MSI & ASUS Prep 4GHz RAM AGESA v1.2 BIOS - slow memory can fclk itself

[philo-sofa]

According to some guy's second cousin who knows someone who worked at MSI once, we might be able to run Zen 3 memory at 4GHz soon:

https://wccftech.com/msi-asus-amd-agesa-1-2-0-0-bios-firmware-for-500-400-series-motherboards/

(disclaimer, wccftech is often wrong)

 

[philo-sofa]

Yet, majority of us are still stuck with BIOSes which can't do even basic things stable

My computer stopped running 4 DIMMS at all recently. Yet magically the third set I tried worked. I hope this release brings some stability.

 

[philo-sofa]

I can boot at 2000 IF. Just can't sync memory to it.

Envious. Maybe I should have gone for the Taichi.

 

[philo-sofa]

All else equal (inc timings) what benefits are people seeing from clocking infinity fabric and RAM at 2GHz instead of a more typical 1800MHz? It would be a ~11% increase in bandwidth, less if timings had to be slackened. But is that actually humanly noticeable in any real workloads?

There's a good analysis Premiumbuilds did that showed ~3800 MHz did give benefit but performance actually dropped after that, even with a 1:1 fclk to speed ratio. However I'd expect the drop off to shift to 4 GHz plus with AGESA 1.2 and onwards.

Source: https://premiumbuilds.com/features/zen-3-ram-speeds-benchmark-analysis/

 

[philo-sofa]

Don't see what the obsession is with 2/4GHz tbh... I have a Gigabyte Aorus Master which has the 1.2 code and yes, I am able to run stable with 2GHz IF and 4GHz RAM... but I have to go above 1.4V on my RAM. Considering I am running 1900MHz IF and 3800MHz RAM with 1.0V and 1.34V respectively, I don't see the point in chucking in the extra heat and voltage just for a 100MHz jump which doesn't actually amount to anything in terms of performance.

It's a bit OTT of us granted. A lot of it is just the psychological 4GHz threshold, with a dash of speed making a decent difference for Zen 3.

 

[philo-sofa]

^^ It's interesting, the charts (copied below) did show a significant uplift in performance from increasing memory and fclk. There is a drop off above 3800; which suggest that the max speed achievable by all is about as fast as you want to go with Zen 3. The expectation/hope is that this drop-off point also increases by 200 MHz for AGESA 1.2.

1:1 fclk to speed ratio

Source: https://premiumbuilds.com/features/zen-3-ram-speeds-benchmark-analysis/

 

[philo-sofa]

Even AMD said 3600Mhz was the sweetspot, if you can get it up to 4000 its probably better to run it 3600 with tighter timings.

I think originally they said '4GHz is to Zen 3 as 3.6GHz is to Zen 2' when it comes to sweetspots. They then failed to fab chips which hit that goal with previous BIOSes so here's hoping....

 

[philo-sofa]

If the 5000 series uses the same IMC which they say it does I think 4000/2000 is going to be unicorn territory.

Not many chips will achieve it.

Probably what they have done with the 5000 series is make it more common for 3800/1900 speeds to be achieved compared to the 3000 series.

I could definitely achieve 3800/1900 with the old AGESA, so I think it's reasonable to hope for more if 1.2 does eventually get released.

BTW nice quote on your sig Ex navy or a fan of history?

 

[philo-sofa]

Ha! Nah nothing as sexy as that. It's from John Wick.

Hey, John Wick is a damn masterpiece IMHO.

 

[philo-sofa]

Okay, guess it’s time for me to put my money where my mouth is and perform another BIOS flash