QVL Confusion!!!, Attack OF the Killer RAM and Motherboards Vendors

Linus2280 · June 28, 2017

My old build is an fx 8350 with an asus m5a 97 le r2.0 with 4GB DDR 3 1866mhz * 2 of ram. I Checked my mobo's QVL that was supplied with the manual and the one online ,they're the same . When I checked for my RAM's part number in the qvl i could not find it and i have been using my PC for about 2 and 1/2 years now and no I have not seen any crash issues or stability issues with that RAM. Now I am sure that we all know that QVL's are not accurate and contains the part number of only those DIMM's that the vendor themselves have tested on their boards, but this does not indicate that the other DIMM's that were not mentioned in the list will not work with the motherboard. The problem seems to be a lack of communication beetween the ram vendors and the mobo vendors for example Kingston shows that certain DIMM's are compatible with Ryzen systems but Gigabyte does not have that part name is their QVL for their b 350 gaming 3 boards furthermore with the rise of AMD compatible certification on DIMM's of some vendors such as G.skill new builders may consider these DIMM's to be compatible with only AMD systems which is not true at all, Right?????? .Honestly The AMD compatible certification feels like the SLi and Crossfire compatible logo's some PSU vendors have on their boxes . I know most of our forum member's are experienced but hopefully this thread will serve as a guide to many new builders who are going through something similar to this.

mariushm · June 28, 2017

Manufacturer makes a motherboard model, makes the manual and tests the "final version" of the motherboard with a bunch of memory modules they have in the factory THAT DAY.

The test day could be a week or more BEFORE the motherboards actually arrive in stores for you to buy.

Some manufacturers will continue to validate various models of memories and update those QVL lists from time to time, but most often after 1-2 updates, they don't bother updating the list anymore. So it wouldn't be surprising that a particular memory stick model which is put on sale AFTER the motherboard was already on sale, will not appear in those QVL lists.

Those lists are INFORMATIVE .. they don't contain HUNDREDS of different memory chips from maybe 4-6 major manufacturers of DDR4 memory chips (micron, samsung, hynix, others) .

And another thing.

AMD licensed the DDR4 memory controller and they maybe made some tweaks at it but at least initially, the Ryzen processors only supported to 100% a limited number of memory chips - some memory chips were working but not at the frequencies and timings they were designed for because inside the cpu a lot of things were hardcoded to some strict default values. So, it's possible these chips didn't show up in those QVL lists when they made the lists.

.

Since the release of the processors, AMD has released multiple updates for the microcode (the software inside the processor) which increases memory compatibility and now a lot of those memory chips are supported 100% and work fine. If you update the bios on the motherboard, the microcode in the cpu is also updated.

You probably won't see updated QVL lists with memory modules that now are 100% working, after updating the microcode in the cpu.