Stock Memory Timing Discrepancy

I recently purchased a Corsair Dominator DDR4 2400 C10 2x8GB memory sticks to go with my new x99 motherboard but I am a bit concerned with them. I am relatively inexperienced when it comes to overclocking so maybe I am just missing something but I would love to have someone more knowledgeable help me to determine if there is something wrong with these RAM sticks or not.

Basically, I have discovered that in my BIOS you can see that the two sticks I am using seem to have different stock latency timings. I'm not sure if this is common or a trivial matter but I have a feeling that one of the sticks is not on par with the other especially because any attempts to overclock them to either the XMP profile provided or anywhere approaching those values with manual inputs results in a computer that will not POST, or an OS that fails to boot, or if I am more sparing with the OCing then it results in programs that run fine but sometimes will absolutely not close or have their processes ended via task manager.



So could this be a problem? It appears that only the "third timings" are the ones with any type of discrepancy but I don't understand why else I cannot seem to OC my RAM at all save for one stick being of less quality than the other.

And also, is it stupid of me to expect the XMP profile this set of RAM was advertised to work at to be guaranteed to work for me? Because unfortunately I paid a bit extra for these over similar makes because they were rated better in terms of latency than anything else I could find.

Thanks for any help or input you can provide.

Well......just based on the limited info you give and your pics, I can tell you right now that your memory voltage is too low. For XMP your link states 1.35v. You're currently at 1.2. Without knowing what board you're using, based on your pics I would say for 2 sticks, you're not in the proper slots either.
To address your question about being guaranteed to work for you, yes. If the ram will not do the advertised speed, timings at the advertised voltage, then they are no good and you can send them back or RMA for a set that will.

When I overclock the RAM I turn up the voltage. I've tried both 1.3 and 1.35 as well as the default 'auto' setting but to no avail.

I'm using the EVGA X99 FTW K motherboard in which the ram must be slotted into odd numbered slots first, which they are currently in slot 1 and 3.

Ok, that is good to know - I was wondering if I could RMA them if I could not figure this out.

You need 1.35v just to run XMP without overclocking.
Your ram is also not on the QVL for that board, so you may have a problem there.

Yeah that's what I mean, when I use the XMP profile I have tried it in 1.35, 1.3 and auto with no success.

I've never heard of QVL before but looking at it I see many variants of very similar Corsair memory - could I try to set my frequency, timings, and voltages to some of those and expect better stability?

Possibly. Not gonna hurt to try.

Just wondering why you chose to go with the EVGA motherboard. EVGA is no longer a major player in that market.

If you change the memory to channel 2 does it show 6 tRWDR for timing?

trents said:

Just wondering why you chose to go with the EVGA motherboard. EVGA is no longer a major player in that market.

Click to expand...

Because they have really good customer service in my experience

wingman99 said:

If you change the memory to channel 2 does it show 6 tRWDR for timing?

Click to expand...

I'll test and get back to you.

I'm just wondering if the sub timings will change, defiantly post back.

Not every motherboard will work at CL10. I would set timings manually + 1.35V and check if something like 12-12-12 or 14-14-14 is working. When you set something stable then drop CL by 1 and check if it's still working. If it won't work even at 14-14-14 then probably sub timings are too tight for this board.
On X99 motherboards usually best working slots in dual channel are first and last.

If I let my RAM run whatever it's base JEDEC profile it typically runs at 2133mhz with 14-14-14-32 and as I've been sitting on that to see how it runs it seems to be stable with no problems. I have manually brought the timings down to 12-12-12-29 at 2400mhz and got it to boot and run but I have ran into some weird behavior from my computer when I did that that I'm still not sure what exactly is the cause of (It's possible on of my RAID drives are failing). Dropping down to C11 does not allow my system to boot. So it's definitely possible that C12 is the best I can do.

As a related question, I had originally planned to buy another set of 16gb 2x8 sticks when I had the money in the future - is it important that I buy the exact same C10 rated Dominator sticks even if I don't clock them to C10 timings or is it safe to go with cheaper Dominator sticks that are rated, say, C14 or something and overclock them to C12? Because if I can't make use of C10 latency on my motherboard it seems like it would be a waste to spend any more than necessary when upgrading.

Different memory kit or even the same kit with different revision number will have different memory chips and probably also memory profile. It can cause additional issues.
I would check if it can run at higher frequency but more relaxed timings like 2666 14-14-14/15-15-15 1.35V ( probably 1.20V will work too ).