Is there a way to get higher frequency for my RAM?

[salatji]

I kinda fail-ordered when I built my pc and am now the proud owner of a Ryzen 5 1600x, a MSI X370 Gaming Pro and 2x8 GB Trident Z RGB CL16 3200 MHz ram which is running at amazing 2133 MHz.

 

This kinda sucks, so I wonder if there is a way to increase the frequency of the ram to said 3200 mhz (or at least a bit higher than those 2133...). Are there good tutorials out there for doing this? I searched a bit for "overclocking memory", but most videos were not to helpful. I tried the A-XMP profiles in the motherboard, however after attempting to boot several times, the setting did reset themself back to the 2133 MHz.

[iRileyx]

Enable XMP. On Ryzen all DDR4 runs at 2133 by default(That's just the default speed for DDR4), you have to enable XMP for it to run at the full rated speed.

It should be noted that some motherboards still struggle to run RAM at their rated speeds, but you should be able to get atleast 2933Mhz out of it with that board.

[dcgreen2k]

You just need to update the BIOS. The ram will be stuck at 2133MHz until a BIOS with a newer agesa standard is used. I doubt you will have any luck at all trying to get it to a higher speed without this.

[iRileyx]

3 minutes ago, thegreengamers said:

You just need to update the BIOS. The ram will be stick at 2133MHz until a bios with a newer agesa standard is used. I doubt you will have any luck at all trying to get it to a higher speed without this.

Nope, nope.

 

All DDR4 runs at 2133 out of the box, all you have to do is enable XMP and hope for the best. In some cases where it still wont run at the full rated speed a bios update will be needed, but even then there's no guarantee's of getting the full rated speed.

[dcgreen2k]

3 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

Nope, nope.

 

All DDR4 runs at 2133 out of the box, all you have to do is enable XMP and hope for the best. In some cases where it wont run at the full rated speed a bios update will be needed, but to have it run at higher than 2133, simply enabling XMP is enough. If it still doesn't run at the rated speed then, a BIOS update may be the fix.

Well, he's having the exact same problem I was having. I tried changing timings and enabling XMP, but nothing worked until I updated the BIOS. 

 

To clarify, it would not run at any speed other than 2133MHz, even with loosened timings.

 

For reference, the current agesa level I know of is 1.0.0.6b

[iRileyx]

2 minutes ago, thegreengamers said:

Well, he's having the exact same problem I was having. I tried changing timings and enabling XMP, but nothing worked until I updated the BIOS. 

 

For reference, the current agesa level I know of is 1.0.0.6b

If that's the case then no offence but you couldn't have picked a worse B350 board(luck wise)  even the cheapo cheap ones are normally able to run higher than 2133 with XMP or playing around with timings and clock.

Or you could have gotten unlucky with your board/ram combo, but looking at your ram, i think it may have just been the board.

[dcgreen2k]

2 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

If that's the case then no offence but you couldn't have picked a worse B350 board(luck wise)  even the cheapo cheap ones are normally able to run higher than 2133 with XMP or playing around with timings and clock.

Or you could have gotten unlucky with your board/ram combo, but looking at your ram, i think it may have just been the board.

I still think it was because of the BIOS. I went from version 2.40 to 3.30, which included support for agesa 1.0.0.6b. Now, I'm able to use 3200MHz 15-15-15-32, undervolted to 1.3 volts, and using Hynix chips. 

[iRileyx]

1 minute ago, thegreengamers said:

I still think it was because of the BIOS. I went from version 2.40 to 3.30, which included support for agesa 1.0.0.6b. Now, I'm able to use 3200MHz 15-15-15-32, undervolted to 1.3 volts, and using Hynix chips. 

Mhm more than likely.

Does you RAM run at exactly 3200 though? Or is it like 3190 something? An odd thing with Ryzen is cause of the BUS speeds(normally 99.8-99.9), it won't run at exact numbers. both ram and cpu  

[dcgreen2k]

Just now, RKRiley said:

Mhm more than likely.

Does you RAM run at exactly 3200 though? Or is it like 3190 something? An odd thing with Ryzen is cause of the BUS speeds, it won't run at exact numbers  

Yep, it runs at 3200. (Technically 1600MHz in dual channel)

[johndms]

If someone selects the appropriate XMP selection and it fails to POST at that frequency, and the bios reverts to 2133, the first thing that should be recommended is a bios update. One of the most important things they fix with each bios update often pertains to increased memory compatibility. Not to mention improving system stability and other bug fixes. Ryzen is simply too new not to recommend a bios update. While it's true that manually entering the timings and lowering the frequency may work as well, the latest few AGESA updates have made huge improvements. It'd be silly to overlook such an easy potential fix. Thanks to the latest batch of bios updates, I've overclocked and tightened the hell out of my cheap Hynix M-Die ram kit.

[salatji]

7 hours ago, johndms said:

If someone selects the appropriate XMP selection and it fails to POST at that frequency, and the bios reverts to 2133, the first thing that should be recommended is a bios update. One of the most important things they fix with each bios update often pertains to increased memory compatibility. Not to mention improving system stability and other bug fixes. Ryzen is simply too new not to recommend a bios update. While it's true that manually entering the timings and lowering the frequency may work as well, the latest few AGESA updates have made huge improvements. It'd be silly to overlook such an easy potential fix. Thanks to the latest batch of bios updates, I've overclocked and tightened the hell out of my cheap Hynix M-Die ram kit.

The BIOS should be on the latest version. How can I check this for sure?

 

 

Edit: Bios was not up-to-date. Version 4.4 instead of 4.5, did an update, now it's running at 1533 (3066 total) at least. Not the 3200, but hey, at least not the 2133 mhz anymore

[johndms]

4 hours ago, salatji said:

The BIOS should be on the latest version. How can I check this for sure?

 

 

Edit: Bios was not up-to-date. Version 4.4 instead of 4.5, did an update, now it's running at 1533 (3066 total) at least. Not the 3200, but hey, at least not the 2133 mhz anymore

I keep my board's bios update site bookmarked and check it often. Even though my kit of ram is working fine, I'm a geek and won't be satisfied knowing there were possible improvements done and I don't have them, lol.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X370-GAMING-PRO

 

These forums are full of people running Ryzen systems with ram incapable of running at it's rated speed. I think it's just a matter of time, or further tweaking. But in all honesty, you'll never notice the difference unless you're really into benchmark numbers. Hell, the difference between 2666 and 3200, on all but the most elite systems, is small enough that I often recommend 2666 rated ram if it's significantly cheaper than 3200. For most, the numbers just aren't worth the increased cost.

 

3066 is actually not bad at all. I would recommend downloading Memtest86 and run a few passes to make sure it's stable. Save that overclock to a Profile in your bios because Ryzen often likes to reset things to 2133 for stupid reasons. Keep an eye open for future bios updates and things should be fine.

[salatji]

13 minutes ago, johndms said:

I keep my board's bios update site bookmarked and check it often. Even though my kit of ram is working fine, I'm a geek and won't be satisfied knowing there were possible improvements done and I don't have them, lol.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/X370-GAMING-PRO

 

These forums are full of people running Ryzen systems with ram incapable of running at it's rated speed. I think it's just a matter of time, or further tweaking. But in all honesty, you'll never notice the difference unless you're really into benchmark numbers. Hell, the difference between 2666 and 3200, on all but the most elite systems, is small enough that I often recommend 2666 rated ram if it's significantly cheaper than 3200. For most, the numbers just aren't worth the increased cost.

 

3066 is actually not bad at all. I would recommend downloading Memtest86 and run a few passes to make sure it's stable. Save that overclock to a Profile in your bios because Ryzen often likes to reset things to 2133 for stupid reasons. Keep an eye open for future bios updates and things should be fine.

it was one of the default profiles. One was 3200 mhz (didn't work) and the other one did work instantly at said 3066.  Man, memtest again? °_° dear lord that took 6 hours for 3 runs last time  gosh, guess it'll have to run over night this time ^^

 

[johndms]

20 minutes ago, salatji said:

it was one of the default profiles. One was 3200 mhz (didn't work) and the other one did work instantly at said 3066.  Man, memtest again? °_° dear lord that took 6 hours for 3 runs last time  gosh, guess it'll have to run over night this time ^^

 

I'm talking about the bios' own personal profiles. It should allow you to save your overclock profile. I'm not talking about XMP. If you save your changes, if the bios ever reverts them, it's easy just to load your saved profile. I make a lot of changes to my timings, it saves me from having to remember everything.

Note: If you ever need to reset the CMOS, use the board jumpers or button if applicable. I believe removing the cmos battery will wipe any saved profiles. I also think updating the bios clears profiles. May be wise to save them to disk.

 

Here's an old screenshot showing my profile saving options. I make note of the date and what settings I'm using/trying.

 

Memtest86 should have an option to run All Cores in Parallel. I use a custom option as well, though. Press 'T' to select which tests you want to run and hit Enter to unselect all but number 6. Change number off passes to 10. Ten passes of ONLY #6 Test should take about 20 minutes. That's a very stressful test, but if it passes without errors, you know the ram overclock is stable.

[salatji]

2 hours ago, johndms said:

I'm talking about the bios' own personal profiles. It should allow you to save your overclock profile. I'm not talking about XMP. If you save your changes, if the bios ever reverts them, it's easy just to load your saved profile. I make a lot of changes to my timings, it saves me from having to remember everything.

Note: If you ever need to reset the CMOS, use the board jumpers or button if applicable. I believe removing the cmos battery will wipe any saved profiles. I also think updating the bios clears profiles. May be wise to save them to disk.

 

Here's an old screenshot showing my profile saving options. I make note of the date and what settings I'm using/trying.

 

Memtest86 should have an option to run All Cores in Parallel. I use a custom option as well, though. Press 'T' to select which tests you want to run and hit Enter to unselect all but number 6. Change number off passes to 10. Ten passes of ONLY #6 Test should take about 20 minutes. That's a very stressful test, but if it passes without errors, you know the ram overclock is stable.

thanks for the hint with the profile!

[salatji]

11 hours ago, johndms said:

I'm talking about the bios' own personal profiles. It should allow you to save your overclock profile. I'm not talking about XMP. If you save your changes, if the bios ever reverts them, it's easy just to load your saved profile. I make a lot of changes to my timings, it saves me from having to remember everything.

Note: If you ever need to reset the CMOS, use the board jumpers or button if applicable. I believe removing the cmos battery will wipe any saved profiles. I also think updating the bios clears profiles. May be wise to save them to disk.

 

Here's an old screenshot showing my profile saving options. I make note of the date and what settings I'm using/trying.

 

Memtest86 should have an option to run All Cores in Parallel. I use a custom option as well, though. Press 'T' to select which tests you want to run and hit Enter to unselect all but number 6. Change number off passes to 10. Ten passes of ONLY #6 Test should take about 20 minutes. That's a very stressful test, but if it passes without errors, you know the ram overclock is stable.

soooooooo... I did run memtest86+ with test 6 for 10 runs. No error. Then it restarted and booted several times and failed. What does this tell me?

 

Also it only fails sometimes when I start the PC from total of, games apparently do run fluent and so far I didn't have a crash when the mhz were succesfully booted at 3066 mhz.

[johndms]

19 minutes ago, salatji said:

soooooooo... I did run memtest86+ with test 6 for 10 runs. No error. Then it restarted and booted several times and failed. What does this tell me?

 

Also it only fails sometimes when I start the PC from total of, games apparently do run fluent and so far I didn't have a crash when the mhz were succesfully booted at 3066 mhz.

Mine does it too, welcome to Ryzen.

[salatji]

20 minutes ago, johndms said:

Mine does it too, welcome to Ryzen.

good, so apparently it is normal