Is it wise to undervolt RAM?

[lafrente]

Base XMP voltage of my ram is 1.368 - That is too much for all core OC in most CPU's. Should I try undervolting it to maybe like 1.25? Why is it ok for ram to be almost at 1.4v and not for CPU?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 minutes ago, lafrente said:

Base XMP voltage of my ram is 1.368 - That is too much for all core OC in most CPU's. Should I try undervolting it to maybe like 1.25? Why is it ok for ram to be almost at 1.4v and not for CPU?

Because ram isn’t a cpu? They’re entirely different, so they have different requirements? There’s plenty of ddr4 that’s stock nearly 1.45v

[tkitch]

two totally different things.
And RAM generally doesn't generate /that/ much heat.   (A CPU can easily suck down 100+ Watts of power, while RAM uses 3-5 watts per DIMM, so...  not much of a concern.)

[LIGISTX]

4 minutes ago, lafrente said:

Base XMP voltage of my ram is 1.368 - That is too much for all core OC in most CPU's. Should I try undervolting it to maybe like 1.25? Why is it ok for ram to be almost at 1.4v and not for CPU?

No. Don’t mess with RAM voltages unless you really, really know what your doing and put the work in to learn. 
 

RAM voltages have nothing to do with CPU voltages (mostly, there are things like system agent and IO voltages that are for the CPU and affect RAM stability due to them powering things like the IMC) but….. they are all different, they are not core voltage. 
 

1.25 volts would kill certain CPU, and it’s not nearly enough for others. It all depends what specific model, and what specific part.

 

Short answer; no. Don’t change settings your unsure about, let XMP do it’s thing. 

[lafrente]

14 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

No. Don’t mess with RAM voltages unless you really, really know what your doing and put the work in to learn. 
 

RAM voltages have nothing to do with CPU voltages (mostly, there are things like system agent and IO voltages that are for the CPU and affect RAM stability due to them powering things like the IMC) but….. they are all different, they are not core voltage. 
 

1.25 volts would kill certain CPU, and it’s not nearly enough for others. It all depends what specific model, and what specific part.

 

Short answer; no. Don’t change settings your unsure about, let XMP do it’s thing. 

Why not, would the ram just explode if I tried to lower the voltage a bit? At worst it's gonna randomly restart or freeze or blue screen. Then I'll dial back the voltages a bit.

 

You almost talk like you tried it and it just blew up the whole case. 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

2 minutes ago, lafrente said:

At worst it's gonna randomly restart or freeze or blue screen.

No, at worst you corrupt your OS and lose data.

[lafrente]

2 minutes ago, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

No, at worst you corrupt your OS and lose data.

So you're saying that lowering the voltage is something whole lot different than OC'ing the ram and finding its limits?

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, lafrente said:

Why not, would the ram just explode if I tried to lower the voltage a bit? At worst it's gonna randomly restart or freeze or blue screen. Then I'll dial back the voltages a bit.

 

You almost talk like you tried it and it just blew up the whole case. 

Not exactly…

 

RAM is extremely hard to overclock (or underclock), and it rarely presents instability in ways you can tell are RAM related. Typically what it will do it start to corrupt your files/OS, and start to throw very strange BSOD’s or cause strange behavior that you would typically think is actually a software bug, but really it’s your RAM flipping bits. 
 

Put your RAM back to default, your only going to cause yourself problems. 
 

Or, if your dead set on doing this just for the learning experience (there is nothing to be gained by doing it…. Except instability), read up on how to RAM overclock, and do the proper testing. It should take a solid week to fully test and tweak the RAM to gain stability, but it almost certainly will not run at lower voltages at XMP speeds. 
 

Read this 100% through multiple times. If there are terms you don’t know, look them up, then read it again, and rinse and repeat until you fully understand everything on this page, and then do more research and maybe watch slime YouTube videos. THEN, go ahead and start messing with RAM voltages and do the proper testing. If you don’t… your 100% going to cause yourself massive issues - RAM OCing isn’t like CPU or GPU OCing. 
 

https://github.com/integralfx/MemTestHelper/blob/oc-guide/DDR4 OC Guide.md

[tkitch]

6 minutes ago, lafrente said:

Why not, would the ram just explode if I tried to lower the voltage a bit? At worst it's gonna randomly restart or freeze or blue screen. Then I'll dial back the voltages a bit.

 

You almost talk like you tried it and it just blew up the whole case. 

 

Honestly, what do you hope to gain by undervolting your RAM?  On GPUs and CPUs it's to help keep temperatures in check. 

What're you gonna get from RAM by doing that??

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, lafrente said:

So you're saying that lowering the voltage is something whole lot different than OC'ing the ram and finding its limits?

Correct. RAM OCing is not like any other OCing you have seen or tried. 

[xg32]

Just now, lafrente said:

.

my sticks as an example, 1.3v 3200=one bsod a week (ran it for awhile) 1.33v 3200 1.47v 3733 completely stable, ram and cpu are different things.

 

Some ppl run ram at 1.7v with a fan on them.

[lafrente]

1 minute ago, xg32 said:

my sticks as an example, 1.3v 3200=one bsod a week (ran it for awhile) 1.33v 3200 1.47v 3733 completely stable, ram and cpu are different things.

 

Some ppl run ram at 1.7v with a fan on them.

Finally someone who actually tried. And I hope you're telling the truth because I don't know how 0.03v could make such difference.

[lafrente]

3 minutes ago, tkitch said:

 

Honestly, what do you hope to gain by undervolting your RAM?  On GPUs and CPUs it's to help keep temperatures in check. 

What're you gonna get from RAM by doing that??

Nothing really, just curiosity.

[lafrente]

4 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Not exactly…

 

RAM is extremely hard to overclock (or underclock), and it rarely presents instability in ways you can tell are RAM related. Typically what it will do it start to corrupt your files/OS, and start to throw very strange BSOD’s or cause strange behavior that you would typically think is actually a software bug, but really it’s your RAM flipping bits. 
 

Put your RAM back to default, your only going to cause yourself problems. 
 

Or, if your dead set on doing this just for the learning experience (there is nothing to be gained by doing it…. Except instability), read up on how to RAM overclock, and do the proper testing. It should take a solid week to fully test and tweak the RAM to gain stability, but it almost certainly will not run at lower voltages at XMP speeds. 
 

Read this 100% through multiple times. If there are terms you don’t know, look them up, then read it again, and rinse and repeat until you fully understand everything on this page, and then do more research and maybe watch slime YouTube videos. THEN, go ahead and start messing with RAM voltages and do the proper testing. If you don’t… your 100% going to cause yourself massive issues - RAM OCing isn’t like CPU or GPU OCing. 
 

https://github.com/integralfx/MemTestHelper/blob/oc-guide/DDR4 OC Guide.md

I have zero bugs in my system software or hardware related and I don't keep installing new stuff or doing updates so I will know its the ram.

 

Why wouldn't reverting the ram fix the problem? You mean the corrupted files would still cause issues and I'd naturally assume its still the ram? Well that sounds like bit of a headache.

 

Thanks for the source. Interesting

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, lafrente said:

Finally someone who actually tried. And I hope you're telling the truth because I don't know how 0.03v could make such difference.

Many of us have tried… my RAM is overclocked. But I have been doing this for 15+ years. 
 

We are not telling you but to do it because we just don’t want you to; we are telling you because we know what sort of trouble your asking for. Underclocking RAM is not a good idea…

 

Read the GitHub page I posted fully. That will give you more knowledge about the subject which will help you make more informed choices. Because yes, very small voltage changes can make actual difference. And if it’s not stable, it won’t just “not post” or crash or fail a test, it may do that if it’s very far off, but it also may past 99% of tests, and slowly corrupt everything on your PC without you realizing. I promise, I am not just making this up to scare you. Do the proper homework to fully learn how to do this, then you will have the confidence and understanding to do it correctly. DO NOT just change voltages assuming it’s like a CPU, it isn’t. 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, lafrente said:

I have zero bugs in my system software or hardware related and I don't keep installing new stuff or doing updates so I will know its the ram.

 

Why wouldn't reverting the ram fix the problem? You mean the corrupted files would still cause issues and I'd naturally assume its still the ram? Well that sounds like bit of a headache.

 

Thanks for the source. Interesting

In 4 months when something starts acting weird, you will have assumed it was that new driver you just installed, or the new game you played. And then when you go to open a picture or word doc and it doesn’t open, you will that, oh, that’s weird. But really what has happened is your RAM has slowly corrupted everything. A reformat would fix the OS, reinstalling new software will fix the software, but all your data will be corrupted forever. 1’s will be 0’s and 0’s will be 1’s and there is no fixing that besides reverting to backup…. But then you realize all of your backups have some level of corruption starting on the day you started mess in with your RAM.

 

This is the worst case, and not even very unlikely case. Again, I don’t say this just to scare you from doing it. I tell you this so you go and actually put in the work to learn how to do it correctly. Do not go changing things until you fully, 100% understand what your changing… once you do, then you can have fun

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

1 hour ago, lafrente said:

Base XMP voltage of my ram is 1.368 - That is too much for all core OC in most CPU's. Should I try undervolting it to maybe like 1.25? Why is it ok for ram to be almost at 1.4v and not for CPU?

I don't really see why you'd want to. Ram can run 24/7 at 1.5v completely fine. 

[Mark Kaine]

The thing is, like others have said, undervolting the RAM makes no sense, unlike overclocking/ putting more voltage, that at least gives you a bit better performance (at the same risks)  

[Mark Kaine]

3 hours ago, lafrente said:

don't know how 0.03v could make such difference.

My Ram 1.35v 3600 = boots, but immediate crash/bsod in windows. 1.36v 3600 = boots, and boots into windows just fine… 

 

i mean, im not against the idea of you trying… i just really wonder whats the point, a few mv wont save much energy or lower temps much and your RAM will probably have to run slower… i mean in theory you could set really low speeds + low voltage, it would probably work (to a point) … yay? : D 

 

 

Also im certainly no expert, but this

3 hours ago, lafrente said:

Base XMP voltage of my ram is 1.368 

implies to me that your RAM isnt very good and thats why they push so much voltage, because  typically  base XMP voltage is 1.35v for most (without knowing what RAM you actually have) so that would make "undervolting" even more difficult, most likely.

[lafrente]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

 

Also im certainly no expert, but this

implies to me that your RAM isnt very good and thats why they push so much voltage, because  typically  base XMP voltage is 1.35v for most (without knowing what RAM you actually have) so that would make "undervolting" even more difficult, most likely.

It's a good quality ram. It states 1.35, bios is on auto and just feeds it 1.368 for some reason.