kits.

Its worth remembering this in the future, typically its not worth bothering to stress over ram clocks or timings unless you have already specified a high end CPU and motherboard that are capable of such.

My same kit that can do 4200 CL16 on Z490 could only do 4000 CL18 on Z390, both with stupidly overpriced Asus motherboards, but in my experience other brand motherboards rarely manage the same kind of results with ram overclocking.

And then there's learning about daisy chain vs t topology boards for optimal ram overclocking and zzzzz ram overclocking is just a useless 0.1%er thing to do. But I suppose since hardly anyone can get a new GPU upgrade right now might as well overclock that ram instead for an extra 0.5 FPS.
 
If you are using 2x16gb then make sure the sticks are inserted into A2/B2. A1/B1 will fail to boot anything higher than 3200MHz.
 
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