DDR4 RAM overclocking 101 guide

[Alaric]

Gigabyte does release a lot of BIOS updates for some boards. They've also been known to just release a new revision of a board instead, but that seems to usually be on lower tier boards.

 

[Woomack]

Gigabyte release too many motherboards and later they have a problem to cover support for them all. Many boards have problems with proper BIOS updates or it's easier to change motherboard revision. Some boards had 5+ revisions, also these higher series. I'm not saying that Gigabyte is bad or something. It's just matter of luck if you pick early release mobo or just do your homework before purchase and simply check if other users were not reporting various issues with the board you wish to buy.

 

[alv-oc]

well I really hope that they are right with their spectations and it can be fixed just with a proper BIOS ipdate, as far as I'm concerned there is only 1 revision on the board and after 7 months of using the board they dont look that they would replace it... not feeling very optimistic right now.

 

[Alaric]

I wasn't familiar at all with that stuff at Gigabyte when I bought the Gaming 7. I found out they released a Rev. 1.1 (mine is 1.0) and wondered what the difference was. All BIOS' are the same, as is the manual, RAM specs, etc.. Never did find out, but I did have to RMA the board once for some issues.

edit: My RMA experience with Giga wasn't too bad. It wasn't fixed the first time they sent it back, so they sent me a new one and it's been OK since then. I was able to lower my voltages across the board with the new one, so something is better.

 

[carouselcarouse]

Ryzen 5000 series 3600mhz overclock to 4000mhz

Helo guys I made a mistake few days ago.
I've ordered a 5950x with G.Skill 64GB /3600 Ripjaws V DDR4 RAM KIT (4x16GB) .
You see the problem there right? It's just 3600mhz. There was not a single "warning" you need to get 4000mhz memory for the new Ryzen series to get it's full potential.
Sadly the equipment is already on the way so I can't really cancel it.
So the plan B is to overclock the 3600 to 4000. Would you think that's the way I should take?

Or sell the memory and buy a Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (4x16GB) DDR4 4000 MHz C18 ? But as I see there is 0 for sale in whole Europe.


Thank you for the help. (I'm familiar with RAM overclocking)

 

[maxfly]

It will depend on the kit you bought. From what i have read you should be fine with 3600. 4000 is more a max that only a few chips can hit so if you can only do 3733 or 3800 i wouldnt sweat it. The performance gains arent really there at 4000 compared to slower speeds. You may see more improvements via tighter timings. Definitely something to keep a lookout for reviews on. Theres not much out there in the way of actual hands on information.
GL and enjoy the new gear!

 

[carouselcarouse]

It will depend on the kit you bought. From what i have read you should be fine with 3600. 4000 is more a max that only a few chips can hit so if you can only do 3733 or 3800 i wouldnt sweat it. The performance gains arent really there at 4000 compared to slower speeds. You may see more improvements via tighter timings. Definitely something to keep a lookout for reviews on. Theres not much out there in the way of actual hands on information.
GL and enjoy the new gear!

The exact type is: (for me 64gb is a must I use it for work)
G.Skill 64GB /3600 Ripjaws V DDR4 RAM KIT (4x16GB) CL16 (F4-3600C16Q-64GVKC)

As I read some articles and AMD recommendation the 4000mhz uses the 5000 series CPU in the proper way.

 

[Johan45]

Helo guys I made a mistake few days ago.
I've ordered a 5950x with G.Skill 64GB /3600 Ripjaws V DDR4 RAM KIT (4x16GB) .
You see the problem there right? It's just 3600mhz. There was not a single "warning" you need to get 4000mhz memory for the new Ryzen series to get it's full potential.
Sadly the equipment is already on the way so I can't really cancel it.
So the plan B is to overclock the 3600 to 4000. Would you think that's the way I should take?

Or sell the memory and buy a Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (4x16GB) DDR4 4000 MHz C18 ? But as I see there is 0 for sale in whole Europe.


Thank you for the help. (I'm familiar with RAM overclocking)

Stick with the 3600 kit, the new ZEN3 CPUs use the same IF and IMC as the ZEN2 and 3600 -3800 was their max speed while maintaining a 1:1 ratio. After 3600 MHz the IMC would decouple from the IF and run at half speed which incurs a significant performance hit.
Add to that you have 64 GB of RAM which puts a strain on the IMC and can be difficult at times to to keep stable.

 

[Woomack]

Helo guys I made a mistake few days ago.
I've ordered a 5950x with G.Skill 64GB /3600 Ripjaws V DDR4 RAM KIT (4x16GB) .
You see the problem there right? It's just 3600mhz. There was not a single "warning" you need to get 4000mhz memory for the new Ryzen series to get it's full potential.
Sadly the equipment is already on the way so I can't really cancel it.
So the plan B is to overclock the 3600 to 4000. Would you think that's the way I should take?

Or sell the memory and buy a Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (4x16GB) DDR4 4000 MHz C18 ? But as I see there is 0 for sale in whole Europe.


Thank you for the help. (I'm familiar with RAM overclocking)

As maxfly said, 4000 won't really run on most chips. You can count on more like 3800, maybe 3866 and that should make every 3600 kit. In reviews no one is even using 4000 kits.
Another thing is that most motherboards won't support more than ~3866 on 4 memory sticks. I don't know what motherboard do you have but what vendors say on the QVL is about max in most cases so ~3866.
The next thing is that I don't recommend Corsair LPX series. This is memory series which is causing the most compatibility issues.

Tomorrow I should get the 5600X and I have 4x32GB kit in tests right now which I for sure test with this CPU. It runs up to 4133+ with Ryzen 4650G but it has a better memory controller than the 5000 series.

The exact type is: (for me 64gb is a must I use it for work)
G.Skill 64GB /3600 Ripjaws V DDR4 RAM KIT (4x16GB) CL16 (F4-3600C16Q-64GVKC)

As I read some articles and AMD recommendation the 4000mhz uses the 5000 series CPU in the proper way.
View attachment 212080

This is not AMD recommendation. AMD says that Ryzen 5000 works as well with memory at DDR4-4000 as 3000 series was working at DDR4-3800. Most 3000 chips weren't stable or were not booting at all at 3800. In my case it was 3 out of 14 or 15 CPUs from 3000 series that could do that. Recommended for 3000 series was DDR4-3600 as max guaranteed to work.

 

[carouselcarouse]

As maxfly said, 4000 won't really run on most chips. You can count on more like 3800, maybe 3866 and that should make every 3600 kit. In reviews no one is even using 4000 kits.
Another thing is that most motherboards won't support more than ~3866 on 4 memory sticks. I don't know what motherboard do you have but what vendors say on the QVL is about max in most cases so ~3866.
The next thing is that I don't recommend Corsair LPX series. This is memory series which is causing the most compatibility issues.

Tomorrow I should get the 5600X and I have 4x32GB kit in tests right now which I for sure test with this CPU. It runs up to 4133+ with Ryzen 4650G but it has a better memory controller than the 5000 series.



This is not AMD recommendation. AMD says that Ryzen 5000 works as well with memory at DDR4-4000 as 3000 series was working at DDR4-3800. Most 3000 chips weren't stable or were not booting at all at 3800. In my case it was 3 out of 14 or 15 CPUs from 3000 series that could do that. Recommended for 3000 series was DDR4-3600 as max guaranteed to work.

Okay, than we'll see with 3600. I've ordered ASUS VIII Dark Hero X570 as motherboard + 5950x CPU.
And the Corsair LPX series have compatibility problems that I didn't know, thank you for pointing that out. Actually I didn't see any other 4000mhz ones in that price range, or just stupid RGB stuff.

 

[Woomack]

Dark Hero should handle 4 sticks up to 4133+, no idea how high as I wasn't testing this mobo but I've seen some screenshots with 4 sticks at 4133 on the previous Hero while the Dark is somehow improved. For sure Strix E/F can't as I tested it recently and it hit a wall at 3933. ASRock Extreme could make 4000, B550 Velocita 4133. Right now I'm using MSI X570 Unify which has a whole black design without flashy RGB so you probably will like it too. On this mobo I can set stable 4400 with 4x8GB and 4133 with 4x32GB but that's with Ryzen 4650G. I'm quite disappointed about the 5000 series because of that low max mem/IF ratio. On Ryzen 4000, I can set 4400-4533 1:1.