FRONTPAGE XPG LANCER DDR5 5200 MHz Review: A New Era is Upon Us

[Overclockers.com]

The new era of DDR memory is upon us. All of the DDR memory up until this point has been based on the same general architecture. Other than increased bandwidth, DDR memory hasn't changed much since the beginning. The new DDR5 standard has been designed from the ground up and is fundamentally different from all computer memory before it. ADATA was kind enough to send us their newest release. We're excited to get a hands-on experience with DDR5 and give you the full rundown of what's new.

Click here to view the article.

 

[Janus67]

That's some killer RAM. I'm excited to see how it evolves over the next year or so and hopefully gets a bit cheaper too!

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

I have the exact, same RAM, motherboard and CPU as you do and yet I cannot get the XMP profile to successfully load. It gives me some sort of error screen and bounces me back to the BIOS. How did you get yours to work?

 

[EarthDog]

Did you update your board to the latest bios? Two sticks or 4? If two sticks, are they in the right slots?

What exactly is the error? Does that board have a debug code on it before it reboots.

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

Did you update your board to the latest bios? Two sticks or 4? If two sticks, are they in the right slots?

What exactly is the error? Does that board have a debug code on it before it reboots.

1. Yes, I believe so. I checked the MSI website and the latest bios they had available was the one installed.

2. 2 16Gb sticks. XPG Lancer black DDR5 5200 CAS38.

3. Yes: A2 & B2.

4. & 5. I'll re run the XMP OC and see what it says. The MB should display the error code if there is one. The message that comes up is along the lines of the XMP profile not being stable or something and being reverted to the previous state, i.e. 4800MHz and Cas40.

The system is an MSI z690 Carbon, RAM as stated above. and an i9 12900 KF. All the BIOS settings are at default with the exception of toggling XMP profile 1 when attempting the XMP OC.

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

Okay, I went thru and tried a few things. First off, there is not a memory related error code on the motherboard (more on that below). A message pops up saying the memory overclocked failed and then bounces me back to the BIOS page after a few second. There are options like alt-F1, but regardless, I'm ultimately back on the BIOS mainpage. A code does appear on the MB when this message pops up: 98, and the led right above the main power connector is lit up on the VGA light, but I'm not sure how this is related to the memory OC fail. I'm a novice to memory overclocking so I'm sure it might mean something to someone with more experience. The GPU I'm running is a Gigabyte Vision OC 3080ti if that helps with any details.

I tried manually overclocking the RAM as well. I looked up the values for the XMP profile for 5200 cas 38 in Memory Z and then plugged in the numbers in the corresponding slots in the advanced overclocking menu. I cranked up the voltage to 1.26 just in case and tried both 5200 cas38 G2 and G4. All failed identical to the XMP profile failure.

 

[EarthDog]

If the VGA light is lit up... that would (should) be where the problem is.

Bt have you tried one stick (in the proper slot for one stick) and try XMP?

You can also try raising system agent voltage.

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

If the VGA light is lit up... that would (should) be where the problem is.

Bt have you tried one stick (in the proper slot for one stick) and try XMP?

You can also try raising system agent voltage.

Hmm, what could being going on with the VGA? The GPU is detected both in BIOS and Windows 11, and in CPU-Z. The latest drivers are installed and working perfectly. I have no issues gaming on it in 4K HDR.

When I get some time later this evening I will try testing each stick in the A2 slot and see if the XMP profile sticks.

How should I got about raising the system agent voltage? I don't want to fry a bunch of new, unreplaceable components.

Again, I'm confused. Because according to your review. You have the same board, CPU and RAM as I do. The only difference is you used a 3090 instead of a 3080ti. And yet your XMP profile didn't fail, and you were able to overclock the RAM as well, right?

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Wait! I see it, I see the difference. You're using a more recent BIOS! Yours is 1.11 and is from 10/5/2021. Mine is 1.00 and from 9/23/2021. Where did you get that BIOS from? It is unavailable from MSI site. They only have 1.00 from September. Also, why did you use the PCIe gen 4 slot and not the gen 5?

 

[Johan45]

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Wait! I see it, I see the difference. You're using a more recent BIOS! Yours is 1.11 and is from 10/5/2021. Mine is 1.00 and from 9/23/2021. Where did you get that BIOS from? It is unavailable from MSI site. They only have 1.00 from September. Also, why did you use the PCIe gen 4 slot and not the gen 5?

As reviewers, companies will issue us an alpha/beta BIOS that isn't public to address specific issues we are seeing. These BIOS haven't been thoroughly tested by the Engineers so still aren't available publicly.
That being said I would go ahead and test the sticks, that speed should work at XMP without any additional tweaking.

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

As reviewers, companies will issue us an alpha/beta BIOS that isn't public to address specific issues we are seeing.

I'm guessing you either A. encountered the same problem, reached out to MSI and XPG and got the experimental BIOS, or B. they preemptively sent you that BIOS knowing of the problem. I'm curious if the BIOS XMP fix caused the PCIe generations to downstep.

These BIOS haven't been thoroughly tested by the Engineers so still aren't available publicly.
That being said I would go ahead and test the sticks, that speed should work at XMP without any additional tweaking.

I think I'm going to refrain from that for now. I am reluctant to put the sticks thru needless wear and tear testing for something I'm 99% sure is a BIOS issue. Others on Newegg in their reviews have also blamed the BIOS for the problem. And MSI on their forums in response to my post on the matter have more or less confirmed that the BIOS is to blame and said that I am lucky that things work so well on their default settings this early in the generation.

Since you're the professional overclocker, I'd challenge you to see if you can get the XMP profile or manual overclock to work on the 1.00 version of the BIOS. That is, if you're still in possession of the MB, RAM and CPU. Because replacement parts are next to impossible to acquire at the moment, especially the RAM, I'm unwilling to risk damaging any components running tests. I'd rather have a working PC running DDR5 at 4800MHz cas40, than not working at all while trying to reach 5200 cas38.

I'm willing to bet also, that the XMP fail and the manual overclock fail are related. Compare my CPU-Z to yours: ; mine says "Unknown" while yours says DDR5. That might be the problem right there, or a clue to it.

Anyway, I appreciate your feedback on this matter.

 

[EarthDog]

You're running an older version of cpuz than the review. Update cpuz. Alder Lake wasn't supported until 1.97. ,

As far as system agent voltage. See where it's setting it at and raise it 0.1V. It's good to well over 1.4V so... a little bump won't hurt anything. I think stock is 0.9V.

 

[mllrkllr88]

I am sorry to hear that the XMP is not working for you. Trust me, I feel your pain, as I have been in that same situation many times. We all want the XMP to just work, but sometimes there are other factors at play and it's easy to point fingers.

As you said, I had no issues with the XMP profile, it was rock solid. Furthermore, I was able to overclock up to 5600 MT/s...which is the effective limit of Micron ICs at this point. I've tested a few Micron kits and they all exhibit the same behavior with regards to top-end OC.

I am happy to set up a test and run the 1.00 bios for you with all of the same equipment.

When I tested the XMP profile, all of the voltage options were untouched in the bios. I would probably just hang tight and wait for a new bios, but if you would like to try increasing some volts I am sure you can get XMP stable. The two key voltages are CPU VDDQ and CPU VDD2, along with DRAM voltage. As EarthDog said, the SA volt level can help, but its less effective on Z690 than previous generations. Here is a screenshot showing what I consider to be the maximum safe voltage levels for testing, however, I still wouldn't recommend for 24/7 stability.

 

[mllrkllr88]

Since you're the professional overclocker, I'd challenge you to see if you can get the XMP profile or manual overclock to work on the 1.00 version of the BIOS. That is, if you're still in possession of the MB, RAM and CPU. Because replacement parts are next to impossible to acquire at the moment, especially the RAM, I'm unwilling to risk damaging any components running tests. I'd rather have a working PC running DDR5 at 4800MHz cas40, than not working at all while trying to reach 5200 cas38.

I'm willing to bet also, that the XMP fail and the manual overclock fail are related..

I had the board up and running on my test bench, so this was a quick test. With Bios 1.00 the XMP fails entirely. I was not able to train XMP, even with hardware-destruction level volts. As for lowering the frequency, the only thing that worked was 4800. I tried 5000 MT/s and it didn't work, even with CL40

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

I had the board up and running on my test bench, so this was a quick test. With Bios 1.00 the XMP fails entirely. I was not able to train XMP, even with hardware-destruction level volts. As for lowering the frequency, the only thing that worked was 4800. I tried 5000 MT/s and it didn't work, even with CL40

Okay;this is helpful to know! I really appreciate you're effort looking into this! You're willingness to help with this issue is really nice.

So do you think I should just hold tight and wait for a BIOS update? My RAM is probably not faulty, right? I think what I'll do is when a BIOS update comes out saying that it addresses the XMP wonkiness, then I'll try again, and if I can't get it to work, then test each module.

Honestly, 4800 cas 40 is just fine for now. I'm coming from a 4790K DDR3 2400, so everything feels fast and fancy anyway. lol.

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You're running an older version of cpuz than the review. Update cpuz. Alder Lake wasn't supported until 1.97. ,

Ah okay. Nevermind that idea then. lol. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[bfoxsyracuse]

Good news! A beta BIOS (1.18) was release a couple days ago. I updated to it and have no issues implementing the XMP profile. RAM is running a 5200MHz @ CAS38. Thanks again for all of your help on this.