Friday, May 10th 2019
AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" a Memory OC Beast, DDR4-5000 Possible
AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen (3000-series) processors will overcome a vast number of memory limitations faced by older Ryzen chips. With Zen 2, the company decided to separate the memory controller from the CPU cores into a separate chip, called "IO die". Our resident Ryzen memory guru Yuri "1usmus" Bubliy, author of DRAM Calculator for Ryzen, found technical info that confirms just how much progress AMD has been making.
The third generation Ryzen processors will be able to match their Intel counterparts when it comes to memory overclocking. In the Zen 2 BIOS, the memory frequency options go all the way up to "DDR4-5000", which is a huge increase over the first Ryzens. The DRAM clock is still linked to the Infinity Fabric (IF) clock domain, which means at DDR4-5000, Infinity Fabric would tick at 5000 MHz DDR, too. Since that rate is out of reach for IF, AMD has decided to add a new 1/2 divider mode for their on-chip bus. When enabled, it will run Infinity Fabric at half the DRAM actual clock (eg: 1250 MHz for DDR4-5000).
This could turn into an additional selling point for AMD X570 chipset motherboards, as they'll have a memory frequency headroom advantage over boards based on older chipsets as their BIOS will include not just the increased memory clock limit, but also the divider mode. Of course this doesn't mean that you can just magically overclock any memory kit to these 5 GHz speeds - it's probable that only the best of the best modules will be able to get close to these speeds.
1usmus also discovered that the platform adds a SoC OC mode and VDDG voltage control. We've heard from several sources that AMD invested heavily in improving memory compatibility, especially in the wake of Samsung discontinuing its B-die DRAM chips.
The third generation Ryzen processors will be able to match their Intel counterparts when it comes to memory overclocking. In the Zen 2 BIOS, the memory frequency options go all the way up to "DDR4-5000", which is a huge increase over the first Ryzens. The DRAM clock is still linked to the Infinity Fabric (IF) clock domain, which means at DDR4-5000, Infinity Fabric would tick at 5000 MHz DDR, too. Since that rate is out of reach for IF, AMD has decided to add a new 1/2 divider mode for their on-chip bus. When enabled, it will run Infinity Fabric at half the DRAM actual clock (eg: 1250 MHz for DDR4-5000).
1usmus also discovered that the platform adds a SoC OC mode and VDDG voltage control. We've heard from several sources that AMD invested heavily in improving memory compatibility, especially in the wake of Samsung discontinuing its B-die DRAM chips.
112 Comments on AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" a Memory OC Beast, DDR4-5000 Possible
Judging by how I at least presume the information was collected, I'm guess it's from a UEFI update for current boards, so it might stil be possible on non X570 boards.
As a Ryzen 1700 user I never had issue using it on stock speed, but since I use it with stock memory speed, there could be a spight jitter on less multythreaded (older) games. For example: MarMax.
Highly multythreaded applications are less affect d, because if it uses all 16 threads, the scheluder can't throw any of it to another.
And honestly I failed to see the advantage of a 5GHz memory in comparison to a 3GHz one under gaming applications.
In my country the ram prices for 2x8 GB DDR4 kits are:
-3000 CL16 kit 80 € - G.Skill Aegis
-3400 CL16 kit 105 € - Patriot Viper 4
-3600 CL17 kit 124 € - Patriot Viper Steel
-3733 CL17 kit 143 € - Patriot Viper 4
Everything else faster is much more expensive, and everything else slower isnt really cheaper than the 3000MHz kit. So I'm wondering what kind of ram will be optimal / acceptable for Ryzen 3 with a reasonable price with reasonable performance for gaming only.
Also from what RAM frequency will we need to enable the 1/2 IF speed multiplier? And how will it affect the CPU's performance..?
Unknown at this point, but I'm sure we'll find out more as soon as hardware is sampled to review sites.
Time will tell I guess.
Benchmark stable, if done right, isnt 24/7 stable. :)