ryzen Ryzen and 3200 Mhz RAMs question

[Ganuza_]

Hi, I'm thinking about buying micro+mother+ram. I have this in mind:

 

CPU: Ryzen 7 1700 3.0 Ghz (And overclocking it to 3.7 or .8). I was looking for the 1600X, but no one sells it here.

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B350-F Gaming.

RAM: 16 GB 3200 Mhz (from what I could see, 3200 Mhz is the sweet spot).

 

My questions are, If I want to use RAMs at 3200 Mhz, do I need to buy the ones with CL14?

Those that are "Designed and tested for AMD Ryzen Optimized compatibility with AMD X370, B350, and A320 chipset", like the Flare-X at 3200 Mhz CL14 (expesinve as fuck) or Flare-X at 2400Mhz CL16 (but 2400 Mhz).

 

What happens if instead I put RAM that is not optimized for Ryzen on that build?

Like G.SKILL Trident Z RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 Mhz (CL16) or Vengeance led 3200 Mhz (CL16).

I wouldn't be able to reach 3200 Mhz?

 

I spent hours looking for information about this, but all I could find are posts of 3 or 4 months ago.

 

Thanks.

[minibois]

You will want memory that either has validation with the specific board you're getting or has low (like CL14) timings on it.

I got a 3200Mhz CL16 set and can sadly only run it at 2933Mhz.

[Corsair Nick]

Ryzen is very particular about memory compatibility and performance.  There are platform incompatibilities that make it very important to select kits that have been pre-tested to be compatible.  If you were to install a Vengeance 3200 kit that is not confirmed, chances are it will run up to 2400mhz before requiring custom tuning.  If you are planning to purchase Corsair memory, I highly recommend checking our Ryzen landing page for a list of compatible kits.

[paddy-stone]

My corsair vengeance c15 3000Mhz will run at 3066Mhz even, nothing special done, just XMP enabled and choose frequency. It will depend on what board you are going to use though, I am using the ASrock AB350M pro 4, for reference.

[johndms]

8 minutes ago, Ganuza_ said:

Hi, I'm thinking about buying micro+mother+ram. I have this in mind:

 

CPU: Ryzen 7 1700 3.0 Ghz (And overclocking it to 3.7 or .8). I was looking for the 1600X, but no one sells it here.

Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix B350-F Gaming.

RAM: 16 GB 3200 Mhz (from what I could see, 3200 Mhz is the sweet spot).

 

My questions are, If I want to use RAMs at 3200 Mhz, do I need to buy the ones with CL14?

Those that are "Designed and tested for AMD Ryzen Optimized compatibility with AMD X370, B350, and A320 chipset", like the Flare-X at 3200 Mhz CL14 (expesinve as fuck) or Flare-X at 2400Mhz CL16 (but 2400 Mhz).

 

What happens if instead I put RAM that is not optimized for Ryzen on that build?

Like G.SKILL Trident Z RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 Mhz (CL16) or Vengeance led 3200 Mhz (CL16).

I wouldn't be able to reach 3200 Mhz?

 

I spent hours looking for information about this, but all I could find are posts of 3 or 4 months ago.

 

Thanks.

I agree with those above, your best option would be to choose something from your board's QVL. While it's possible to buy something cheaper and not on QVL and have it still work, you'll probably have some headaches downloading bios updates, manually entering timings, adjusting those timings to work properly, and it still might not work at rated speeds. Those CL14 kits are known as having Samsung B-Die chips on the DIMMs. They're known to work well with Ryzen and overclock nicely, thus the higher price.

 

While we're here, many may be concerned with your choice to pair a Ryzen 7 with a B350 board if you have intentions to overclock. While you've chosen one of the best B350 boards, it's been discovered recently that B350 board VRMs tend to get very hot with Ryzen 7, and it's recommended to place additional cooling on the VRM heatsink. Of course, you could bypass this concern by either purchasing a Ryzen 5 1600, or an x370 board. Personally, I've got mixed opinions on the B350+Ryzen 7 matter, but I've been recommending x370 just to be safe.

[Ganuza_]

4 minutes ago, Minibois said:

You will want memory that either has validation with the specific board you're getting...

And where can I find that information? https://rymem.vraith.com have some RAMs listed for the board that I want, but I couldn't find any confirmation.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Corsair Nick said:

Ryzen is very particular about memory compatibility and performance.  There are platform incompatibilities that make it very important to select kits that have been pre-tested to be compatible.  If you were to install a Vengeance 3200 kit that is not confirmed, chances are it will run up to 2400mhz before requiring custom tuning.  If you are planning to purchase Corsair memory, I highly recommend checking our Ryzen landing page for a list of compatible kits.

 

So, yes. If it doesn't have the "Designed and tested for AMD Ryzen" label, it will not go much further than 2400 Mhz.

Sadly my options are limited to:

• RAM that is not confirmed for Ryzen (they are highly expensive here on Argentina)
• Or 2400 Mhz

[johndms]

@Ganuza_Bear in mind that you don't HAVE to purchase 3200. The difference between 2666 and 3200 isn't as great as many would like you to believe. You'd only notice huge improvements in gaming, for example, if you have very top-end gear, like a GTX 1080 TI. I'll post a link to some sub-3200 frequency Corsair ram that's been tested to work with Ryzen boards. http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=166631

[minibois]

1 minute ago, Ganuza_ said:

And where can I find that information? https://rymem.vraith.com have some RAMs listed for the board that I want, but I couldn't find any confirmation.

On the motherboard manufacturer's website, usually under the support portion of the page.

[johndms]

5 minutes ago, Ganuza_ said:

And where can I find that information?

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/STRIX_B350-F_GAMING/ROG_STRIX_B350-F_GAMING_Memory_QVL_20170519.pdf

[Ganuza_]

11 minutes ago, Minibois said:

On the motherboard manufacturer's website, usually under the support portion of the page.

Very well, i'm gonna take a look at it, thank you!

[Ganuza_]

15 minutes ago, johndms said:

@Ganuza_Bear in mind that you don't HAVE to purchase 3200. The difference between 2666 and 3200 isn't as great as many would like you to believe. You'd only notice huge improvements in gaming, for example, if you have very top-end gear, like a GTX 1080 TI. I'll post a link to some sub-3200 frequency Corsair ram that's been tested to work with Ryzen boards. http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=166631

So, with my humble GTX 950 is gonna be almost the same with 2400 or 3200? In some videos you can see up to almost a 30 fps range between 2400 and 3200 Mhz (but with a 1080/ti, of course)

[johndms]

1 hour ago, Ganuza_ said:

So, with my humble GTX 950 is gonna be almost the same with 2400 or 3200? In some videos you can see up to almost a 30 fps range between 2400 and 3200 Mhz (but with a 1080/ti, of course)

I'll just leave you with the two bookmarks I usually refer to when people are concerned about the differences between ram frequency on Ryzen. You can decide for yourself which frequency you'd prefer.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOWx5LH4uBo

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4963&title=ryzen-ram-frequency-and-gaming

[Jon Jon]

2 hours ago, Corsair Nick said:

Ryzen is very particular about memory compatibility and performance.  There are platform incompatibilities that make it very important to select kits that have been pre-tested to be compatible.  If you were to install a Vengeance 3200 kit that is not confirmed, chances are it will run up to 2400mhz before requiring custom tuning.  If you are planning to purchase Corsair memory, I highly recommend checking our Ryzen landing page for a list of compatible kits.

I highly recommend the Vengeance LPX kit I picked up.

 

It runs fine at 3200 on my X370-F:

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820236214

 

Part Number: CMK16GX4M2Z3200C16

 

 

[Dash Lambda]

I personally have that 3200C16 Trident Z RGB kit, and it went up to rated speeds no problem. No further, of course, but 3200C16 is good.

One problem you may encounter is that, with kits rated lower than 3200C14, there'll often be more than one chip used for the model number. My RAM comes in either Hynix SR or Samsung DR, and there's no way to tell which before you buy it. I think I got lucky with the Hynix chips, 'cause even though they're Hynix they might be better for Ryzen due to being single-rank.

 

Basically, you're fine whatever you choose, but if you want to eliminate the lottery as much as possible you want to get FlareX or other known B-die kits.

 

Also, it's not like you'll set your house on fire or anything, especially given that it's an ASUS board, but it's a bit of a mismatch putting an R7 on B350.

[just_dave]

Nah, dont buy B350 if you intensionally plan to OC Ryzen 7.

[just_dave]

15 minutes ago, Dash Lambda said:

I personally have that 3200C16 Trident Z RGB kit, and it went up to rated speeds no problem. No further, of course, but 3200C16 is good.

One problem you may encounter is that, with kits rated lower than 3200C14, there'll often be more than one chip used for the model number. My RAM comes in either Hynix SR or Samsung DR, and there's no way to tell which before you buy it. I think I got lucky with the Hynix chips, 'cause even though they're Hynix they might be better for Ryzen due to being single-rank.

 

Basically, you're fine whatever you choose, but if you want to eliminate the lottery as much as possible you want to get FlareX or other known B-die kits.

 

Also, it's not like you'll set your house on fire or anything, especially given that it's an ASUS board, but it's a bit of a mismatch putting an R7 on B350.

Well it might, when capacitors pop, its pretty bad XD.

[Ganuza_]

Very well, thanks to all of you people for helping me to clarify my doubts.

I'm going for the Asus Prime X370 Pro and Flare-X at 2400Mhz CL16 (optimized for Ryzen).

 

I'm really amazed for the amount of comments and help that I got. Thank you all!

[johndms]

6 hours ago, Ganuza_ said:

Flare-X at 2400Mhz CL16 (optimized for Ryzen)

I would be interested in seeing how this kit works out for you. It's an odd thing; 2400MHz at CL16. The most popular Flare-X choice is F4-3200C14D-16GFX, but it's 3200MHz at CL14 and also optimized for Ryzen most likely because it contains Samsung B-Die chips. One would think if you "underclocked" the 3200c14 kit, it could do 2400 at c12, or even lower, which makes me wonder why this 2400 kit is rated at CAS 16. It can't contain Samsung B-Die.

 

I have no doubts it'll work, I've just not come across it before. I'd be interested in a JEDEC report on it.