Overclocking RAM on Sabertooth X99

[RejZoR]

Any advice on how to efficiently overclock RAM on Sabertooth X99 ?

The thing is, I have HyperX Fury 2400MHz and even though it's fast enough, I just can't stand something running at stock. But I've never really overclocked RAM much, at least not beyond specs since on X58, 1600MHz was maximum anyway when it was in sync with BCLK of 200MHz. But now I'm sailing into uncharted waters...

I've fiddled with it before and what I hate with RAM the most is that it's a backstabbing bastard. It can work fine for hours and then it just snaps for "no reason", crashing/BSOD-ing the system.

I've currently disabled DRAM VID, increased DRAM current to 120%, opened up all RAM phases (Extreme) and upped the voltage to 1.35V.

Left timings on AUTO, except I've set it to 1T and at 2800MHz. For now. System boots without problems, but I just freaking know it'll hang at one point. Would prefer to reach at least 3000MHz because I like nice round numbers.
Any tips? Can I ramp up current even further up to 150%, maybe higher voltage even? Any other option that might increase overclockability and stability?

 

[EarthDog]

XMP = stock. He asked how to overclock.

Anyway, since you have so much ram, you may or may not be able to reach those clocks. You will more than likely have to add some VccSA and VccIO... IF the sticks will even reach there.

I would run P95 Blend or some memtest and see how stable you really are.

ALso, you will be using 125BCLK on that platform when you select the 3K memory multiplier... just be aware of that and adjust the CPU multi lower to compensate.

Please post up screenshots of CPUz.. the memory tab, and spd tab.

EDIT: I also wouldn't bother with overclocking ram either as it yields few gains in most cases.

 

[RejZoR]

Hm, I got memory multiplier on Auto currently, same BCLK which defaults to 100 MHz. 3K multiplier? You mean, when I set DRAM to 3000 MHz ? That would be 5,6 GHz on CPU. Which is a bit high hehe. I don't think my system would boot at those speeds. Then again, I remember it didn't boot at 3000 MHz RAM speed. Hm.

So, to compensate that, I'd have to lower multiplier from 45 to 36 to achieve same CPU clocks.

Highest I could boot my system with was 2933 MHz but it was very unstable. Currently I have 2800MHz and so far it works.

NB frequency is dynamic btw, it goes up to 3 GHz...

 

[EarthDog]

What is it with this little cat person deleting his posts? That's worse than irrelevant posts...lol!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

What is it with this little cat person deleting his posts? That's worse than irrelevant posts...lol!

Cuz he doesnt want the rest of TPU to know of his mistakes?

 

[little cat]

Cuz he doesnt want the rest of TPU to know of his mistakes?

Unlikely ! In the hurry one can miss something . So the post gets redundant .

 

[RejZoR]

Ok, so we are at 3GHz now. Set BCLK and strap to 100MHz, set DRAM ratio to 100:100. Changed 1T to 2T to loosen up the timings. 1T was always recommended, not sure how much it helps X99...

3000 MHz is nice. A nice round number I have no clue how stable it is. Lets hope for the best.

 

[EarthDog]

Run something against it.. P95 Blend... or the Memory test in AIDA64...

 

[RejZoR]

Interesting. At 3000 MHz with very loose timings (2T, 16-18-18-36) it was unstable. Worked fine on desktop but hanged pretty quickly in P95. Then I've decreased to 2800 MHz (1T, 15-15-15-35) and so far, so good. Running test on 30GB out of 32GB for half an hour now while doing other things on desktop (I have experience that doing stuff while testing reveals instability even faster). 2800 MHz with such timings ain't that bad after all. Maybe I get get timings even tighter...

 

[Tatty_Two]

Unlikely ! In the hurry one can miss something . So the post gets redundant .

Then slow down a bit? Remembering of course that I can see them all anyway

 

[RejZoR]

Yay, I just hit 3000MHz stable at 1.35V. 20 minutes of Prime95 using basically all of the memory. I've left memory timings on Auto which bumped them up a bit, but not by too much. My OCD is now satisfied that I have a nice round number for RAM speed

 

[EarthDog]

And because it bumped the timings up, it's no faster than slower speed with tighter timings...but hey, you hit 3k!

 

[RejZoR]

What I hate the most about RAM is how it's seemingly stable and then out of the blue it locks up. After testing, all looked fine. Played NFS 2016 for like 4 hours. All fine. And then lockup out of nowhere when I wanted to watch a stream on Twitch. Like seriously!? C'mon!?!?!?

Found out on the internetz upping System Agent voltage a bit might help stability. Lets see...

As for timings, they are bumped up just tiny bit. Do you think 1-2 on timings may negate a 600MHz gain?

EDIT:
Ok, so I've tried it the other way around. Left RAM at 2400MHz at which it's rated and slammed timings down to 12-12-12-25-1T. I have no clue if it' stable yet, but considering it booted without any hiccups, it's a good start.

 

[cadaveca]

DDR4 isn't DDR3. overall timings aren't that important. Bandwidth is not important. What's important is the overall latency (X99 bandwidth exceeds the needs of all software, and true testing requires running multiple instances of a program). You can see this overall latency as a metric in AIDA64's memory test.

Guys that are really pushing the limits are running 1.5V+, and speeds north of 3200 w/ CAS 12 on X99.

Pay more attention to secondary and tertiary timings to get the most optimal overall latency, and you'll have the best performance.

Long-term testing requires many hours of MemtestX86.. in the order of days, really. Unfortunately, with large density ram in multiple sticks in a single system, true stability testing is not a process that takes just hours or minutes to find. Sometimes, lowering timings is a waste of time, and actual raw clockspeed is the ticket to maximum performance and stability.

Spend some time googling DDR4 RTL (focus on splave's guide), and you'll find the true tips and tweaks outside of the general stuff I've posted here. On X99, a lot depends on board in use (you have a good board, but far from the best for high ram clocking), and the CPU, and not so much the ram kit. Most current kits will hit 3200++ MHz with relative ease when you have the right board/CPU combo to go along with it.


EarthDog is pointing you in the right direction, IMHO, so I'll leave it at that, and wish you the best in your ram clocking.

 

[RejZoR]

Sometimes just having low timings or high clock is all you need, even if it doesn't really add any value. Sort of like red brake calipers. Though, those always add 15 HP instantly.

EDIT:
On a serious note, we are talking like 3 pages of timing settings. Other than just decreasing them all in steps, is there any specific rule there?

 

[EarthDog]

Leave the secondary amd tertiary timings alone. Just mess with the 4 majors and set it to 1T...

...that goes against what Dave says AND he is right. All I am saying is it's not worth it to get that deep into memory overclocking as it doesn't yield much at all.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Unlikely ! In the hurry one can miss something . So the post gets redundant .

Then slow down a bit? Remembering of course that I can see them all anyway

^ Big Brother is watching

 

[RejZoR]

I guess cadaveca was right to a degree. Quad channel with 2400MHz RAM, that's plenty of bandwidth. It's timing that hasn't changed or has been just increasing lately. And with lower timings, system does seem to be more snappy. Maybe just a random observation, but boot was certainly faster than with stock timings. 12-12-12-20-1T currently. Opposed to stock 15-15-15-35-2T...

 

[xkm1948]

As a fellow Sabertooth X99 owner I would suggest you stay away from OC your ram. As a matter of fact I recently downclocked my 2800 set to 2666 just to get better stability. The Sabertooth X99 on the newest 2101 BIOS does not OC well on 125 Strap. I was getting BSOD every 3~4 days with just stock XMP settings. Bringing it down to 100Strap solved all my problems.

The Sabertooth X99 prefers 100 over 125 in terms of stability. I would recommend you pick one from either 2666 or 3200. These two can run on 100 Strap just fine. I am going to upgrade my RAM to 128GB in the near future. As it turns out for me higher RAM speed over 2400 really don't give you much of an edge in any real world work load.

 

[xkm1948]

Also, what cpu voltage are you using for your 4.5GHz OC? Can you pass a 6hr run on ASUS Realbench stress test with 4.5GHz?

 

[basco]

i am running 2133 c12 4x4gb and i would up the uncore to between 3-500 mhz lower then core.
this is what shamino is suggesting for uncore.

 

[RejZoR]

Also, what cpu voltage are you using for your 4.5GHz OC? Can you pass a 6hr run on ASUS Realbench stress test with 4.5GHz?

I think it's 1.28V or something around there. Should check the BIOS again. I've left RealBench running whole night (around 8 hours).

As for RAM, I've returned back to 2400MHz XMP with 1T timing. This damn thing is just so unpredictable. It can work problem free for entire day of hardcore gaming, video encoding, file compression and then next day all of a sudden for no logical reason system locks up while watching a 480p video on Youtube. Like WHY!? You'd expect it to give up on high load, not when system is under least possible stress... Just too fiddly and I don't think I can be bothered with it anymore.

 

[basco]

i have same prob when overclocked only with rainbow six siege.
running benchmark 2 times is clock watchdog timeout.
everything other i throw at it is stable.

i have a feeling there is something borked or wrong with this mb at different loads

 

[xkm1948]

I think it's 1.28V or something around there. Should check the BIOS again. I've left RealBench running whole night (around 8 hours).

As for RAM, I've returned back to 2400MHz XMP with 1T timing. This damn thing is just so unpredictable. It can work problem free for entire day of hardcore gaming, video encoding, file compression and then next day all of a sudden for no logical reason system locks up while watching a 480p video on Youtube. Like WHY!? You'd expect it to give up on high load, not when system is under least possible stress... Just too fiddly and I don't think I can be bothered with it anymore.

I know your frustration. I overclocked mine to 3000. Played Fallout4 for a straight 6hrs for no problem. The next day it wont even boot into Windows. ASUS still has a lot to improve from the 2101 BIOS.

125 Strap is simply unstable to work with at this moment for Sabertooth X99. It is definitely better on R5E or X99E-WS.

 

[RejZoR]

I ran mine at 100 MHz strap fixed.