Pushing for Speed

With testing out of the way, I endeavored to see if these sticks have any headroom. For Intel, I kept the same procedure I have been using, leaving all settings at their XMP defaults and then increasing the frequency until the system loses stability.


I was only able to get 3400 MHz out of this kit with all other XMP settings at their default. Like many recent kits, pushing past that proved difficult. Raising voltages did not yield better results (highest tested: DRAM: 1.5 V, VCCSA: 1.35 V, and VCCIO: 1.3 V).

For AMD overclocking, I generally like to dig a little deeper. First, I followed the same procedure as with Intel to find the maximum-possible frequency with XMP timings. Next, I normally set the frequency to 3600 MHz before using DRAM Calculator for Ryzen to optimize timings. If the "Fast" preset is not viable, start with the "safe" settings and try to at least get the primary timings as close to the "Fast" preset as possible. I would then normally bench each setting with AIDA64 to showcase what kind of benefits you can expect from each, while including the default (non-XMP) settings as a base reference point.


However, I was only able to squeeze 3466 MHz out of the HP V6 3200 MHz on my MEG X570 ACE with the XMP default timings. Because the kit could not achieve 3600 MHz and was resistant to tighter timings, I did not try an optimized overclock.


It should be no surprise that boosting clock speed results in some noticeable gains.