Friday, January 14th 2022
RAMP is AMD's Answer to Intel's XMP for DDR5
Based on details from multiple sources, least not the release notes for HWiNFO 7.17 beta, we now know that AMD is working on an answer to Intel's XMP memory profiles that should be called RAMP, or Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile. Not much is known about RAMP at this point in time, but hopefully it'll be as straightforward to use as Intel's XMP when it comes to configuring overclocked DIMMs.
Intel has of course updated XMP to version 3.0 which includes support for DDR5 memory, although it was reported that Intel was late when it came to finalising the specifics of XMP 3.0, which meant some early DDR5 modules intended for overclocking didn't end up getting any XMP profiles. Hopefully AMD will get its RAMP spec finished well ahead of time, so the memory makers that want to offer support for RAMP can do so well ahead of the launch of AMD's upcoming AM5 platform.
Sources:
HWiNFO, via VideoCardz
Intel has of course updated XMP to version 3.0 which includes support for DDR5 memory, although it was reported that Intel was late when it came to finalising the specifics of XMP 3.0, which meant some early DDR5 modules intended for overclocking didn't end up getting any XMP profiles. Hopefully AMD will get its RAMP spec finished well ahead of time, so the memory makers that want to offer support for RAMP can do so well ahead of the launch of AMD's upcoming AM5 platform.
40 Comments on RAMP is AMD's Answer to Intel's XMP for DDR5
AMD's equivalent to XMP was AMP (which used to be described at www.amd.com/en-gb/innovations/software-technologies/amp but not any more, it's still in the WaybackMachine), for XMP 3.0 it seems to be RAMP.DOCP and equivalents (like EOCP for Gigabyte) was a way to skip paying XMP royalties, but still using the XMP data.
All because JEDEC can't be bothered to create a spec that includes timings and not just frequency!
Just look up "sorry, your memory is not on the QVL of that board" replies in these forums. It got better with Zen iterations, but it was pretty bad at first. RAMP should have been released alongside Zen.
On the other hand, you have Intel using the Core brand since 2006 or so...
and yes. JEDEC really does need to standardize more freq/timings profiles.
and ram should be priced, marketed and sold by/at jedec speeds, not xmp profiles.
It's just that Zen requires running RAM well outside JEDEC spec to get the most out of it and up until now, AMD provided no guidance for that.
As for why JEDEC doesn't standardizes faster RAM I don't know and I don't have enough knowledge of the process or technology to venture a guess.
For anything above 3200 ... It's chicken and egg. CPU official specs don't go above that for DDR4. Motherboard manuals mention anything over 3200 as overclocking, with no guaranteed speed given. And JEDEC is a standards body. Why would a standards body care about overclocking?
On top of that, as pointed out above, JEDEC timings are a joke, for example, the tightest JEDEC 3200 MHz timings are 20-20-20, when some higher-end modules can do 14-14-14 at 3600 MHz.
So what you think happens, doesn't happen.
Is this on the DIMM makers though? Or is it the mobos/UEFIs?
JEDEC hasn't updated or added to that since 2014 so now most RAM runs faster than this with 8-10ns latency.
Cheap stuff like 3200 CL16 and 3600 CL17 is 10ns and 9.4ns respectively. JEDEC timings are slower than that slow stuff, stuck in 2014.
My criticism of JEDEC is in neglecting to evolve the standard over time. They have suffixes for tighter timings but never go faster than 12.5ns when manufacturing moved on and left 12.5-15ns DIMMS in the history books. XMP came about because Intel got pissed waiting for JEDEC to do their job, and it's a good thing they didn't wait for JEDEC either because 8 years later they've still done fuck all.