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Questions about RAM OC

Dux

Joined
May 17, 2016
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I never bothered with overcloking RAM before. Now i built a new PC (under my specs) and since there is pretty much no point in OC-ing ryzen CPU's, i decided to torture RAM instead. :laugh:
Ram is Crucial Balistix Sport. 3000MHz XMP. CL 16. I OC'ed it to 3800MHz CL18. Is that good? What is more important for RAM performance, lower timings or higher frequency? I mean, should i go with high frequency RAM, but loosed timings, or lower frequency and tighten timings?

3800.PNG cpu-z 3800.PNG
 
On ryzen you should set Your infinityfabric clock to 1900 and then optimize timings. Especially primary timing CL and tRFC can affect gamingperformance quite a bit. Do you use geardown mode? Can you try setting first timing to 16 or 17 and see if it Works? Also try to lower tRFC as low as you can to 500. It is probably around 6-700 now.
 
I never bothered with overcloking RAM before. Now i built a new PC (under my specs) and since there is pretty much no point in OC-ing ryzen CPU's, i decided to torture RAM instead. :laugh:
Ram is Crucial Balistix Sport. 3000MHz XMP. CL 16. I OC'ed it to 3800MHz CL18. Is that good? What is more important for RAM performance, lower timings or higher frequency? I mean, should i go with high frequency RAM, but loosed timings, or lower frequency and tighten timings?

View attachment 131743 View attachment 131744

If it is stable at that speed it will feel snappier in tasks like web surfing and Office applications like Excel and Access. As far as gaming though you would get only a 5 to 10 FPS increase.
 
Yep, boosted & loosted everything to da max, that's the ticket, yep 4 sure no doubt :rockout: :eek: :D :respect:
 
I didn't bother setting timings myself. On MSI motherboard BIOS there is section called "Memory try it." It has a long list of various RAM frequencies combined with various timings. So you just choose what you want. It also auto sets voltage. I tried 3600MHz with 16 18 18 37. But it was unstable. It works with 16 19 19 39. But 3800MHz with 18 22 22 42 gave better results in aida64 memory benchmark.
 
Since it's not been mentioned yet, try this.

It runs in Windows and gives you an idea of what kind of settings you should try to use.
You need to know some of the options and you might need this to figure some of those out.
 
test it with shadow of the tombraider in game benchmark @ 1080P -- that will tell you the best settings to run (it's very memory sensitive) if you're stuck between two options.

Sometimes more gb/s is worse if the latency is higher.
 
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OK. I did some more manual tuning. Lowered the timings from 18 22 22 42 to 17 20 20 40. Most of the results in Aida 64 are better. Especially read speed and L3 cache.
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Interesting, my CPU won't boot with odd CAS timings. Maybe that depends on the memory type.
The cache shouldn't be affected at all by memory timings.
However, you're about where you want to be and that's most likely the best you're going to get out of that RAM without cranking the Voltage to silly levels.
 
Interesting, my CPU won't boot with odd CAS timings. Maybe that depends on the memory type.
The cache shouldn't be affected at all by memory timings.
However, you're about where you want to be and that's most likely the best you're going to get out of that RAM without cranking the Voltage to silly levels.
BIOS auto set the voltage to 1.416V. Which is AFAIK on the high end for DDR4. Anyways i didn't expect i'll be able to get even these results. So far tested it with memtest64 for 1 hour with no errors. Also tested with Gears of War ultimate benchmark because i don't have any other games currently installed with built in benchmark. Maybe i should install Metro Exodus since i own that game, or Tomb Raide like someone said above.
 
Interesting, my CPU won't boot with odd CAS timings. Maybe that depends on the memory type.

Look in your BIOS for something called Gear Down Mode. It is there to allow the odd timings to work ;) At least it is on my Crosshair.
 
Look in your BIOS for something called Gear Down Mode. It is there to allow the odd timings to work ;) At least it is on my Crosshair.
It's enabled, still won't let me boot with odd timings.
 
Sorry to hear that. Works like a charm for me :(
I'm sure Gigabyte will get around to fixing it at some point...
I'm quite happy with how my system is running at this point, but want to see if I could tweak my RAM timings just a smidgen more, but alas...
 
I'm sure Gigabyte will get around to fixing it at some point...
I'm quite happy with how my system is running at this point, but want to see if I could tweak my RAM timings just a smidgen more, but alas...
What Gigabyte board? I was messing around with a B450 Aorus M and a 3600 the other day and getting into a real mess using the DRAM calculator. It was Corsair LPX with Samsung B-die so failing to hit 3600 C14 was quite unexpected, really. 3600 CL14 on B-die is pretty much guaranteed with even garbage-tier boards.

I read on one of the dozens of browser tabs that AGESA updates aren't quite the clean wipe and reflash that you'd expect and they recommended going back to a much earlier AGESA version and incrementally working through AGESA updates. I was doubtful and pessimistic, but for me this worked and not a single BIOS settings was different between the time I couldn't even get 2933 C14 stable and then a few flashes later where 3600 CL14 worked first time with memory training turned off.

F5 (as shipped) > F32 > F40 > F42a (failed to OC RAM as expected)
Flashed back to F30 > F32 > F40 > F41 > F42a (worked beautifully)

I honestly have no idea how AGESA updates interact with BIOS flashes but going back to pre-Zen2 AGESA and then updating for every AGESA update in between actually worked. Sample size of one, your mileage may vary, and all the other caveats ofc. My own janky Asrock B350 board also hated Zen2 (nothing worked beyond 2133) but that was just a broken BIOS altogether and I had to wait for an update before it let me even reach XMP on DDR4-3000.
 
Interesting thing is that AMD recommends staying below 3733MHz on memory. Because apparently infinity clock doesnt keep 1:1 ratio beyond that with memory clock. But my RAM is at 3800MHz (1900 actually) and in Ryzen master app it still says it is running in coupled mode. Beyond that (3866MHz) PC doesn't want to boot. But yeah. It seems infinity clock maximum is 1900MHz, not 1800 like AMD says. Maybe they changed something in BIOS updates since launch? Seem like going up to 3800MHz and then fine tuning latencies is the way to go.
 
It depends entirely on the CPU and motherboard. Mine can’t do anything over 3733, but I have a theory I want to test with a buddy who has one that can do 3830. Just need to work out logistics. :)
 
Well...this RAM is a jewel. So is ZEN 2 memory controller. 3800MHz, CL16-19-19-19-39. Stable.
Anyways, you can see the CPU score in Time spy with memory at default 2400MHz, and with overclock. It does increase somewhat. Also, latency is 66.8ns in Aida64 :clap:
cl16-3800.PNGRAM CL-16-19-19-19-39.PNG 66.8ns.PNG<<RAM@3800 C_16-19-19-19-39

RAM 2400 CL-16-16-16-16-36.PNG<<RAM @2400 CL-16-16-16-16-36
 
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