Overclocking Kingston hyperx ram

[ChrisMakise]

Hello! I have a

Ryzen 5 2600

MSI A320M PRO-VH Plus

Gigabyte GTX 1660 super oc

2 x 8GB DDR4 2666Mhz Kingston Hyper X Fury (HX426C16FB/8)

 

I've read that you can overclock ram sticks.

can I overclock this ram to 3000 Mhz? And how do I do that?

Should I just change the DRAM frequency on the BIOS to 3000Mhz?

[Tom_nerd]

go into the BIOS and put it to 3000MHz then run a tool like memtest which will test your memory for stability issues, if that fails, go into the BIOS and give it more voltage, keep repeating that process until it is stable. (only increase memory voltage by small increments each time)

[ChrisMakise]

Okay, that's a start. I'll do that. Should i change anything with regards to timings? Or should i just leave it?

Thanks for answering

[aDoomGuy]

8 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

Okay, that's a start. I'll do that. Should i change anything with regards to timings? Or should i just leave it?

Thanks for answering

You probably have to loosen the timings (increase them) to get it stable, and don't go too high on the voltage.

[ChrisMakise]

4 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

You probably have to loosen the timings (increase them) to get it stable, and don't go too high on the voltage.

If there's no errors on memtest without changing the timings, should i consider it stable?

And what should I input in the timings?

here are the stock values of the ram taken from cpu z

 

Thanks!

[aDoomGuy]

25 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

If there's no errors on memtest without changing the timings, should i consider it stable?

And what should I input in the timings?

here are the stock values of the ram taken from cpu z

 

Thanks!

 

Aouch.. 2600 CL20 chips? I'm not a memory overclock expert but...

 

Ok ..first try to boot with this configuration

 

2666 MHz (stock)

CL 18

tRCD 18

tRP 18

tRAS 42

1,20v

 

If that boots into Windows fine then try to bump up the frequency one step. Run memtest for a good while (at least one test) and repeat until memtest fails. Then proceed to give the mems more volt until memtest runs fine and you pass atleast one test. I don't quite remember safe voltage ranges for DDR4 but my chips run at 1,350 from XMP profile so you should be fine atleast until that point. 

 

If you can't get memtest stable with increasing the volt alone, then try to increase timings. go from 18-18-18-42 to 19-19-19-43 and set TRFC to 575, TRFC2 to 450. Go again with memtest... If successful bump up the frequency, add volt if memtest fails again if still fails go to 19-19-19-44 and if still fails go 20-20-20-44 and so on. Again don't go too high on the volt but instead loosen the timings little by little as I shown you.

 

Your mems are slow with very bad timings so it may be difficult to OC them.

 

If you are happy with what you get run memtest for 8 hours or more (depending on what level of stability you want) and if it passes all tests then it's stable enough (if you ran it for 8 to 12 hours) and no further action should be needed apart from saving your overclock to a profile in BIOS.

[Hairless Monkey]

20 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

If there's no errors on memtest without changing the timings, should i consider it stable?

Unfortunately, no. Memory errors can take a very long time to show up, but when they do, they can really mess up your system. Memory overclocking is a painstaking process often taking many, many patient hours of tweaking and checking. It's very unlikely that you'll just be able to increase the DRAM frequency without making any other changes.

 

If you really think you are up to the challenge, do your research. And make small adjustments.

[ChrisMakise]

10 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

 

Aouch.. 2600 CL20 chips? I'm not a memory overclock expert but...

 

Ok ..first try to boot with this configuration

 

2666 MHz (stock)

CL 18

tRCD 18

tRP 18

tRAS 42

1,20v

 

If that boots into Windows fine then try to bump up the frequency one step. Run memtest for a good while (at least one test) and repeat until memtest fails. Then proceed to give the mems more volt until memtest runs fine and you pass atleast one test. I don't quite remember safe voltage ranges for DDR4 but my chips run at 1,350 from XMP profile so you should be fine atleast until that point. 

 

If you can't get memtest stable with increasing the volt alone, then try to increase timings. go from 18-18-18-42 to 19-19-19-43 and set TRFC to 575, TRFC2 to 450. Go again with memtest... If successful bump up the frequency, add volt if memtest fails again if still fails go to 19-19-19-44 and if still fails go 20-20-20-44 and so on. Again don't go too high on the volt but instead loosen the timings little by little as I shown you.

 

Your mems are slow with very bad timings so it may be difficult to OC them.

 

If you are happy with what you get run memtest for 8 hours or more (depending on what level of stability you want) and if it passes all tests then it's stable enough (if you ran it for 8 to 12 hours) and no further action should be needed apart from saving your overclock to a profile in BIOS.

I'll try this one. Thanks, I'll update tomorrow after the results. Cheers!

[aDoomGuy]

2 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

I'll try this one. Thanks, I'll update tomorrow after the results. Cheers!

You welcome, good luck.  

[ChrisMakise]

25 minutes ago, aDoomGuy said:

You welcome, good luck.  

One more thing mate, when I'm in the config menu of memtest, it only allows editing the number of passes, default is 4. If i would like to run it for 12 hours, should i set it as 10 or 12 or something?

 

Edit: memtest is only free version so I can only set 4 passes max. Should I just run it again after 4 passes? I have nothing much to do due to quarantine so I can patiently wait for this

[aDoomGuy]

7 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

One more thing mate, when I'm in the config menu of memtest, it only allows editing the number of passes, default is 4. If i would like to run it for 12 hours, should i set it as 10 or 12 or something?

 

Edit: memtest is only free version so I can only set 4 passes max. Should I just run it again after 4 passes? I have nothing much to do due to quarantine so I can patiently wait for this

Yeah 4 passes will take quite amount of time, I don't remember... I haven't run it in years. Set it to 4 passes and let it run for atleast a single pass first. When you are where you want to be with your OC let it run the 4 passes and set it to run 4 more passes if it didn't take 8 hours or more. Repeat the process until you have run it long enough.

 

The point is to heat the RAM up and stress it continuously and see if it spits out any errors during this process.

[Hairless Monkey]

Over time you may get a feel for which of the different memtest86 tests cause errors most. For quick testing stability between tweaks you can run just a few passes of those specific tests. IIRC tests 5, 6, and 7 gave me the most errors while OCing my RAM, so I ran multiple passes of those between tweaking. After that, when you think you have good numbers, or you want to establish a "stable" baseline, you can run 4 passes of all the tests multiple times (at least twice). Running Prime95 and the HCI Design memtest would also be a good idea to be more confident that you are stable.

[Hairless Monkey]

21 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

Edit: memtest is only free version so I can only set 4 passes max.

If you can find version 8.0, there is a bug that allows the free version to use however many passes you like. Was a very convenient bug for me.

[ChrisMakise]

Alright, thanks for the instructions and tips! I'll try this and see if these ram sticks can get stable 3000Mhz.

Appreciate all the help! Will update tomorrow

[ChrisMakise]

Just now, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

If you can find version 8.0, there is a bug that allows the free version to use however many passes you like. Was a very convenient bug for me.

I'll check that one out

[ChrisMakise]

Update: a friend told me to try using the "Memory Try It" and select the 2933Mhz setting. Currently doing memtest86 for the 2nd time. As of now, its on 3rd pass. No errors so far. Is this a good sign?

Planning to do prime95 after this.

[Hairless Monkey]

Certainly a good sign. But be diligent with your stability testing. I've had settings that looked stable too, until they weren't. Even a rare error can mess up your OS. Good luck!

[ChrisMakise]

4 hours ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Certainly a good sign. But be diligent with your stability testing. I've had settings that looked stable too, until they weren't. Even a rare error can mess up your OS. Good luck!

The test as all passed. The memtest ran for more than 8 hours. I'm thinking of running prime95, how long should I run it? My friend told me to run if for good 2 hours. I just want to get your opinion on this. Thank you!

[Blue4130]

@ChrisMakise I am interested to see how high you can push it. I have a 2x16 kit of hyperx that I plan to carry over when I upgrade to ryzen 4xxx when it is released. I know it's not recommended to have slow ram on ryzen, but I really don't fancy replacing 32gb of ram. 

[ChrisMakise]

24 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

@ChrisMakise I am interested to see how high you can push it. I have a 2x16 kit of hyperx that I plan to carry over when I upgrade to ryzen 4xxx when it is released. I know it's not recommended to have slow ram on ryzen, but I really don't fancy replacing 32gb of ram. 

I'm currently stress testing the current setting of 3000Mhz, 16 18 18 18 timing. memtest 8 passes (8 hours 38 minutes total elapsed time) no errors. Done Prime95 for 2 hours, no errors. Currently doing the memtest included in the DRAM Calculator for Ryzen at 60% no errors. Will update if this goes without a hitch.

[Hairless Monkey]

3 hours ago, ChrisMakise said:

I'm currently stress testing the current setting of 3000Mhz, 16 18 18 18 timing. memtest 8 passes (8 hours 38 minutes total elapsed time) no errors. Done Prime95 for 2 hours, no errors. Currently doing the memtest included in the DRAM Calculator for Ryzen at 60% no errors. Will update if this goes without a hitch.

Very awesome. That's a whack ton better than what it was set to stock. Good job.

 

7 hours ago, ChrisMakise said:

The test as all passed. The memtest ran for more than 8 hours. I'm thinking of running prime95, how long should I run it? My friend told me to run if for good 2 hours. I just want to get your opinion on this. Thank you!

These are the settings I use:

 

Do custom setting,

1. make sure unchecking " in-place" otherwise it will test cpu mostly

2. Set the range from 448K to 4096K

3. Allocate the ram at least 70 percent of your total memory Fot instance of you use 16gb then around 12000 to 13000mb is adequate

4. Run for good 2 hours

From here: 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/6dk5qn/prime95_what_fft_sizes_to_test_for_ram_stability/?ref_source=embed&ref=share

 

For HCI Design Memtest, run enough instances to cover ~75% of your RAM and run it to about 300% coverage.

 

A couple questions:

 

Does your RAM have heat spreaders? What voltage are you using? Have you done any benchmarks to see before and after performance?

 

[ChrisMakise]

7 hours ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

A couple questions:

 

Does your RAM have heat spreaders? What voltage are you using? Have you done any benchmarks to see before and after performance?

 

yes they have heat spreaders.

when I set the "Memory Try It" to 2933Mhz, the voltage is at 1.360

Only benchmark I have done from games like AC Odyssey, Far Cry 5 and GTA 5 for stock.

 

Update: got an error from the DRAM Calculator memtest. at 70% coverage. Should I change the timings and voltage manually?

I restored the stock settings in the meantime because I don't want to damage my system.

P.S. I uploaded the screenshot of the folder where the memtest included in the DRAM Calculator for Ryzen.

[Hairless Monkey]

3 minutes ago, ChrisMakise said:

Update: got an error from the DRAM Calculator memtest. at 70% coverage. Should I change the timings and voltage manually?

If you are up for the time investment, yes. It seems like you are close to stability, but it might take a lot of trial and error from here to get it stable. Personally, I'm the kind of masochist who finds this kind of thing fun. 

[ChrisMakise]

Should I increase the timings to 17 19 19 19 37? (currently it's 16-18-18-18-36) And what about the voltage? From 1.360 to what value?

I know I'm close to stable overclock.

anyway, just to make sure, overclocking ram doesn't damage the sticks itself right? I just have to be careful with voltages

 

Edit: I didn't know that I should only test about ~75% of ram. I ran 5 instances with 3000 megabytes each for a total of 15000. Maybe that's the reason why I got the error?

[Hairless Monkey]

As long as you don't go too high on voltage you are fine. If you are worried about it, don't go higher than 1.5V, If you are really concerned, stick to no higher than 1.4V.

 

I'd try increasing voltage first. If that doesn't work, try 17 19 19 37. If that works you can try tightening them again one at a time until you find the problematic timing. If it doesn't work you'll have to try increasing timings again,  or it could be a secondary timing that is causing problems.