RAM overclocking

[Milos Sladic]

Some useful informations:

1. I've spent a lot of money to buy this RAM. Now I want to use it to its max potential.
2. I have this MoBo.
3. My knowledge of BIOS is probably around 4%.
4. Until now, the only thing I've done in BIOS is updating it through its onboard software and setting up a curve for all my PWM fans.

 

This is what I've done today:

1. Turning XMP was quite easy only 2 clicks, but system didn't boot.
2. Because of it, I went online to learn how to manually OC, but every tutorial was really long and people make it so complicated that it was all useless for me.
3. Then I went to BIOS to figure it all myself and this is what I've done:

• I went to Ai Tweaker.
• I set Ai Overclock Tuner to manual.
• I found DRAM Frequency option and choose 3200MHz.
• At the bottom, there was DRAM Voltage. I set that to 1.3530, coz Corsair also used that in XMP profile. So I thought if Corsair used it, it won't hurt.
• Lastly I've found third option DRAM Timing Control. There are 3 options for Primary Timings, so I set them to 14,14,28.
• Then I've run AIDA64 for 10 minutes and nothing happened.
• In the attachments, there is a picture of what the results are.

 

My questions are these:

1. There are "10000" options in BIOS, "100" only in DRAM Timing Control. Is there anything besides those 3 options that I need to change to improve my RAM operation?
2. Is there anything different that you would do in my place?
3. Is there anything else I should change right now in BIOS, except CPU OC, to further improve my PC?

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

[porina]

Congratulations. You've just rediscovered that ram compatibility at higher speeds is somewhat hit and miss. If you have set XMP, there generally isn't a need to change voltage or timings if you want to run at a lower speed, like 3200. Is 3200 working fine then?

 

Unfortunately guides get complicated as there is so much to fiddle with. People generally find adjusting VCCSA and VCCIO can help stabilise higher speeds. You might then ask, to what value? The answer is, it varies. In my limited experience I find many systems will set too high an auto VCCSA with high speed ram, and fixing it to 1.10 or 1.15 can help. VCCIO from memory is a bit lower, I think I used 1.05 to 1.10. But these numbers might be totally wrong for your system.

 

If I were in your position, unless you do have time to fiddle with settings and test stability, if 3200 works just leave it there.

[Milos Sladic]

10 minutes ago, porina said:

If I were in your position, unless you do have time to fiddle with settings and test stability, if 3200 works just leave it there.

What about voltage and timings. Would you increase voltage more or maybe change some numbers in timings? Increase some, decrease others. I have no idea if they are all valued the same. What I've read is that they need to be as close as possible, but don't know if that is true.

[faziten]

14-14-14-28 are nice timings. 47ns is amazing.

Your maximum theoretical throughput with 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM in dual channel is given by:

Ram clock*bus which in GB/s is 50GB/s, you have 46 which is 92% efficiency. You wont get much more out of this kit.

But you will increase it a bit overclocking your Northbridge and CPU.

 

Remember that for Intel Northbridge should be at equal or less the CPU and ram should be less or equal to Northbridge, or you will loose theoretical performance.

 

CPU> Northbridge > RAM speed.

 

At 90+% efficiency is friggin hard to get more.

 

As an example, let me show my Haswell-E with 2133Mhz...

 

2133Mhz * 4channel RAM (256 bit bus) = 66.6GB/s, im sitting at 51GB/s giving 76% efficiency. (Notice my northbridge at stock 3000Mhz).

I could technically boost numbers by overclocking northbridge and CPU, by a lot, since my efficiency is poor in this config, but those gains wouldn't be the same in yours, you are currently in a very efficient config. Thats why i'd recommend you to not mess with ram and instead give that CPU/NB some luv.

 

Cheers!

[Milos Sladic]

38 minutes ago, faziten said:

Thats why i'd recommend you to not mess with ram and instead give that CPU/NB some luv.

Thank you for the info. My current knowledge about overclocking CPU/NB is same as my knowledge was about overclocking RAM yesterday. 0%. Is there a tutorial you can write for me, or suggest a video/thread, or should I go and learn that on my own too. 

[faziten]

28 minutes ago, SSWolf1993 said:

Thank you for the info. My current knowledge about overclocking CPU/NB is same as my knowledge was about overclocking RAM yesterday. 0%. Is there a tutorial you can write for me, or suggest a video/thread, or should I go and learn that on my own too. 

try this:

 

 

der8auer is a well known and respected overclocker.

[Milos Sladic]

Thanks.

1. Does the video cover Northbridge OC as well?
2. I've set everything exactly as shown in the video. I couldn't finish Cinebench at 50, 49 or 48. At 47 Core Ratio Limit I could.
3. Am I doing something wrong cuz it's not exactly the same CPU? Does cooling matter when the Cinebench crashes 5-10 seconds in?