XMP help/understanding

[LAGEXEC]

I'm looking to upgrade my memory. If I'll be running XMP could I buy a less expensive memory and have it run at high-than-listed hz? If so, what memory would be required for me to (with XMP enabled) run at 3200?

My motherboard is: z97x-sli-cf

[tdkid]

what you see on the package like 3200mhz is the high end limit for the RAM to run at. what it most often does is run at half that speed. if its 3200 its usually at 1600. so you can make your RAM run faster, its just a matter of tweeking the power settings and frequency to run stable.

[Hairless Monkey]

XMP is a specific OC setting that is built into the RAM. If you want RAM that will run at 3200Mhz with XMP, then you'll need to buy a 3200Mhz kit of RAM.

 

Aside from XMP, you can also manually overclock RAM. It is an intensive and long process and not recommended for a novice. But in theory you could run even some 2133MHz kits as fast as 5000Mhz if you very much know what you are doing and are an expert in memory overclocking, like Buildzoid has done.

 

TL/RD a novice should not be overclocking RAM. Just buy the fastest kit that you can afford and run it at stock settings.

[tkitch]

If you want 3200mhz, buy 3200mhz RAM.

 

Uhhhh....  Your board is DDR3, and doesn't support anything even remotely like that.  Sorry, so no, not happening.

 

 

[Chris Pratt]

36 minutes ago, tdkid said:

what you see on the package like 3200mhz is the high end limit for the RAM to run at. what it most often does is run at half that speed. if its 3200 its usually at 1600. so you can make your RAM run faster, its just a matter of tweeking the power settings and frequency to run stable.

What? That's not even remotely how it works.

 

RAM is generally binned, so if it can run at 3200MHz, it's sold as 3200MHz. It's sometimes possible to push the clockspeed higher, but nothing crazy. If you could take like 2400MHz and run it at 3200MHz, they would have sold it as 3200MHz, in the first place. There's no free lunch here.

 

The base clock of the RAM is set by the JEDEC standard the CPU/chipset implement. That's most commonly 2666MHz. Anything over that is already an overclock, which is what XMP is for. RAM doesn't run a half speed without XMP enabled. It runs at JEDEC.

 

You may be getting confused here with clockspeed versus transfers/sec. DDR means double data rate, so there's two transfers per cycle. Something like DDR4 3200MHz is actually 3200MT/s and the actual clockspeed is 1600MHz. Manufacturers label it as 3200MHz because it's obstensively more familiar to consumers and it's effectively the same performance as if it really was 3200MHz with just one transfer per cycle.

 

 

[tdkid]

2 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

What? That's not even remotely how it works.

 

RAM is generally binned, so if it can run at 3200MHz, it's sold as 3200MHz. It's sometimes possible to push the clockspeed higher, but nothing crazy. If you could take like 2400MHz and run it at 3200MHz, they would have sold it as 3200MHz, in the first place. There's no free lunch here.

 

The base clock of the RAM is set by the JEDEC standard the CPU/chipset implement. That's most commonly 2666MHz. Anything over that is already an overclock, which is what XMP is for. RAM doesn't run a half speed without XMP enabled. It runs at JEDEC.

 

You may be getting confused here with clockspeed versus transfers/sec. DDR means double data rate, so there's two transfers per cycle. Something like DDR4 3200MHz is actually 3200MT/s and the actual clockspeed is 1600MHz. Manufacturers label it as 3600MHz because it's obstensively more familiar to consumers and it's effectively the same performance as if it really was 3600MHz with just one transfer per cycle.

 

 

oh i am so sorry, you see i thought you had to go into the BIOS and change a few setting to make it work at the max speed on the packaging, i had no idea it was just plug and play. please tell me then why my 3200mgz is only running ar 2666 when i have done nothing at all to it?

[Chris Pratt]

4 minutes ago, tdkid said:

oh i am so sorry, you see i thought you had to go into the BIOS and change a few setting to make it work at the max speed on the packaging, i had no idea it was just plug and play. please tell me then why my 3200mgz is only running ar 2666 when i have done nothing at all to it?

Because that's the base clock as set by the JEDEC standard. You need to enable XMP (if you can) to get the actual rated speed above that. Not all CPUs/boards let you do that (looking at you Intel), so it may not ultimately be possible to run at the rated speed.

[WkdPaul]

* thread cleaned *

 

If you're unable or unwilling to help, then please don't reply and move on.