Adjusting my RAM frequency

[TheRisingMyth]

Hi everyone on the LTT Forums !

 

I got my fresh new rig up and running (Windows 8 people, don't refuse extra performance gained by running the latest software, anyways...), i have a B75MA-E33 (i was on a tight budget, otherwise i would've gone full blowen Haswell + Z87 combo) and a Core i3 3210, this is mainly for gaming, so CPU in this case wasn't a bottleneck at all, so far it has been able to handle its tasks quite well.

 

To get to my point :

 

I have a nice kit that i've got on a nice deal, some sexy Kingston Blue 2133 Mhz kits, anything but slow and low profile, it is simply a beast, compatible with XMP profiles 2x4GB to be precise.

 

Now my motherboard "according to the box" and the options i have at disposal in the UEFI (aka BIOS ^^) is OC capable with Sandy and Ivy Bridge chips, and according to the Ivy Bridge spec (whether it's on the low-end or high-end stuff) the CPU @ Stock is natively capable of driving RAM to up to 1600Mhz.

 

Here's the problem : My motherboard set the frequency to 1333 Mhz, so i was thinking about going 1600 Mhz (don't give any cares to timings as long as the system is stable), but... i'm kinda afraid of damaging something, this is actually my very first time trying to mess with the default settings, so i wanted to get a little advice, about if i should go 1600 Mhz (and gain presumably extra performance in bandwith dependant tasks) or leave it the way it is.

 

Thanks a lot in advance, and may the community keep its great job, you guys are all awesome !

[coen113]

enable XMP profiles in the BIOS, that will increase the speed to 1600 mhz, and it wont damage it

[coen113]

Hi everyone on the LTT Forums !

 

I got my fresh new rig up and running (Windows 8 people, don't refuse extra performance gained by running the latest software, anyways...), i have a B75MA-E33 (i was on a tight budget, otherwise i would've gone full blowen Haswell + Z87 combo) and a Core i3 3210, this is mainly for gaming, so CPU in this case wasn't a bottleneck at all, so far it has been able to handle its tasks quite well.

 

To get to my point :

 

I have a nice kit that i've got on a nice deal, some sexy Kingston Blue 2133 Mhz kits, anything but slow and low profile, it is simply a beast, compatible with XMP profiles 2x4GB to be precise.

 

Now my motherboard "according to the box" and the options i have at disposal in the UEFI (aka BIOS ^^) is OC capable with Sandy and Ivy Bridge chips, and according to the Ivy Bridge spec (whether it's on the low-end or high-end stuff) the CPU @ Stock is natively capable of driving RAM to up to 1600Mhz.

 

Here's the problem : My motherboard set the frequency to 1333 Mhz, so i was thinking about going 1600 Mhz (don't give any cares to timings as long as the system is stable), but... i'm kinda afraid of damaging something, this is actually my very first time trying to mess with the default settings, so i wanted to get a little advice, about if i should go 1600 Mhz (and gain presumably extra performance in bandwith dependant tasks) or leave it the way it is.

 

Thanks a lot in advance, and may the community keep its great job, you guys are all awesome !

and you may wanna follow your own topic, you wont get a notification if you dont.

[TheRisingMyth]

enable XMP profiles in the BIOS, that will increase the speed to 1600 mhz, and it wont damage it

 

But the sticks are rated at 2133 Mhz operation, wouldn't that just be out of the CPU's reach and prevent the whole thing from booting ?

 

I'm just working out my mind for this one, honestly i have no clue how XMP functions, and if it actually adjusts to the any limits.

 

And don't worry about the topic, i do care enough about this problem that i'm going to check back quite often. ;-)

 

(As we speak i'm downloading the very latest BIOS, compatibility shouldn't be an issue, i have an UPS also so... it should go pretty smooth)

[coen113]

But the sticks are rated at 2133 Mhz operation, wouldn't that just be out of the CPU's reach and prevent the whole thing from booting ?

 

I'm just working out my mind for this one, honestly i have no clue how XMP functions, and if it actually adjusts to the any limits.

 

And don't worry about the topic, i do care enough about this problem that i'm going to check back quite often. ;-)

 

(As we speak i'm downloading the very latest BIOS, compatibility shouldn't be an issue, i have an UPS also so... it should go pretty smooth)

you can increase the memory clock manually, and it should not cause any trouble, it should not require to flash your bios.

[TheRisingMyth]

I'm aware of that, the 1600 Mhz is right there begging me to unlock some of the potential of my RAM.

 

... but at the expense of what ? My PC not booting anymore ? That's the risk i'm not willing to take, instability should be pretty easy to deal with (as i can just dial back the settings and not worry about it anymore).

 

You was talking about activating X.M.P Profile... does this mean that the memory will limit itself to 1600 Mhz or go all the way up and cause serious instability issues ? Because i don't want that.

 

Normally, the RAM is capable, the CPU is also capable of driving RAM at the frequency i've mentionned earlier... i just want to know if it's safe, OC and tinkering with advanced settings isn't really my thing, the board choosed 1333 Mhz which made me worry about any outcomes if i go above that. ^^

[coen113]

I never had any problems with xmp. Intel is extremely concervative about xmp. If its rated for it, its fine

[TheRisingMyth]

Probably gonna wait for more replies, i strongly would like to believe you, but unfortunatly i don't take a single man's word for such a critical decision.

 

Anyways thanks for the info.

[hehehehhehehehe]

You will be completely fine running XMP and 1600Mhz is such a stock speed that a 2133Mhz kit will easily be able to handle it.

[Leonard]

I think you should check with your motherboard's support team on their website to make sure. If your motherboard is only rated to have 1600nhz RAM speeds and you want to try running 2133mhz RAM speeds you may cause problems however if your motherboard says, on the box, 1800mhz(oc) 1866mhz(oc) 2000mhz(oc) 2133(oc) then all you need to do is a UEFI/BIOS update and enable the XMP 2133mhz in the UEFI if you have that feature if not you will have to dial it in yourself but either way you should be good.

 

EDIT: Just checked your motherboard specifications here....http://www.msi.com/product/mb/B75MA-E33.html#?div=Detail you may not be able to get to 2133mhz as it states that you need an i7-3770k of high quality to go past memory speeds higher than 1600mhz.

[TheRisingMyth]

It definitly says something along those lines.

 

But here's what i'm not really getting at the moment :

 

All of you so far recommended that i activate XMP to up my RAM frequency.

 

Now here's the trick : My CPU (pretty much tied to its stock speed) can only go up to 1600 Mhz, so is XMP still able to dial this kit to 2133 Mhz or is it just going to crop it to 1600 Mhz ?

 

If not, can i just set it manually to 1600 Mhz in the BIOS and not worry about any issues ?

 

These are my main concerns.

[Kuzma]

It definitly says something along those lines.

 

But here's what i'm not really getting at the moment :

 

All of you so far recommended that i activate XMP to up my RAM frequency.

 

Now here's the trick : My CPU (pretty much tied to its stock speed) can only go up to 1600 Mhz, so is XMP still able to dial this kit to 2133 Mhz or is it just going to crop it to 1600 Mhz ?

 

If not, can i just set it manually to 1600 Mhz in the BIOS and not worry about any issues ?

 

These are my main concerns.

there are different XMP profiles so you should be able to select the 2133Mhz one

[TheRisingMyth]

Oh god...

 

I'm not the most tech savy guy in the whole world, but XMP would run the memory at 2133 Mhz on its own with no official support from the CPU ? O_o

 

Don't wanna be rude, but adress my questions precisely, don't want to be asking the same stuff all over again. ^-^

[MPX309]

read this for the love of god - http://alienbabeltech.com/main/kingston-beast/

 

 

In many cases, there is a performance increase just from clocking the system memory higher which appears to be dependent on the individual game engine. So what we are going to do now, is to find out if even higher clocked memory at 2133MHz makes any practical difference to a gamer over using system RAM clocked at 1600MHz or even at 1333MHz.

Most Ivy Bridge motherboards clock their RAM at default 1333MHz and the end user actually has to enter the BIOS to increase the frequency.  Recently, XMP profiles have become popular and it has become very easy to set optimal RAM speeds automatically.

Kingston’s Beast HyperX RAM has two separate XMP profiles that can be set in the BIOS besides the default 1333MHz. The first XMP profile automatically sets it to run at 2133MHz with CL11 timings at 1.6V. The second XMP profile runs at 1600MHz with CL9 timings at 1.5v.

To their credit, EVGA regularly updates their BIOSes for their FTW Z77 motherboard.  Although an older beta BIOS that we prefer for performance did not have an XMP profile for the Kingston Beast RAM, a recent EVGA FTW BIOS update took care of that issue.

[Glenwing]

The CPU is capable of higher speeds than the official DDR3 1600 rating.  2133 should be no problem, just don't go above 1.65V (shouldn't have to anyway).

 

If it doesn't work you can reset the BIOS and it will return to the default DDR3 1333 settings.  As long as you don't feed it some kind of ridiculous voltage, permanent damage isn't a concern.  The worst that can happen is the computer won't be able to boot in the configuration you set, and you'll have to reset the BIOS and try a less aggressive setting.

[TheRisingMyth]

OK, i'm going at it, thanks Glen !

 

 

read this for the love of god - http://alienbabeltech.com/main/kingston-beast/

 

 

I have a budget gaming PC, it's not like i have the most powerful components in the whole world, if i can squeeze extra performance out of it (even in non-gaming tasks) that would be awesome.

[TheRisingMyth]

The CPU is capable of higher speeds than the official DDR3 1600 rating.  2133 should be no problem, just don't go above 1.65V (shouldn't have to anyway).

 

If it doesn't work you can reset the BIOS and it will return to the default DDR3 1333 settings.  As long as you don't feed it some kind of ridiculous voltage, permanent damage isn't a concern.  The worst that can happen is the computer won't be able to boot in the configuration you set, and you'll have to reset the BIOS and try a less aggressive setting.

 

Thank you so much, that reply worth 5 stars in my book, i've actually toggled the XMP Profile 1 (The Enthusiast Certified one) and the frequency limited itself to my CPU capabilities, it's insane, but it made the setup so easy, but looking at the timings they weren't that great, so i switched to the second profile (presumably optimised for stock operation, and named the Extreme profile (so intuitive Intel BTW LOL)) which is 1600 Mhz CL9 (9-9-9-27) and it's running really great.

 

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