Memory is "Intel Only"?

[PenguinMaster]

Recently my computer has been randomly blue-screening and randomly not waking up from sleep. It seems that the A-XMP 1 Profile on my MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX motherboard is causing the ram to run unstable. The RAM I am using is F4-3600C19D-16GVRB. It's G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2x 8GB) kits and I have two of them installed in my system.

 

First I thought it was a BIOS-related issue and so I tried to update the BIOS using MSI's tool and I was unsuccessful and the BIOS ended up corrupting itself. Then I had the board RMA'd and they swapped it for a different unit. The new motherboard runs fine with A-XMP OFF but NOT when it is enabled. The RAM then causes the computer to blue-screen again. I then contacted G.Skill support and they told me that the RAM I had is "Intel-only" and that the only solution to my problem is to spend $175 buying "AMD Ryzen certified memory". Is there legitimately a difference between "Intel certified" and "AMD certified" memory, or is it just a marketing sham so they can charge almost double the price for the same memory kit?

 

Also if there is actually a difference in the memory kits why do they hide this in the description of the memory kits? Also, PCPartPicker lists my memory kit as compatible with my motherboard, but according to G.Skill, it's not. In the reviews of my memory kit on Newegg it seems many other people have had this same issue as me and G.Skill hasn't updated their listing to state that this is "Intel-only" memory.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do?

[Slayerking92]

buy intel or different ram

[YoungBlade]

What CPU do you have?

[PenguinMaster]

Just now, YoungBlade said:

What CPU do you have?

I have a Ryzen 7 3700X

[AbydosOne]

5 minutes ago, PenguinMaster said:

Is there legitimately a difference between "Intel certified" and "AMD certified" memory, or is it just a marketing sham so they can charge almost double the price for the same memory kit?

To the best of my knowledge, no (outside of some quirky AMD-only DDR2 from way back when).

 

You might need to dial back the memory speed a little though (XMP isn't a guarantee).

[PenguinMaster]

1 minute ago, Slayerking92 said:

buy intel or different ram

I've had this computer for nearly 2 years now so its too late to return everything and switch to intel. And I can just buy other RAM it just doesn't make any sense that they can justify charging nearly double for some of their kits.

[PenguinMaster]

1 minute ago, AbydosOne said:

You might need to dial back the memory speed a little though (XMP isn't a guarantee).

I can try that but the memory kit is supposed to run at 3600. Also what is the performance penalty for not running at 3600 since I thought that's the speed where the "RAM and infinity fabric of the CPU are at a 1:2 ratio which means they're running in sync".

[YoungBlade]

6 minutes ago, PenguinMaster said:

I have a Ryzen 7 3700X

First and second gen Ryzen sometimes had such comparability issues. Third gen less so. However, some 3000 series chips have difficulty running at DDR4-3600 speeds because the Infinity Fabric can't handle it, but it sounds like you've been using this kit for a while.

 

Did you need to overvolt the SOC to run at that speed, or is your CPU running at stock apart from simply enabling XMP?

[CommanderAlex]

6 minutes ago, PenguinMaster said:

I can try that but the memory kit is supposed to run at 3600. Also what is the performance penalty for not running at 3600 since I thought that's the speed where the "RAM and infinity fabric of the CPU are at a 1:2 ratio which means they're running in sync".

The Infinity Cache would run at 1800MHz, as DDR, or Double Data Rate, is 2x the speed of the actual stick. Since two sticks are run together, they will be 3600MHz, or 2x1800MHz (1800MHz per stick, I hope my explanation is not too unclear). The IMCs that are in early Ryzen chips, as @YoungBlade pointed out, are most likely unable to handle 3600MHz kits. 

[svmlegacy]

XMP is an Intel specification. Accept JEDEC speeds, or manually OC the memory to rated speed.

[Mark Kaine]

no its not a scam, some memory is optimized for intel, some for amd...

 

 

12 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

XMP is an Intel specification. Accept JEDEC speeds, or manually OC the memory to rated speed.

Right, I think manual settings should work , its mostly xmp that has issues sometimes afaik.

 

43 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

The IMCs that are in early Ryzen chips, as @YoungBlade pointed out, are most likely unable to handle 3600MHz kits

Meh, I think that's mostly exaggerated,  I have a first gen Ryzen 3600 so not the "better" revision and my "3200" ram works just fine at "3600".

[YoungBlade]

4 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

XMP is an Intel specification. Accept JEDEC speeds, or manually OC the memory to rated speed.

ATX is also an Intel specification, that doesn't mean that AMD motherboards can't use it. MSI implements something called A-XMP that allows their AMD boards, like the B450 Tomahawk, to read XMP data. The issue is not with an inability of the board to recognize the memory profile.

[CommanderAlex]

7 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Meh, I think that's mostly exaggerated,  I have a first gen 3600 so not the "better" revision and my "3200" ram works just fine at "3600".

Sometimes, I feel like it has to do with the kit and how good the modules are, imo. They were just not well known for hitting high frequencies, but it's worth mentioning to point out. 

[Mark Kaine]

4 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

Sometimes, I feel like it has to do with the kit and how good the modules are, imo. They were just not well known for hitting high frequencies, but it's worth mentioning to point out. 

It definitely does!

I had Vengence... didnt oc at all... rated at 3200 and that was it!

Now I have gskill bdie, overclocks like a champ on the same board 

Spoiler

it also cost twice as much as the Vengence lol

 

[CommanderAlex]

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

It definitely does!

I had Vengence... didnt oc at all... rated at 3200 and that was it!

Now I have gskill bdie, overclocks like a champ on the same board 

  Reveal hidden contents

it also cost twice as much as the Vengence lol

 

Luckily, my Vengeance kits work great with my 5950X and hit the rated speeds. They're SK Hynix chips. 

[svmlegacy]

10 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

ATX is also an Intel specification, that doesn't mean that AMD motherboards can't use it. MSI implements something called A-XMP that allows their AMD boards, like the B450 Tomahawk, to read XMP data. The issue is not with an inability of the board to recognize the memory profile.

Go ahead and compare a hardware specifcation to a timing spec... A-XMP and others try to finess the profile to work with AMD's memory controller, but it doesn't always get it right. Hence why some RAM is tuned more for one CPU or another. Long story short, Intel's spec favors Intel's memory controller.

 

16 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I have a first gen Ryzen 3600

Err... you mean a 3rd Gen Ryzen. My Ryzen 7 1700X does not like memory speeds above 3400 MHz.

[Mark Kaine]

4 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

Luckily, my Vengeance kits work great with my 5950X and hit the rated speeds. They're SK Hynix chips. 

right my Vengeance didn't have issues with rated speed, they just didn't go higher  - they were also optimized for intel,  i wonder if that had something to do with it...

 

4 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

you mean a 3rd Gen Ryzen.

No, my bad, i meant first version, a year later they released a revision thats supposedly better. 

 

[Guest]

F4-3600C19D-16GVRB

 

This isn't optimized for any body's rigs. Intel or not, C19 man?? Funk all that noise. 

[PenguinMaster]

58 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

First and second gen Ryzen sometimes had such comparability issues. Third gen less so. However, some 3000 series chips have difficulty running at DDR4-3600 speeds because the Infinity Fabric can't handle it, but it sounds like you've been using this kit for a while.

 

Did you need to overvolt the SOC to run at that speed, or is your CPU running at stock apart from simply enabling XMP?

My CPU is stock other than just the XMP profile being enabled.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, YoungBlade said:

Did you need to overvolt the SOC to run at that speed, or is your CPU running at stock apart from simply enabling XMP?

If SOC is left to auto when XMP is enabled, it will OV to 1.08v. So, really your answer will be yes, just not user changed though...

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

F4-3600C19D-16GVRB

 

This isn't optimized for any body's rigs. Intel or not, C19 man?? Funk all that noise. 

Gotta go cheaper. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Gotta go cheaper. 

Fine.

 

120$ lousy Dollars for a set of bad ass B-Die from newegg.

2x8gb 16 total 2 stick. This kit will pretty much OC whatever you want.

Really nice looking kit. Black and white. Straight good performance.

My set is red. 

These will do 14's all day at 1.410v SOC 1.08v is more than plenty.

3600mt/s 16-16-16-36.

Enjoy.

https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-20-232-437&tpk=9b-20-232-437

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

, it will OV to 1.08v.

Oh that's interesting,  I just checked, my SOC is at 1.075-1.081v, so I guess it also does this for manual OC, cause I didn't touch the SOC. 

[PenguinMaster]

So is my best bet just to sell these memory kits and to get an "AMD-certified" kit?  Should I go 3600 or 3200? I honestly just want the system to run stable so I wouldn't want to mess with manual OC settings since I basically know nothing about OC'ing. 

[Guest]

Just now, Mark Kaine said:

Oh that's interesting,  I just checked, my SOC is at 1.075-1.081v, so I guess it also does this for manual OC, cause I didn't touch the SOC. 

Depends on the bios and who wrote it. 

And with my Asus board (B450-I ROG gaming) the performance enhancer overclock section was written by "TheStilt" and does a superb job with auto OC. Very stable. Since he's from the overclocker community, he's good to have over at Asus. He knows how to tweak processors down to the T.