AM5 boot times improve RADICALLY with memory context restore enabled

LethaR · May 9, 2024

Just wanted to post my results when enabling memory context restore in a msi b650m project zero motherboard, ryzen 9 7900x and 64gb 6400mhz cl32 ram.
Went from (not even lying) over 260 seconds of boot time to literally 10.9 seconds on my first boot after letting the pc train the enabled feature. Im blown away by the difference. Windows is stable for now, no blue screens and shit. I'll post here if something goes wrong, but, for now, i encourage and recommend any am5 and over 32gb of ram of 6000mhz or more with pretty slow boot times user to try this.

wheresmycar · May 9, 2024

A friend of mine had his MSI tomahawk + 7800X3D (mem 6000/30) taking around 4mins to load up. We did the same... CMOS HR, BIOS update to the latest patch and then "enabled" memory context restore. End result: 4 mins reduced to 17 seconds. Since enabling, no issues encountered.

Space Lynx · May 9, 2024

@W1zzard Do you know of any logic/reason why this would not have been enabled by default by AMD through a BIOS update in the AGESA releases? Or by motherboard manufacturers in general?

What are we missing here? I feel like Lisa Su is smart enough to not make people have long boots if she didn't have to.

R-T-B · May 9, 2024

Space Lynx said:
@W1zzard Do you know of any logic/reason why this would not have been enabled by default by AMD through a BIOS update in the AGESA releases? Or by motherboard manufacturers in general?

What are we missing here? I feel like Lisa Su is smart enough to not make people have long boots if she didn't have to.

Memory PowerDown Disable breaks it for starters.

ir_cow · May 9, 2024

I would just update the BIOS for faster boot times. Context Restore is iffy. Might be good for a week, maybe a day or a month. Last I tried with AGEAS PI 1.1.0.2b and it crashed after leaving it In sleep mode. But it probably was because of PowerDown Mode. Its on by default.

Fokker · May 9, 2024

Absolutely. Last AM5 I built went from "Maybe I'll boot in 5 minutes," to 10 seconds from power on.

Space Lynx · May 9, 2024

Well AsRock has the best boot times around, I don't mind waiting 30-45 seconds for a proper boot, so I am going to leave everything default with an updated BIOS.

ir_cow · May 9, 2024

For single rank, I'm down to 20ish seconds (into windows) Dual-rank 6400 in 1:1 still takes 90 seconds.

Space Lynx · May 9, 2024

ir_cow said:
For single rank, I'm down to 20ish seconds (into windows) Dual-rank 6400 in 1:1 still takes 90 seconds.

I haven't actually timed mine yet. I will do so and update with results this weekend, bookmarking this thread now ^^

Panther_Seraphin · May 9, 2024

I should test mine as I am probably worst case scenario. All DIMMs populated......

A test incoming this weekend

lolek86 · May 9, 2024

People still think Memory context restore and Power down are causing problems? I works flawlessly an is enabled by default since july of last year. Enabled and combined with fast boot gives me 9.5seconds boot time here on asus b650 motherbord and 32gig of tuned memory 7Gig pcie nvme drive. You can decrease it by another few seconds if you disable sata drives self check on post.

For those testing, shortest boot time will be achieved few reboots after enabling it for first time. First boot will be still 30-something seconds

R-T-B · May 9, 2024

lolek86 said:
People still think Memory context restore and Power down are causing problems?

Factually, I tried it with latest AGESA on my board just yesterday. Disable PowerDown and enable MCR and you will have memory corruption bsods on reboot in literally less than a minute, sometimes even in bios trying to change it back you'll get freezes.

As for the "why?" question, Powerdown slightly increases latency.

@ir_cow, our memory reviewer, confirmed my findings as well.

lolek86 · May 9, 2024

In that case yes it will end up with corruption. Well, its well known fact that you don't disable power down if enabling memory context restore. those two features works together, even was confirmed by amd employee on reddit long time ago.

W1zzard · May 9, 2024

Space Lynx said:
@W1zzard Do you know of any logic/reason why this would not have been enabled by default by AMD through a BIOS update in the AGESA releases? Or by motherboard manufacturers in general?

Last I turned it on I was getting random bluescreens in Windows and didn't know why

ir_cow · May 9, 2024

R-T-B said:
@ir_cow, our memory reviewer, confirmed my findings as well.

I tried this with multiple motherboards too. I personally don't think content restore has ever been fully stable. For me it will be fine for a day or so and than BSOD. Can't blame anything else either. Voltages are locked, same memory config, etc.

Edit: I forgot you had me try with PowerDown off. I remember now. Same results.

W1zzard said:
Last I turned it on I was getting random bluescreens in Windows and didn't know why

Yep me too

Space Lynx · May 9, 2024

yep, thanks

I will just stick to what I am doing cause it works and is stable, EXPO, negative offset for CPU, and that's only changes I make in BIOS, reboot done. rock solid stable 24.7 and still quick boot times.

MSI screwed up with AM5, AsRock imo is the king of AM5 platform, just very optimized.

ir_cow · May 10, 2024

Space Lynx said:
MSI screwed up with AM5, AsRock imo is the king of AM5 platform, just very optimized.

How so? Asrock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all have good MBs.

tabascosauz · May 10, 2024

ir_cow said:
I tried this with multiple motherboards too. I personally don't think content restore has ever been fully stable. For me it will be fine for a day or so and than BSOD. Can't blame anything else either. Voltages are locked, same memory config, etc.

Edit: I forgot you had me try with PowerDown off. I remember now. Same results.

Yep me too

Been running for a while now with zero issues with MCR. But it is allergic to Powerdown Off.

Either MCR On with Powerdown On
Or MCR Off with Powerdown Off

Boot time is long enough that honestly MCR Off is kinda unworkable depending on what you do with the PC

R-T-B · May 10, 2024

lolek86 said:
In that case yes it will end up with corruption. Well, its well known fact that you don't disable power down if enabling memory context restore. those two features works together, even was confirmed by amd employee on reddit long time ago.

Why on earth should they require each other?

AsRock · May 10, 2024

Space Lynx said:
@W1zzard Do you know of any logic/reason why this would not have been enabled by default by AMD through a BIOS update in the AGESA releases? Or by motherboard manufacturers in general?

What are we missing here? I feel like Lisa Su is smart enough to not make people have long boots if she didn't have to.

Yeah mines enabled by default, how ever after a bios update i leave it on for a few reboots and turn it off.

tabascosauz · May 10, 2024

R-T-B said:
Why on earth should they require each other?

Who knows? All I know is that not respecting the rule regarding the two is a one-way street to crashes/reboots/BSODs.

I will say though, MCR doesn't like borderline stability/instability on either the memory controller or RAM itself. Best save it for when UCLK and RAM are both tested stable

Space Lynx · May 10, 2024

ir_cow said:
How so? Asrock, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all have good MBs.

he said boots were taking 4 minutes long on his MSI board.

no AsRock board even took 1 minute even in the beginning to my knowledge. and I showed the graph a few days ago showing the ASRock b650m doing a boot in 16 seconds and it didn't need that fix to do it.

Super Firm Tofu · May 10, 2024

Space Lynx said:
he said boots were taking 4 minutes long on his MSI board.

no AsRock board even took 1 minute even in the beginning to my knowledge. and I showed the graph a few days ago showing the ASRock b650m doing a boot in 16 seconds and it didn't need that fix to do it.

I think you forgot the ASRock memory slot sticker at AM5 launch.

Space Lynx · May 10, 2024

Super Firm Tofu said:
I think you forgot the ASRock memory slot sticker at AM5 launch.

View attachment 346791

1m 40 seconds is still heck of a lot faster than the 4 mins the MSI guy was talking about in this thread.

Fokker · May 10, 2024

Space Lynx said:
he said boots were taking 4 minutes long on his MSI board.

no AsRock board even took 1 minute even in the beginning to my knowledge. and I showed the graph a few days ago showing the ASRock b650m doing a boot in 16 seconds and it didn't need that fix to do it.

I was dealing with an MSI B650 Tomahawk with latest BIOS. Enabling MCR sorted the RAM testing/training cycle issues after a stable boot. At least three dozen boots with zero issues before delivering to the customer. They've not reported any issues and this was handed to them months ago.

System Name	My Gaming Rig
Processor	Ryzen 9 7900x
Motherboard	MSI B650m Project Zero
Cooling	Lian-Li Galahad 360mm AIO White (+8 Lian-Li SL120 White Fans -> 11 in total)
Memory	KingBank 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 6400 CL32
Video Card(s)	Nvidia Geforce RTX 4080 Gigabyte AERO OC
Storage	500GB + 240GB SATA SSD, 1TB (Windows) m.2 Nvme SSD + 2TB (Games) m.2 Nvme SSD
Display(s)	Xiaomi MI 34" (34", 3440x1440p, 144Hz, VA), MSI Oculus NXG253R (24.5", 1920x1080p, 360Hz, Fast IPS)
Case	CORSAIR 2500D Airflow (White)
Audio Device(s)	Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless (White)
Power Supply	CoolerMaster V SFX 1100W Platinum (ATX 3.0, PCIe 5.0)
Mouse	LogiTech G502 HERO SE
Keyboard	Custom Anne Pro 2 60% Keyboard (Gateron Red Switches)
Software	Windows 10
Benchmark Scores	Heaven Benchmark 1080p EXTREME: 8323 3D Mark Time Spy Score: 26736 (Excellent)

System Name	❶ Oooh (2024) ❷ Aaaah (2021) ❸ Ahemm (2017)
Processor	❶ 5800X3D ❷ i7-9700K ❸ i7-7700K
Motherboard	❶ X570-F ❷ Z390-E ❸ Z270-E
Cooling	❶ ALFIII 360 ❷ X62 + X72 (GPU mod) ❸ X62
Memory	❶ 32-3600/16 ❷ 32-3200/16 ❸ 16-3200/16
Video Card(s)	❶ 3080 X Trio ❷ 2080TI (AIOmod) ❸ 1080TI
Storage	❶ NVME/SSD/HDD ❷ <SAME ❸ SSD/HDD
Display(s)	❶ 1440/165/IPS ❷ 1440/144/IPS ❸ 1080/144/IPS
Case	❶ BQ Silent 601 ❷ Cors 465X ❸ Frac Mesh C
Audio Device(s)	❶ HyperX C2 ❷ HyperX C2 ❸ Logi G432
Power Supply	❶ HX1200 Plat ❷ RM750X ❸ EVGA 650W G2
Mouse	❶ Logi G Pro ❷ Razer Bas V3 ❸ Logi G502
Keyboard	❶ Logi G915 TKL ❷ Anne P2 ❸ Logi G610
Software	❶ Win 11 ❷ 10 ❸ 10
Benchmark Scores	I have wrestled bandwidths, Tussled with voltages, Handcuffed Overclocks, Thrown Gigahertz in Jail

Processor	7800X3D -25 all core
Motherboard	B650 Steel Legend
Cooling	Frost Commander 140
Video Card(s)	Merc 310 7900 XT @3100 core -.75v
Display(s)	Agon 27" QD-OLED Glossy 240hz 1440p
Case	NZXT H710 (Red/Black)
Audio Device(s)	Asgard 2, Modi 3, HD58X
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x Gold

System Name	Pioneer
Processor	Ryzen R9 9950X
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	Intel 905p Optane 960GB boot, +2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software	Gentoo Linux x64 / Windows 11 Enterprise IoT 2024

System Name	Computer
Processor	Intel 12700K
Motherboard	Asus Prime Z690-A
Cooling	Twin radiator open loop
Memory	Corsair Dominator 32GB DDR5
Video Card(s)	eVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2 TB
Display(s)	Asus PG348Q and two Asus VN279Q monitors
Case	Corsair 4000D Airflow
Audio Device(s)	Sennheiser GSX 1000 with Sennheiser HD599 SE
Power Supply	Asus Thor 1200P
Mouse	Corsair Scimitar Elite RGB Wireless
Keyboard	Keychron Q3 Max
VR HMD	Oculus Rift CV1
Software	Windows 10 Pro

AM5 boot times improve RADICALLY with memory context restore enabled

LethaR

wheresmycar

Space Lynx

Astronaut

R-T-B

ir_cow

Fokker

Space Lynx

Astronaut

ir_cow

Space Lynx

Astronaut

Panther_Seraphin

lolek86

R-T-B

lolek86

W1zzard

Administrator

ir_cow

Space Lynx

Astronaut

ir_cow

tabascosauz

Moderator

R-T-B

AsRock

TPU addict

tabascosauz

Moderator

Space Lynx

Astronaut

Super Firm Tofu

Space Lynx

Astronaut

Fokker

Processor	AMD 7600x
Motherboard	Asrock x670e Steel Legend
Cooling	Silver Arrow Extreme IBe Rev B with 2x 120 Gentle Typhoons
Memory	4x16Gb Patriot Viper Non RGB @ 6000 30-36-36-36-40
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT MERC 319
Storage	2x Crucial P5 Plus 1Tb NVME
Display(s)	3x Dell Ultrasharp U2414h
Case	Coolermaster Stacker 832
Power Supply	Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 850 watt
Mouse	Logitech G502 (OG)
Keyboard	Logitech G512

Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	48 GB
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080
Storage	2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s)	30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software	Windows 10 64-bit

System Name	ab┃ob
Processor	7800X3D┃5800X3D
Motherboard	B650E PG-ITX┃X570 Impact
Cooling	NH-U12A + T30┃AXP120-x67
Memory	64GB 6400CL32┃32GB 3600CL14
Video Card(s)	RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000
Storage	8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550
Case	Caselabs S3┃Lazer3D HT5