Game crashes with new RAM

[djbobbyc]

Summary: My new RAM crashes when XMP is enabled. Should I return it?

A few days ago I upgraded my DDR4 RAM, from 2 x 8GB sticks of 3200MHz C16 to 2 x 8GB sticks of 3600MHz C16.

With the old sticks, I simply activated XMP in the BIOS and they ran perfectly well. But with the new sticks, with XMP enabled I started getting game crashes within 5-10 mins of playing. Windows didn't BSOD, it was just the game that crashed. I'd never seen that kind of crash in this game before.

After a quick bit of Googling, I increased the DRAM voltage. It has an Auto setting at 1.352V, so I manually set it to 1.36V. Since then, I've had no more crashes.

My question is: should I expect the RAM to work out-of-the-box with XMP enabled and no tweaking? Should I return the RAM as faulty? Or is it expected that you sometimes have to tweak the voltage, even with XMP enabled?

 

[Freddie1980]

The RAM is probably not at fault the issue lays with your motherboard. The 660 platform is still new and motherboard manufacturers will be releasing new UEIF updates thick and fast over the next 6 months which normally results in better RAM support (Zen 1 had patchy Ram support at launch but improved over time). Can you get the new kit to run at 3200 at least? If you can I would say keep the kit and update your motherboard's UEIF down the road and hopefully it will run next time you enable XMP to get it running at full speed.

 

[Guest2]

Set it to XMP and run MemTest 2.5.
Monitor it for a few mins and if there are no errors, leave it overnight so there something like 500% coverage

It's what Gskill use

https://www.gskill.com/community/15...Memory-Kit-for-AMD-Ryzen-3000-&-X570-Platform
https://greentechreviews.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/RunMemTest-Pro-v2.5.zip
https://greentechreviews.ru/tag/memtest-2-5-dang-wang/

There are other tools like TestMem5 v0.12 using the Extreme config but i've ran multiple passes of that but then hit an error with MemTest 2.5.

Sometimes more volts isnt the way. I was at 1.5VDIMM for ages, but now running 1.49V and get no errors in MemTest 2.5. Other programs like Prime and AIDA also stress the CPU, FPU & cache more

I would NEVER keep RAM that did not run at XMP. Return it and say it doesnt work and/or return and say it's incompatible with your system

 

[djbobbyc]

Thank you to both Freddie1980 and Guest2 for your responses and advice.

Checking my MSI motherboard's RAM compatibility list, I see that my new RAM is not on there. So it's perhaps to be expected to have some issues. I probably should have looked at the compatibility list BEFORE buying the new RAM!

I will run MemTest 2.5. If the RAM stays stable in MemTest at 1.36V, then I think I'll keep the RAM.

Although it's not ideal that I had to increase the voltage by a tiny amount in order to get XMP running at the stated 3600MHz, this voltage is unlikely to do any damage to the RAM.