Motherboard and RAM Overclockabillity/Compatibillity

[Ardamir]

Hello guys, 2nd post here. I consider myself a seasoned overclocker with experience on various system configuration, so no I'm not a noob, this is a serious question . The question that I come here with, today, is about motherboards and RAM.

In my tests, I noticed that an MSI A320 Grenade that I was reviewing, managed to clock the RAM I was using considerably higher, than the previous MSI X370 Titanium I was becnhing with.
Now ok, this sounds a little bit unreal, but it's what happened. I used the same configuration (same CPU and same RAM kit) and both boards where updated to the latest possible BIOS (same AGESA too), but the budget A320 board managed to achieve a higher stable clock than the top-notch X370.

As far as I know the things that define the maximum RAM OC you can get, are ;
1. BIOS/AGESA version
2. Binning of the RAM DIMM's
3. Binning of the IMC
4. Voltages applied to both the IMC and RAM (lets not go into CLD0_VDDP, VPP, VTT and that stuff)

2, 3 and 4 are out of the equation since I used the same voltages, same RAM DIMM's and the same CPU, all of witch haven't suffered any degradation whatsoever which could affect the maximum achievable OC. The only thing that could explain that phenomenon is 1.

In my mind's eye, it really doesn't though. How can the lowly A320 mobo have a better BIOS than the "state of the art" (it's actually a really ****y mobo for its pricetag ^_^ ) X370? It's gotta be something about it, because the AGESA version was the same, Pi1.0.0.4C.

Is there something that I'm missing? Is it really just a ****ty BIOS? Is there more to a motherboard that affects RAM overclockabillity than the things I mentioned?
Even if the answer is complicated af, please do write it below, or point me in the right direction with a link or two.

Because atm the best explanation I got (from a friend), is that the Voltage controller of the motherboard (controlling the VSoC and VCore VRM) is responsible for this situation, thing which I consider being beyond stupid.

P.S Sorry if you find any mistakes, English is not my 1st language.

 

[Woomack]

A lot depends on the BIOS. Even top motherboard with bad BIOS won't OC at all.
In general it looks like AMD releases AGESA and memory manufacturers based on that are preparing their BIOS and are tuning it as much as they can. If there is cheaper motherboard, not really optimized looking at the PCB design etc, then they don't really care to spend more time to prepare the best overclocking BIOS. In this case you can count that higher series motherboards with X370/470 or B350/450 will OC better. Also 2 memory slot motherboards will OC better because of shorter traces and lower interference.

In real it's like when you get a good motherboard then on most new memory IC you can make 3400+. It can be Micron, Hynix or Samsung. Samsung will run at tighter timings but on Ryzen it doesn't matter much as overall performance won't be much different (looks much better in benchmarks).

In my experience, every single Ryzen had about as strong IMC so I could make 3866 on 2200G, 1700X and 2600X ... also 3866 in quad channel on 1920X. A couple of motherboards had problems with early BIOS. Once they got improved BIOS then all made 3466+.

One more thing. In most cases 3600+ is not stable on Ryzen, no matter what people are showing on various forums. It's possible to stabilize but it's not easy and works only on some motherboards.