XMP Problems - Too much MHz??

[JayBe]

Hey guys,

 

I wanted to try out enabling XMP on my PC for the first time, but it just won't work.
First of all, my specs:
MB: Gigabyte X570 Gaming X

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600x
GPU: Gainward GTX 1070
RAM: Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz 16 GB
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus (also known: Focus PX) Platinum 550 W

 

When I enable XMP I can choose between 2 Profiles, one going up to 4400 MHz and the second one going to 4000 MHz.
Obviously i went with the 4400 MHz first, rebooted. Following happened: Beeped 3 times -> shut down -> powered up -> beeped 3 times -> shut down -> powered up -> beeped 1 time -> shut down -> powered up -> booted into Windows. I first thought, that i did it. But looking at the Task Manager and CPU-Z i saw, that it still is on 2133 MHz.
I then looked up the MB specifiactions, to see whether or not it does support 4400 MHz, and came to the sad conclusion, that it only supports up to 4000 MHz

 

But then thought, that that maybe is why there is a second profile.
I enabled the second profile, which sets it to 4000 MHz, just to see the same thing happen again.

 

Looking then at the Memory Support list, i didnt find mine on it (probably cause its a 4400, and it only supports up to 4000)

So, my question here is:
Is it actually plausible that i cant enable XMP cause my RAMs frequency is too high for it (even if i enable the second profile for 4000)?
Or could there be any other reasons that i cant think of / dont know?

As always, thanks in advance!

 

 

Greetings,
Josh

 

 

[Chris Pratt]

3600Mhz is as high as you want to go with Zen 2. Anything higher actually works against you because the FCLK has to go to 2:1 to compensate.

[Haro]

Just now, Chris Pratt said:

Anything higher actually works against you because the FCLK has to go to 2:1 to compensate

No? 3800 works just fine. 4000 becomes 2:1. 

 

10 minutes ago, JayBe said:

and came to the sad conclusion, that it only supports up to 4000 MHz

Depends on the topology on the board. And that board is only 4 Layers iirc so it's not the best for memory overclocking. Generally anything over 3600/3800 is a point of diminishing returns for zen 2 anyways. So you're not losing much. 

[Mateyyy]

You've two problems here:

• you're not going to get 4400MHz on that motherboard with a 3600X
• you shouldn't run 4400MHz anyway since the FCLK on your processor can't clock that high, resulting in a lot of added latency and therefore performance loss

Update the BIOS, make sure your two memory sticks are in slots 2 and 4, enable XMP and try downclocking to 3800MHz with a 1900MHz FCLK. If that doesn't work, try 3733MHz on the memory and 1866MHz FCLK. If that still doesn't work, then 3600MHz memory and 1800MHz FCLK.

After that you should be looking at manually tightening at least the primary timings, since I'd assume the XMP on a Viper Steel 4400MHz kit will be CL18? CL19 maybe? Which is quite loose for 3600MHz.

[Chris Pratt]

4 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

No? 3800 works just fine. 4000 becomes 2:1. 

No. 3800 requires overclocking the FCLK to 1900Mhz, and almost always leads to system instability unless you get a golden chip.

[Haro]

6 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

and almost always leads to system instability unless you get a golden chip

That's not my point. 

Assuming you get to 1900 FCLK, My point is 3800 does not result in 2:1. 4000 does. 

Edited August 1, 2020 by TofuHaroto

[JayBe]

Sorry for the late Response to y'all, i've not been at home for the past days.

 

On 8/1/2020 at 8:12 PM, Chris Pratt said:

3600Mhz is as high as you want to go with Zen 2. Anything higher actually works against you because the FCLK has to go to 2:1 to compensate.

 

On 8/1/2020 at 8:13 PM, TofuHaroto said:

No? 3800 works just fine. 4000 becomes 2:1. 

 

Depends on the topology on the board. And that board is only 4 Layers iirc so it's not the best for memory overclocking. Generally anything over 3600/3800 is a point of diminishing returns for zen 2 anyways. So you're not losing much. 

So.. would it be a better idea if i try to sell my 4400 and get a 3600 instead?

 

On 8/1/2020 at 8:19 PM, Mateyyy said:

You've two problems here:

• you're not going to get 4400MHz on that motherboard with a 3600X
• you shouldn't run 4400MHz anyway since the FCLK on your processor can't clock that high, resulting in a lot of added latency and therefore performance loss

Update the BIOS, make sure your two memory sticks are in slots 2 and 4, enable XMP and try downclocking to 3800MHz with a 1900MHz FCLK. If that doesn't work, try 3733MHz on the memory and 1866MHz FCLK. If that still doesn't work, then 3600MHz memory and 1800MHz FCLK.

After that you should be looking at manually tightening at least the primary timings, since I'd assume the XMP on a Viper Steel 4400MHz kit will be CL18? CL19 maybe? Which is quite loose for 3600MHz.

Tbh, i don't know anything about overclocking and what you need.. i thought, enabling XMP to do that automatically for me will do its thing
I recently just updated my bios tho, so it is on f20 (which currently is the most recent update afaik).
But so far, i havent been able to see any option where i can enable XMP and then set the frequency for myself instead of using the 2 preloaded profiles..

[Haro]

2 minutes ago, JayBe said:

So.. would it be a better idea if i try to sell my 4400 and get a 3600 instead?

You can keep your current kit it's just the memory topology on that board and the imc won't be able to handle 4400mhz. You can downclock it to 3600 if you want. 

[Chris Pratt]

39 minutes ago, JayBe said:

So.. would it be a better idea if i try to sell my 4400 and get a 3600 instead?

From the perspective that you probably paid more for it than a 3600mhz kit, yes. You're not really going to get your money's worth out of it, no matter what.

[JayBe]

1 hour ago, Chris Pratt said:

From the perspective that you probably paid more for it than a 3600mhz kit, yes. You're not really going to get your money's worth out of it, no matter what.

guess i gotta look into that. thanks tho

 

2 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

From the perspective that you probably paid more for it than a 3600mhz kit, yes. You're not really going to get your money's worth out of it, no matter what.

well, tbh, i only bought a 4400 mhz because at that time, it was on sale and only cost me around 15 bucks more than a 3800 which i first thought of. So figured "fuck it, only 15 bucks more for extra power" without knowing about XMP for now almost a year Kinda regret  that now.

[JayBe]

2 hours ago, TofuHaroto said:

You can downclock it to 3600 if you want. 

I might have actually done that now, but i am not sure if i did it the correct way.
Thats what i did:

 

I still have XMP disabled and then, at "System Memory Multiplier" deleted the "Auto" and inserted a "36.00" which now also shows me 3600 MHz in Taskmanager :

 

And 1796.4 MHz in CPU-Z :

 

And left everything else as it was.
So.. is that the right way? :'D

[Chris Pratt]

14 minutes ago, JayBe said:

guess i gotta look into that. thanks tho

 

well, tbh, i only bought a 4400 mhz because at that time, it was on sale and only cost me around 15 bucks more than a 3800 which i first thought of. So figured "fuck it, only 15 bucks more for extra power" without knowing about XMP for now almost a year Kinda regret  that now.

It's a common mistake. RAM is like the only component you have to OC just to get what's advertised. Average person will just assume that it will just run that out of the box.

[Haro]

2 minutes ago, JayBe said:

And 1796.4 MHz in CPU-Z

That does indeed mean it's running at 3600. 

As said above you could sell it and get a 3600 kit and save some money. As you won't be able to use it's full potential anyways at least right now. 

[JayBe]

1 minute ago, TofuHaroto said:

That does indeed mean it's running at 3600. 

Cool, so I guess i just did my first overclocking ever, even tho its "only" to 3600 MHz I am very thankfull for all of your help.

 

1 minute ago, TofuHaroto said:

As said above you could sell it and get a 3600 kit and save some money. As you won't be able to use it's full potential anyways at least right now. 

I will definitely look into that as well. But im not sure if i get the expected value out of that RAM, since its been used for a year now and only is 16 GB. Meaning, if i can sell it for, f.e., 100 bucks and get a new one for 90, im not sure if it is worth it for me. But who knows tho