AMD Ryzen Memory Tweaking & Overclocking Guide

[Zubasa]

Ah, I thought this memory dependency for Ryzen was fixed with updates.
Don't have time to read the article right now, but can tell it is very informative.

Do you think memory speeds will be just as important for the next gen AMD CPUs (Matisse 3000 series)? I believe they still use Infinity Fabric

There is no "fix" for this is not some kind of bug, it is just how Ryzen scales more with memory than Intel does.
What bios update have "fixed", is it has made running faster memory much much easier.

 

[xorbe]

Last weekend we had a REALLY bad time with TridentZ 3200 CL14 + 2700X + Asus X470 Pro board with latest bios. Setting the memory to 3200 was disaster even with slow 16-22-22-22-53. But go to 3133 or 3266, and the ram would run just fine at 14-14-14-14-34. Same results whether 2x8, 4x8, or 2x16. My conclusion was that the asus board was enabling some kind of faulty hidden timing optimizer for 3200. We selected 3133 for that machine and called it a day.

I'm also testing 4x16GB in an Asus Prime B350M-a board right now w/2700X, it definitely won't push 3200, but that's not a surprise at 64GB. Seems to be working at 2666 CL14, but I haven't had the chance to test between 2666 and 3200 yet.

 

[Alpi]

Only one small thing. Maybe it's unique (I guess not. ) but I think CR VI worth more than the title of a medium ram overclocker. Ok, I love this board so can be a bit biassed.
Ps.: Yes, vdimm was higher then Amd prefer. DD

Ah, I thought this memory dependency for Ryzen was fixed with updates.
Don't have time to read the article right now, but can tell it is very informative.

Do you think memory speeds will be just as important for the next gen AMD CPUs (Matisse 3000 series)? I believe they still use Infinity Fabric

I guess it will be the same, also I hope it will be. It brings something new and exciting to the world. I liked every minute that I spent with discovering how to speak with this newcommer. It's pretty complex, how the cpu core connect amd depend from memory, how it's scaling. At first sight it's a bit caotic but slowly You starts to see connexions and methodology. I guess the major owners / users hates this Ryzen-puzzle thing but I have so much fun still nowadays with my Am4 config.

 

[Fex]

Awesome article / guide.

I really would love to see similar for Intel's - and also if it has any impact on which chipset you're on (X299 / Z370 / Z390).

 

[Fragment]

Nice article!

Uncached startup times of bigger applications like games / photoshop or comparable tools would be interesting to see the differences as well!

( start from SSD ofc, HDD would negate any considerable effect that is significant enough to be compared )

 

[Oberon]

@1usmus Can you explain what Multi Rank memory is? I have always assumed Single Rank and Dual Rank were synonymous with single sided and dual sided, but I guess this isn't the case.

 

[sn2x]

If I only want to spend up to $120 on RAM, there is nothing wrong with 16GB(2x8) kit of 16-18-18-36 3200 is there?

 

[Xuper]

If I only want to spend up to $120 on RAM, there is nothing wrong with 16GB(2x8) kit of 16-18-18-36 3200 is there?

I have gskill ripjaw 3200 With same timing but hynix mfr.on my asus x370 prime pro , most stable timing/speed was 3066 14 16 16 38 54.at 3200 it's impossible.no matter what i try hard.even with calculator.
My kits are :
https://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-3200c16d-16gvk

 

[biffzinker]

If I only want to spend up to $120 on RAM, there is nothing wrong with 16GB(2x8) kit of 16-18-18-36 3200 is there?

That's what I did except I paided $240ish at the time, and no the performance impact of looser timings isn't going to have any noticeable affect.

 

[Mistral]

Awesome article! It'll be interesting to see if/how things change with Zen2.

Can we as well please get some benches for more realistic gaming scenarious? 1080p, 1440p, settings above medium...

 

[avenger001]

Just noticed this 1 day after i used the exact same ryzen mem tool to get 4266 memory to run at 3533 with the same CL14 timings. Everything is stable so far and i noticed a huge difference in FPS at 3440x1440 in all the games i played. This is a really well made guide , i definitely recommend doing the steps.

 

[biffzinker]

Or go Ryzen:

- B450M with decent VRM - 100€
- Ryzen 2600 - 160€
- 2x8gb 3000mhz/32000mhz CL14 and Samsung B-Die or good luck - 140€

Go to bios, spend hours overclocking, increase voltages, more power consumption, deal with ram compabilities, AGESAs, and in the end have the same performance as the Intel solution.

Pretty easy choice.

All I needed to do was enable XMP, and done. How is that anymore complicated over Intel?

 

[xorbe]

All I needed to do was enable XMP, and done. How is that anymore complicated over Intel?

Anecdotal, but ... We bought 4x8GB and 4x16GB of top shelf TridentZ CL14 ram. Popped two dimms into intel box and it was fine. It took us 6 hours to diagnose and get two dimms working at 3133 on an X470 board + 2700X. Literally, the 3200 setting does not work (won't post at CL14, memory errors at CL16). But 3133 and 3266 do fine at CL14. Goodness only knows why.

 

[Xuper]

Only one small thing. Maybe it's unique (I guess not. ) but I think CR VI worth more than the title of a medium ram overclocker. Ok, I love this board so can be a bit biassed.
Ps.: Yes, vdimm was higher then Amd prefer. DD


I guess it will be the same, also I hope it will be. It brings something new and exciting to the world. I liked every minute that I spent with discovering how to speak with this newcommer. It's pretty complex, how the cpu core connect amd depend from memory, how it's scaling. At first sight it's a bit caotic but slowly You starts to see connexions and methodology. I guess the major owners / users hates this Ryzen-puzzle thing but I have so much fun still nowadays with my Am4 config.

damn 55ns ! Is it stable in game?

 

[biffzinker]

Anecdotal, but ... We bought 4x8GB and 4x16GB of top shelf TridentZ CL14 ram. Popped two dimms into intel box and it was fine. It took us 6 hours to diagnose and get two dimms working at 3133 on an X470 board + 2700X. Literally, the 3200 setting does not work (won't post at CL14, memory errors at CL16). But 3133 and 3266 do fine at CL14. Goodness only knows why.

Your pushing for a higher memory capacity that even the Intel IMC would struggle with running at 3200 MHz over four slots?

 

[Silent_Scone]

@1usmus @W1zzard
Wait, just spotted this in the article: If tCL does not affect tRAS, why is the delay before PRECHARGE defined by the variable x=(tCL-1)?

Otherwise, you would just write the delay before PRECHARGE is bl-1 or, simply 7. Somehow that doesn’t sound right to me. If CAS isn’t needed in these timings, it’s role is effectively nullified, which makes no sense. Please clarify, why do we even need CAS if it doesn’t affect these things. I’ve never seen or read a single technical document that aligns with this theory.

It is important to note that SDRAM chips allow the third and fourth operations to be carried out in a certain sense "in parallel". To be precise, the PRECHARGE line recharging command can be sent for a certain number of ticks "x" before the moment at which the last data element of the requested packet is issued, without fear of the occurrence of a "broken" situation of the transmitted packet (the latter will occur if the PRECHARGE command is sent after READ commands with a time period less than x). Without going into details, we note that this time interval is equal to the value of the delay of the CAS # signal minus one (x = tCL - 1).

 

[Mescalamba]

@1usmus Can you explain what Multi Rank memory is? I have always assumed Single Rank and Dual Rank were synonymous with single sided and dual sided, but I guess this isn't the case.

I guess in this case he means individual ram slots. Yes, ranks usually were used as single or double sided memory stick.

Having less memory slots was (and apparently still is) way to easy high clocks on memory.

Side note towards article, AMD scaled well with memory since I can probably remember (at least in AM2 era). Doesnt mean that for Intel its not important, just wont give extra FPS. Anyway, its definitely not new for Ryzen.

 

[NC37]

Nice article and all. DRAM calculator would be a lot more useful if it could just read your settings and fill out the values. From what I've seen so far, it won't work with my Hynix-M. Gives all sorts of bogus values for the numbers. Don't dare try to tune this with this calculator.

 

[xorbe]

Your pushing for a higher memory capacity that even the Intel IMC would struggle with running at 3200 MHz over four slots?

Re-read my post, "... two dimms ... two dimms ...". Btw however we found no difference between 2x8 and 4x8 and 2x16 on X470 with these particular dimms, how's that for curious?! 4x16 is another story though.

 

[biffzinker]

Re-read my post, "... two dimms ... two dimms ...". Btw however we found no difference between 2x8 and 4x8 and 2x16 on X470 with these particular dimms, how's that for curious?! 4x16 is another story though.

Im sorry, I miss read it as you trying to push four sticks above specs.

 

[jihadjoe]

Ryzen DRAM Calculator is such an awesome tool! I'm on Intel but using the calculator to determine my OC. Figured that since Intel's IMC is better, any timings that work on Ryzen will work equally well with Coffee Lake.

And the SK Hynix CJR G-Skill 3600 CL19s are great! Got them because they were cheap but had no idea they were absolute beasts. Running them at CL16 now thanks to this guide.

 

[Zubasa]

Re-read my post, "... two dimms ... two dimms ...". Btw however we found no difference between 2x8 and 4x8 and 2x16 on X470 with these particular dimms, how's that for curious?! 4x16 is another story though.

2 DIMMs vs 4 DIMMs has more to do with motherboard layout than the sticks themselves.
Some mobos uses T-topology meaning the design ensures the traces are of equal length between the socket and each slot.
For these boards 2 DIMMs vs 4 makes no difference, but the IMC is still doing more work due to more memory ranks invloved.
But if you run 2x dual rank vs 4x single rank, it should make very little difference for T-Topology.

 

[Alpi]

damn 55ns ! Is it stable in game?

Didn't try with games but It's not as stable I guess however I can run benchmarks more or less continously on that setting.

I guess in this case he means individual ram slots. Yes, ranks usually were used as single or double sided memory stick.

Having less memory slots was (and apparently still is) way to easy high clocks on memory.

Side note towards article, AMD scaled well with memory since I can probably remember (at least in AM2 era). Doesnt mean that for Intel its not important, just wont give extra FPS. Anyway, its definitely not new for Ryzen.

Yes, You're absolutely right ! All the good Amd architectures like good ram setups and also scaling to them pretty good !

 

[Jism]

I'm also testing 4x16GB in an Asus Prime B350M-a board right now w/2700X, it definitely won't push 3200, but that's not a surprise at 64GB. Seems to be working at 2666 CL14, but I haven't had the chance to test between 2666 and 3200 yet.

No, swap the sticks out from slot 1 and 3 and put them in slot 2 and 4. Load up XMP and you'll see it works. I've just had the same issue > 3200Mhz KIT that woud'nt pass 2933 basicly at CL14. Someone mentioned me to swap out with slot 2 and 4 and voila, it works, lol.

Something with signalling strength or some stuff.

 

[Zubasa]

No, swap the sticks out from slot 1 and 3 and put them in slot 2 and 4. Load up XMP and you'll see it works. I've just had the same issue > 3200Mhz KIT that woud'nt pass 2933 basicly at CL14. Someone mentioned me to swap out with slot 2 and 4 and voila, it works, lol.

Something with signalling strength or some stuff.

Yes, many boards runs "Daisy Chain" Topology, they improve ram OC on 1 slot per channel while sacrificing the other slot in the same channel.
Basically the traces runs to a slot then to the other in the same channel.
This is why many board suggests that you plug in certain slots first in the manual.

Amazing guide for RyZen owners? I assume it applies to Threadripper users' as well?

Yes it does, the Calculator offers setting for Threadripper as well.

It saved my sanity on the early day bios with basically no ram compatibility out of the box.
It doesn't help that my Triden Z 3200 came with Hynix MFR instead of Samsung, so it had trouble even posting.
I have since picked up 4 sticks of Team 4000 CL18 and have been running them @3466 CL14 with my CPU@4000Mhz since, Memtest86 and prime95 stable.