Help for buying memory for ryzen 1600 AF

[AbhinavG]

I've decided to upgrade my pc to ryzen 1600 AF from 4690k. I might buy asrock b450 Pro 4 and I've went through its qvl list for memory and couldn't find gskill or corsair(I've narrowed to these two because of Newegg filters and reviews) 2x8gb 3200 cas16 kit in it. So then I went through qvl list on gskill product page and it said that it is supported by the said motherboard, does it mean that the memory will work with the max rated speed of 3200 after changing things in the bios? 

[ZephCloud]

It's not listed...means that it's not tested by any of them...you can try your luck...and ripjaw v isn't a bad choice it might work...xD

[AndreiArgeanu]

It just means it will work on the motherboard. That's it.

By the way QVL stands for Qualified Vendor List which is a list of pre-qualified vendors who have third-party products or services that a manufacturer has approved as suitable and compatible with their own products or services.

[ZephCloud]

And even if it's listed you'll still have to enable docp/xmp for it to run at the advertised speed...

[Jurrunio]

All 3200MHz CL16 kit models are the same when you peel away their heatsinks. No reason only to focus on these two just because more people bought them. 3000MHz could be even cheaper without noticeable performance delta

 

As for board support, that's also something you can ignore. What stops memory from running at their rated apeed is not the kit (was the case when Ryzen was first launched, not now) nor the board's capability, but the memory controller.inside the CPU. A better board could potentially compensate for that a bit, but they are expensive and that ruins everything.

 

I.e. If 3200MHz doesnt work, force a lower frequency like 2933. Kit model does not matter

[boggy77]

ryzen 1600af uses 1st gen ryzen memory controller. if you're lucky, it will work at 3200, otherwise most likely at 2933. so i would get the cheapest 3000 or 3200 kit (doesn't matter what brand)

[Metallus97]

10 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

ryzen 1600af uses 1st gen ryzen memory controller. if you're lucky, it will work at 3200, otherwise most likely at 2933. so i would get the cheapest 3000 or 3200 kit (doesn't matter what brand)

and to again state this: Doenst matter wich heatsinks or if its just stickers.

I am a big fan of gskill aegis memory. Cheap and gets the job done but form a reputable brand.

[AbhinavG]

Thank you for your replies. As this is an older gen chip, I thought 3200 Mhz might be better than 3000 Mhz and there is only 5-10$ difference between them on newegg. And I don't think this processor needs an msi tomahawk as it might not overclock much. I don't mind manually changing ram speed from stock to max in bios as I feel it's easy performance gains. I only wish there was some video on this topic as at this point it seems luck has a large part to play here and it wouldn't have the case with newer zen 2 chips. 

[Metallus97]

To be honest I never look at QVL... and never had problems. Just buy whats proven to work on the platform and form a decent brand. Make sure your BIOS is up to date, enable XMP and done

[boggy77]

10 hours ago, AbhinavG said:

Thank you for your replies. As this is an older gen chip, I thought 3200 Mhz might be better than 3000 Mhz and there is only 5-10$ difference between them newegg. And I don't think this processor needs an msi tomahawk as it might not overclock much. I don't mind manually changing ram speed from stock to max in bios as I feel it's easy performance gains. I only wish there was some video on this topic as at this point it seems luck has a large part to play here and it wouldn't have the case with newer zen 2 chips. 

Usually you enable xmp in bios,see if it works. If it doesn't, sith xmp enabled, start manually lowering the frequency until it works.