Input on my RAM OC?

[Sirholg]

Hi. I've been experimenting with RAM overclocking on my Ryzen system. See system specs in signature.

I want someone with experience to take a look at my settings as shown with pictures in this post and tell me if it's "safe".
System is rock stable and has no issues. I'll give a quick written summary of what I've done.

1. Upped RAM Voltage from 1.20 to 1.25
2. Upped RAM speed from 2667Mhz (XMP default) to 2933Mhz

I've not touched timings or any other voltages so far. Though i did get my sticks to run at 14-16-16-16-35 and 15-17-17-17-35 with that 2993Mhz OC, but reverted as I got insecure about how to properly set timings.
Should i change any other settings in BIOS, or is it fine as it's set right now?

 

[mackerel]

1.25v is fine. Note most higher speed kits are 1.35v so there's plenty of headroom. As for the timings, it all boils down to trial and error. With settings that appear to work, you just need to test it to make sure it is ok. I'm using 3 tests at the moment: aida64 stress test with cache+ram selected only (not sure if you need paid version or if trial version will let you do that), Prime95 29.3 (or later) set to custom, 400k to 4096k FFT, increase the ram quantity. Also memtest86. Some passes of memetest86 will confirm locations can be read or written to. Prime95 seems to be more abusive on the IMC side of things and might pick up instability there faster than other methods. Not sure what aida64 stress test actually does, but it can pick up problems too. For memtest86 I'd allow it to do at least a couple passes. Prime95 and Aida64, just run them as long as you have patience for. I'd suggest at least a couple of hours of each for confidence.

 

[Sirholg]

As for the timings, it all boils down to trial and error. With settings that appear to work, you just need to test it to make sure it is ok.

Thank you for your input! One question though. Timings, do they have to be set in a specific pattern? Say a stick with 10-10-10-10-22 needs to go down to 9-9-9-9-21? Versus a stick like mine from 16-18-18-18-35 to 15-17-17-17-34?
Do I need to follow this pattern, or is it more or less "whatever works"?

 

[mackerel]

Someone more experienced might be able to say why, but to me it is "whatever works". I look at sold ram kits of examples of timings to get an idea of where things could be, and you can try to improve from there. Some kits can manage lower CL than the following values. The 2nd and 3rd values seem to be always equal - I can't recall seeing them set differently by anyone. Some bios don't even let you set them separately. The 4th term... unless Ryzen presents it differently that's not normally there at all. The last term, I've seen some formulas on setting it, but I'm not confident enough to repeat them. As an observation, it is at least the sum of the first two timings, often a few more values higher. I had occasional detectable errors when I pushed that too low on my recent OC attempt.

 

[Woomack]

Timings depend on many factors. There is some pattern but it's more related to some range that timings have. When you know what IC is used in your memory then you can check IC manufacturer documents. There are tables with timings and minimum/maximum values. For example one IC can work up to CL31 and other one won't even boot at CL22.
Some timings have to be lower or higher than other like CL has to be higher or the same as twCL and if you set too high twCL then motherboard will adjust it for you ( or won't boot but most new boards will just correct it ). Some settings affect other. Even if you are advanced overclocker then sometimes it's better to use auto settings as there are many timings and not all are on every platform so it's easy to make mistake.