RAM for Threadripper 2950X

[ChazzaM]

Hey there,

 

I'm building an AMD Threadripper 2950X build with an Aorus Xtreme X399 motherboard.

 

I've heard that "Threadripper loves fast memory" so have been looking at 32GB kits in the 3200MHz to 3600MHz range, though I'm not actually sure how true that statement is.

 

The 3600MHz kit with the best XMP timings I've found is the Patriot Viper 3600MHz with 16-18-18-36, which is better than the timings of some 3200MHz kits. Problem is this RAM isn't on the QVL for my motherboard, and therefore I'm not entirely sure whether it would work.

 

A slightly weird note is that on the motherboard specs page it states:

 

"Support for DDR4 3600+*(O.C.) / 3466+(O.C.) / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules

* Recommend to use a 1^st Gen. Ryzen™ Threadripper™ processor to achieve 3600MHz (O.C.) speed."

 

I don't really understand what this means, I would have assumed a 2nd gen threadripper would be able to handle higher frequency ram better than as 1st gen chip. I've seen a review at Hexus of the motherboard which had RAM overclocked to 3800MHz stable using a 2990WX. Can anyone clarify what this statement means, and suggest whether the Patriot RAM listed above should be compatible with the Aorus Xtreme X399 board?

 

The Patriot RAM seemed to have the highest frequency with the lowest timings from what I could find. Are there any other RAM kits that you would suggest instead? I was looking at the Aorus 3200MHz RAM as each 2x8GB kit also includes 2 "dummy modules" to fill up the remaining dimm slots on the motherboard which would look nice (and match with the Aorus mobo), but these add about £50 extra per 16GB kit compared with comparable memory from other manufacturers.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  

[AskTJ]

Get kits that are branded, CL15 and 3200MHz. Corsair, G.Skill and other well known brands come to mind.

[ChazzaM]

18 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

Get kits that are branded, CL15 and 3200MHz. Corsair, G.Skill and other well known brands come to mind.

Thanks for your reply, I've seen a few reports that have said "Ryzen doesn't like odd CAS timings", and that if a CAS timing was set to 15, it would automatically be changed to run at 16 instead. I assume this is likely the same for Threadripper 2

 

Also the Patriot 3600MHz 16-18-18-36 I mentioned would have both lower latency and higher bandwidth than CL15 3200MHz RAM (even if it was indeed running at CL15).

 

The Patriot memory has Samsung B-Die memory which I've hear is the most compatible and best performing with AMD systems.

 

Was there any particular reason for suggesting CL15/3200MHz, I'm guessing it would probably be more likely to work with an AMD system as it's slower, but otherwise I don't really see why I wouldn't choose the higher performance Patriot memory over it?

 

Thanks again.

[Pyrii]

I'm also building a system for the same Chip, and I'm confused by ram timings, G.skill ram advertises 3600 CAS16 (True CAS16-16-16) RAM, it's pretty pricey. But the best Corsair can do is 3200 CAS16 (Weird timings 16-18-18), and 3600 CAS18 (Also dumb timings 18-19-19)

 

I'm planning to use the MEG CREATION though. So I'm really stuck on what RAM to get.

 

I guess you could always try to tighten the timings by changing them on the motherboard to 16-16-16. Dunno how well that would work on the corsair RAM.