Is there a limit to Linux memory speed?

[Valenceins]

Hi.

 

I just came across one of my friend's message saying that he's building a workstation for his team at school.

 

So the rig he discussed with me is a Ryzen system. Upon hearing the word Ryzen I suggested him to get a 3200 memory kit but he then replied "the Linux system does not support memory speed over 2400mhz".

 

This made me a bit confused. I've barely touched Linux before so can anyone tell me if this is true?

 

From what I know using Windows so far, memory speed is to be set in BIOS and how fast the hardware wants to run should not be limited by the OS, right? As I asked this question, the friend replied that "Windows is a system that has simplified most of tuning for users so you will find it easier to use. But Linux has a whole different approach of utilising hardware resources and is more complicated to set & run"

 

So after about 3 minutes of searching on Google where I found posts testing Linux with Ryzen and memory speed varying from 2400 to 2933mhz (a very old post with 1800X, when Ryzen RAM speed as a whole was still a big problem across any system), I continued to ask him "so is it a customisable stuff in Linux? about the RAM speed?" he replied "maybe", "but our workstation requires stability, also we want to make sure the guy who run high-speed memory with Linux did not achieve his results by accident; we want to make sure our workstation, with the OS, can be replicated by other users so we're not digging into that 'customise' territory."

 

btw as I typed 'Linux memory speed limit' in google I found nothing. This is why I'm so obsessed in finding an answer.

 

Anyone who's able to help discussing this? many thanks!

 

OH MY GOSH I just realised I should have posted this in Software section of the forum. I'm panicking right now because I don't know how to delete this post, sorry if I made any confusion!

Edited October 31, 2019 by Valenceins
Posted in the wrong theme

[Fasauceome]

Memory speed is not contingent on the operating system, it is set in the BIOS and the hardware handles it. You can run Windows XP on a system that uses DDR4 which wasn't invented yet, it doesn't need to "support" memory types.

[Valenceins]

4 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Memory speed is not contingent on the operating system, it is set in the BIOS and the hardware handles it. You can run Windows XP on a system that uses DDR4 which wasn't invented yet, it doesn't need to "support" memory types.

Thanks for the reply. This is as same as what I thought. But I'm afraid if I say this to my friend, he's gonna tell me "Windows is different from Linux." Funny that even him cannot give a exact answer when I asked "if the RAM speed limit a customisable stuff in Linux", he just said "maybe".

 

Have you tried this before? By no means offensive, I think I'm gonna need a professional or a experienced user to answer this question, because only then it could be a "evidence" I need to persuade my friend, or maybe should I be honest: to make fun of the conversation between he and I.

[mariushm]

In short, the guy's wrong.

There's no relation between an operating system and hardware things like frequency, latency etc

Memory will run at the frequency you configure in BIOS, through XMP profiles, through latency timings etc

 

It may be that a processor he used at some point did not support memory overclocking, or was limited to 2400 Mhz or ECC / registered memory which for a long time was limited to 2400 Mhz.

Only recently 2666 Mhz and higher memory sticks were made.

 

However, Ryzen doesn't need those ECC memory sticks (though it supports ECC memory) and can't work with registered memory, and actually benefits from high frequency.

 

[HanZie82]

Tell your friend to stop bullshitting, and not spread nonsense he's not even sure about around.
 

[Fasauceome]

15 minutes ago, Valenceins said:

Thanks for the reply. This is as same as what I thought. But I'm afraid if I say this to my friend, he's gonna tell me "Windows is different from Linux." Funny that even him cannot give a exact answer when I asked "if the RAM speed limit a customisable stuff in Linux", he just said "maybe".

 

Have you tried this before? By no means offensive, I think I'm gonna need a professional or a experienced user to answer this question, because only then it could be a "evidence" I need to persuade my friend, or maybe should I be honest: to make fun of the conversation between he and I.

There are a lot of people on the forum, including myself, who use Linux (Ubuntu personally). I can safely tell you that there is no relation between operating system and ram speed.

[goto10]

i have been using linux since 1998, i have never heard about ram speed limit, perhaps ram size, when we were on 32 bit linux, but speed, no, nor for the cpu, ram or gpu, hard disk, anything

 

what you can have problems in linux is with overclocking, or perhaps not the overclock, controlling the overclok, like on ryzen, there is no ryzen master for linux afik, nor msi afterburner

 

other than that, he is talking bs, so don't listen to him