RAM frequency issues

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

So I just added two more RAM sticks to my PC and I'm running into issues. Before adding the RAM, I set the RAM to run at 3200MHz. But after I added the extra RAM, the frequency was reset to default and setting it to 3200MHz would result in BSOD at startup.

 

My motherboard is an MSI Tomahawk B450 and my CPU a Ryzen 5 2600X. The original RAM kit is this one from Corsair and I just added a different one from Adata. The only way to make my system boot was to either lower the frequency or use worse timings. I chose among the suggested profiles the one at 3200MHz and 18-20-20-20-38 (not sure what that means) but I open the task manager, in the performance tab, I can see that the frequency is 1600MHz. Is that normal?

 

Thanks

[RONOTHAN##]

So a couple things

 

1.) The Zen/Zen+ memory controller was kinda crap, where running 4 sticks was kinda difficult. Your CPU might not be able to handle the speeds.

2.) Mixing RAM is always a gamble, and it's very likely you got two different memory ICs. Different memory chips can absolutely hate each other, and them running at any higher speeds than JEDEC can not work. Use a program called Thaiphoon Burner to read the SPD off the memory sticks and see what memory sticks are on each set of memory and report back.

3.) Task Manager reporting speeds is, practically speaking, useless. There are so many issues with it, I've had it say that my CPU is running at 45GHz (not 4.5, 45). I had it set in the BIOS to run at 4.2GHz. Use a program like CPU or ZenTimings to validate what the speeds the memory is running at. CPU-Z will show it running at half of the actual speed, that is normal. 

[IAmAndre]

5 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

CPU-Z will show it running at half of the actual speed, that is normal. 

OK CPU-Z is showing it run at 1600MHz so at least the frequency is good. This was a temporary solution because the idea was to upgrade the CPU and motherboard at Christmas with whatever the best offer is between Intel and AMD, so I wasn't sure if I should also upgrade to DDR5.

So what you're saying is that despite the worse timings, I'm all good considering the platform I'm currently running on?

[RONOTHAN##]

18 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

OK CPU-Z is showing it run at 1600MHz so at least the frequency is good. This was a temporary solution because the idea was to upgrade the CPU and motherboard at Christmas with whatever the best offer is between Intel and AMD, so I wasn't sure if I should also upgrade to DDR5.

So what you're saying is that despite the worse timings, I'm all good considering the platform I'm currently running on?

Yeah, you're running at the right speeds. I'd do a memtest86 run overnight to make sure that it's actually stable, but odds are it is.