RAM compatability inquiry

[KhorCS]

Been reading through older posts saying older ryzen CPUs are picky when it comes to getting a compatible kit of ram but it is largely solved in ryzen 3000 series. I own a asrock B450 Steel legend with a ryzen 5 3600 and I'm looking to get some ram that's faster than my old 2100MHz 16gb gskill ram sticks. 

 

And that made me wonder :

1. Is the memory controller on the motherboard itself or does the CPU houses it? 

 

2. Does getting ryzen certified ram ensure that it'll work with ryzen out of the box regardless of whether or not it is on QVL list? 

 

3. Is there any way to make sure that I pick a kit of ram that will hit the rated speed on the box? 

 

Sorry if the questions may be silly, new pc builder here. Thanks in advance. 

 

 

[Skiiwee29]

CPU houses the Memory controller.

 

"Ryzen Optimized" etc or anything like that is just branding BS, it actually really doesnt matter or mean anything. Follow the QVL list for proper testing by the motherboard manufacture validating the kit on there boards.

 

The QVL list will tell you what speeds the kit was able to hit by board manufacture testing standards. 

[KhorCS]

9 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

CPU houses the Memory controller.

 

"Ryzen Optimized" etc or anything like that is just branding BS, it actually really doesnt matter or mean anything. Follow the QVL list for proper testing by the motherboard manufacture validating the kit on there boards.

 

The QVL list will tell you what speeds the kit was able to hit by board manufacture testing standards. 

Thing is, when I check the website of B450 steel legend, it only shows QVL ram support for both 1st and second gen ryzen. Read stories of people not being able to hit rated speeds so they essentially "overpaid" for high speed ram that can't boot at rated speed. 

 

If cpu houses the memory controller, does that mean I can outright omit the QVL support list then? 

[Skiiwee29]

20 minutes ago, KhorCS said:

Thing is, when I check the website of B450 steel legend, it only shows QVL ram support for both 1st and second gen ryzen. Read stories of people not being able to hit rated speeds so they essentially "overpaid" for high speed ram that can't boot at rated speed. 

 

If cpu houses the memory controller, does that mean I can outright omit the QVL support list then? 

No, you cant really ignore the QVL list if you want to be certain. 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen had problems because of there SOC voltages were to low causing errors and crashing. I myself encountered this with my 1800x. Its very common on first and 2nd gen, just run the SOC voltage manually instead of on auto and more times than not, you're good. You can safely run the SOC voltage up to 1.2v for maximum 24/7 usage. 

[JustPlainGarak]

26 minutes ago, KhorCS said:

Thing is, when I check the website of B450 steel legend, it only shows QVL ram support for both 1st and second gen ryzen. Read stories of people not being able to hit rated speeds so they essentially "overpaid" for high speed ram that can't boot at rated speed. 

 

If cpu houses the memory controller, does that mean I can outright omit the QVL support list then? 

As a person who's running a 3700X on a B350 board, no you shouldn't just ignore the QVL. You CAN, but I don't recommend it. I had a heck of a time dialing in stable settings on my FlareX kit on my AB350N Gaming Wifi and it took lots of tuning of voltages (both memory voltages and SoC voltages) and I probably would have had a better time if I had actually consulted the QVL before choosing a memory kit. After the fact, my kit is CLOSE in model number to ones on the QVL, but exact matches are going to give you better compatibility and an easier time dialing in either XMP or custom speeds and timings.

 

Were I you (what with the benefit of hindsight), I'd look at the 2nd Gen QVL for the board, find a kit that meets your requirements for speed and timings and get that kit. I should have followed my own advice, it's what I did when I built computers for family.

[porina]

QVL is of limited value since compatibility can vary with bios version and now CPU model also. They're also usually out of date and they can never test all modules on the market. I don't bother looking at it at all nowadays.

 

If you get "designed for" Zen 2 ram it'll probably work. Can never say it with 100% certainty. Make sure mobo is on latest bios version.

 

I only have one ram kit at high speeds, Kingston HyperX Predator RGB 2x8GB 4000, which has XMP profiles at 3600 and 4000. Both profiles work with my 3600 on Asrock B450 Gaming ITX/ac with recent bios and I could manually tighten timings further. They didn't work above 3000 with old bios. The bios updates since early Zen 2 really helped with ram compatibility. Other recent-ish ram kits at 3200 and 3000 work fine too. 

[KhorCS]

8 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

No, you cant really ignore the QVL list if you want to be certain. 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen had problems because of there SOC voltages were to low causing errors and crashing. I myself encountered this with my 1800x. Its very common on first and 2nd gen, just run the SOC voltage manually instead of on auto and more times than not, you're good. You can safely run the SOC voltage up to 1.2v for maximum 24/7 usage. 

I mean I can't ignore the QVL list when there isn't 1 for 3rd gen ryzen lol and I even mentioned that previously. 

 

Guess u mean I should at least pick from the outdated QVL list if I want to be  completely sure that it works, correct? 

[Skiiwee29]

Just now, KhorCS said:

I mean I can't ignore the QVL list when there isn't 1 for 3rd gen ryzen lol and I even mentioned that previously. 

 

Guess u mean I should at least pick from the outdated QVL list if I want to be  completely sure that it works, correct? 

Nothing is 100% for sure, but thats about as close as you will get. 

[KhorCS]

6 minutes ago, porina said:

I only have one ram kit at high speeds, Kingston HyperX Predator RGB 2x8GB 4000, which has XMP profiles at 3600 and 4000. Both profiles work with my 3600 on Asrock B450 Gaming ITX/ac with recent bios and I could manually tighten timings further. They didn't work above 3000 with old bios. The bios updates since early Zen 2 really helped with ram compatibility. Other recent-ish ram kits at 3200 and 3000 work fine too. 

Waow, that's reassuring to hear. In fact, that's one of the ram kits I'm considering to get. 

 

On a side note, can you tell me how's the rgb software support on the hyper x predator rgb? I read somewhere that the software support for that ram is utter trash, want to confirm if possible. 

[KhorCS]

21 minutes ago, JustPlainGarak said:

Were I you (what with the benefit of hindsight), I'd look at the 2nd Gen QVL for the board, find a kit that meets your requirements for speed and timings and get that kit. I should have followed my own advice, it's what I did when I built computers for family.

Thanks for sharing your experience, and surprisingly enough, I was gonna do the exact same thing of getting ram that's similar to the ones on QVL list but with different serial numbers and hope that it works. Guess that's out of the question, guess the second best I can do for now is to find a kit from 2nd gen ryzen QVL

[GoldenLag]

1 hour ago, KhorCS said:

3. Is there any way to make sure that I pick a kit of ram that will hit the rated speed on the box?

you can aim for kits that use good dies. tho unless you are manually overclocking, thats rarely worth it unless you are going for very large capacitites

 

[KhorCS]

8 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

you can aim for kits that use good dies. tho unless you are manually overclocking, thats rarely worth it unless you are going for very large capacitites

 

Not sure what dies they are though, can u help identify them for me? 

 

My current selection are

1. Gskill Trident Z neo 3600 MHz

2. Corsair vengeance rgb pro 3200 MHz

3. HyperX predator RGB 3600 MHz

4. Team group T FORCE Delta rgb 3200 MHz

[GoldenLag]

8 minutes ago, KhorCS said:

Gskill Trident Z neo 3600 MHz

probably hynix CJR

8 minutes ago, KhorCS said:

Corsair vengeance rgb pro 3200 MHz

maybe B-die from samsung, its uncertain tho. depends on the specific kit. 

9 minutes ago, KhorCS said:

3. HyperX predator RGB 3600 MHz

4. Team group T FORCE Delta rgb 3200 MHz

got no clue. 

 

hynix CJR is good, and samsung B-die is good. you can usually save a lot by getting Crucial ballistic kits (3200mhz, they are E-die from micron). tho they dont have a lot of RGB

 

samsung B-die is probably the best, tho it depends if it actually is B-die which depends on the specific kit. 

[porina]

1 hour ago, KhorCS said:

2. Corsair vengeance rgb pro 3200 MHz

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/794741-Corsair-Vengeance-RGB-PRO-4x16GB-3200-C16

I got a 4x16GB kit as above. That was Hynix CJR.

 

Looks like I had trouble running it at 3200 on X370 with bios 1.0.0.2. Can't remember if I retried it with bios 1.0.0.3 since. It being dual rank at 16GB modules may be a (negative) contributing factor.

https://hwbot.org/submission/4193235_mackerel_y_cruncher___pi_10b_ryzen_7_3700x_11min_18sec_617ms

 

I'd consider 1.0.0.2 early bios, things only settled down with 1.0.0.3+

 

1 hour ago, KhorCS said:

3. HyperX predator RGB 3600 MHz

The 4000 kit I have is Samsung B-die. Don't know if 3600 is same. Note on both Intel and AMD systems, I found the 4000 kit gave better real world performance at 3600 setting presumably due to better timings.

[KhorCS]

@porina people have been reporting about corsair vengeance Pro rgb issues with b450 steel legend 

https://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=187469

Aesthetic wise I like them the most among my selection but reading about those posts made me a bit hesitant about getting it. 

 

I guess worst case scenario I'll be getting Trident Z neo sticks, but I've also read horror stories about those dying rather quickly after use (not neo, the original rgb variant) 

Not sure if there's still issues but supposedly I've hear a tech tuber saying 8 of his 10 trident z rgb died really quickly after a short period of use.