Help with overclocking RAM

Scyther · 27 Feb 2018 at 21:58

I have an Asus Prime Z370-A and Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-29200C18 3600MHz.

The RAM is currently set to 2133 by default, but I'd like to set it to ~3200.

Could anyone familiar with ASUS' bios please provide some assistance on what needs to be done to overclock the RAM?

Also would I need to use the Vengeance fan that came with it? I don't have it mounted atm.

Thanks in advance.

Specs:
i7 8700K w/ Noctua NHD15S (not overclocked yet)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-29200C18 3600MHz.
GTX 970
PSU:Corsair CX600M

UkayJ · 28 Feb 2018 at 11:09

Hi, I'm no expert but as no one else has answered yet I'm going to try help.

your RAM is set to run at 3600Mhz so why not try to get it nearer that speed than 3200?

Up to you but either way go into your BIOS > EZ mode > and click the drop down menu for X.M.P. > then select the memory profile you want.

As for the included fan, I imagine you'll only want that if you start upping the voltage for your memory.

Please note I've never used Intel before, I just Googled this but I hope I'm on the right track for you.

adrichardson81 · 28 Feb 2018 at 17:30

This should help you with the timing calculations. You should have an option to set frequency under AI Tweaker.

Scyther · 1 Mar 2018 at 02:16

How many settings need to be altered? 2? And where precisely do you enter these in the ASUS BIOS for my motherboard?

Thanks

UkayJ · 1 Mar 2018 at 07:55

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/asus-prime-z370-a-review,6.html

Ignore the first 2 pictures (they're advanced mode)

3rd pic shows EZ Mode, middle box, left hand side it says "X.M.P." in green, click the drop down menu box that says "profile#1" and select one that says "XMP DDR4-3200"

It's just one setting

Scyther · 5 Mar 2018 at 18:38

Okay, thanks. So it's safe to use this default profile1?

When I selected it, I was presented with the an option, which asked: "would you like to apply the all core enhancement with the xmp settings?"

I'm not OC'ing the CPU just yet, so selected no.

adrichardson81 · 5 Mar 2018 at 23:04

Honestly, I've no idea what all core enhancement means, but your XMP profile will be perfectly safe.

UkayJ · 6 Mar 2018 at 21:11

Yeah sorry I don't know enough of Intel to know what that means either but good job selecting "no" as that's what I'd of done probably.

Disco_P · 7 Mar 2018 at 01:22

All core enhancement allows all the cores to boost to 4.7Ghz simultaneously rather than just 1 core.

Scyther · 8 Mar 2018 at 02:47

Disco_P said:
All core enhancement allows all the cores to boost to 4.7Ghz simultaneously rather than just 1 core.

Ah, I see. So have I inadvertently performed an overclock of the CPU without realising?

When I go to task manager, it does say the CPU performance is about 4.6ghz+ (which may just be for a single core, like you said?).

Not a problem atm since the CPU is still running very cool (all cores in the low 30's when doing non-gaming stuff).

What would you recommend I do? Should I select yes to the all core enhancement? I have a Noctua NHD15S, though.

Disco_P · 8 Mar 2018 at 12:57

Core enhancement is overclocking in the same way that running xmp profiles on your ram is overclocking. I'd always have and will always enable it, it's enabled by default for a lot of motherboards anyway.

Task manager is pretty rubbish for detecting clock speeds. HWMonitor or HWinfo are much better tools. Former is a lot more simple, latter is a very powerful tool.

Scyther · 9 Mar 2018 at 16:36

Is there a way to see the speed of each CPU core on HWMonitor/ CPU-Z?

I see a box which displays info only for "Clocks (Core #0)", at about 4.6gh. Does that mean all cores are now running at that speed, or only that one?

Scyther · 9 Mar 2018 at 17:34

Well, I've received a "The system has POSTed in safe mode" error message 2 times in a row after booting the PC from shutdown.

I've Googled the problem, and noticed it's a problem with people who enabled Asus XMP.

Here's the image I see at boot: https://s10.postimg.org/l88ji4bl5/z37.jpg (from Google; that's not my computer)

So I've currently disabled XMP, and loaded the BIOS Defaults again. The RAM is back to running at 2133 again, and I'll leave it at that for now to be safe.

I'm not really sure if it reverted the CPU core speed back to default, because it seems to be running at the same speed when XMP was enabled.

Not really sure what to do now, was hoping for detailed help on how to set the speeds in advanced settings properly, and not just rely on the XMP. I didn't want to set the RAM speed at their maximum in fear something like that would happen as well.

Scyther · 15 Mar 2018 at 01:44

Just a follow up. Definitely seems to be a problem with simply enabling the XMP profile, since I don't get any boot up message like that with it disabled (default settings).

Loxa · 15 Mar 2018 at 10:55

Scyther said:
Just a follow up. Definitely seems to be a problem with simply enabling the XMP profile, since I don't get any boot up message like that with it disabled (default settings).

Had a similar issue with XMP, might be worth a glance.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/memory-stability-cmd16gx4m2b32000c16.18813998/

Pocah · 16 Mar 2018 at 08:22

Scyther said:
Okay, thanks. So it's safe to use this default profile1?

When I selected it, I was presented with the an option, which asked: "would you like to apply the all core enhancement with the xmp settings?"

I'm not OC'ing the CPU just yet, so selected no.

Say NO to the core enhancement. Multicore enhancement overclocks the CPU automatically. The problem with it is that it produces a LOT more heat and is also prone to failure ( system crashes, etc. ) while you can set it for fun for a while, I would not run it for any length of time, rather you should overclock manually.

XMP is pretty much the same thing except for your RAM. It is not guaranteed to work. Your RAM will be fine at the overclock but the rest of your system may not. And you can usually do better manually overclocking. What I like to do is to set the XMP on then see if the system is stable and later manually overclock taking the XMP figures as a starting point. If the system was not stable then you can start to decrease the XMP settings until it is!!

Ross Thomson · 17 Mar 2018 at 08:12

should tell you on the spec sheet of the ram what it can be run at.