Question Anyone got a high-performance 128GB RAM on a Ryzen platform?

[Always Dilettante]

Long-time lurcher (>20y), first poster. I've been building PCs for nearly 30 years.

For the last 6 years I have been using an i7-5960x with 64GB DDR4 RAM on an X99 Sabertooth as a workstation. This is my Windows 10 machine. Now I want to build a WIndows 11 machine, and, for my use-cases, I need a Ryzen processor (Intels post-11gen have P/E cores that are not good for what I do) with many cores, 128GB, and a fast memory, with the best achievable compromise between bandwidth and latency, probably emphasis on the former.

Has anyone managed to achieve a stable and fast 128GB solution for a Ryzen CPU? AM4 or AM5 CPU, DDR4 or DDR5? If so, what MB/Memory/CPU combination were you using?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Well, if you don't want to go Intel, and you really want stable 128gb, you are really looking at Zen 4/AM5.

You could look at something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 4.7 GHz 12-Core Processor ($388.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT 65.57 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($259.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR5-5600 CL40 Memory ($444.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card ($499.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1873.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-23 11:11 EST-0500

In the shorterm future there will be more DIMMs available in higher configs like 2 x 48 2 x 64. These may be better options . They are starting to hit consumers now.

This just an example. It's not mean to be a cheap build or best efficiency, or best gamer. It's just a solid allrounder for all sorts of tasks. You can adjust the cost by changing the CPU or GPU up or down.

 

[Always Dilettante]

Thanks for that. The Processor-RAM-MB combination is what interests me, the other components are either of secondary importance for now or already decided.

I read that top Zen4/AM5 processors are specced to run at 3,600MHz in 4-RAM-stick mode, but that some users managed to coax them into running at 4,200MHz or even 4,600MHz, but with a lot of trial-and-error. I was wondering if anyone managed to do that and the performance improvements were worth the effort. I am after memory performances that improve on my PC:

Even with my low-speed RAM—which I could not coax into running quicker due to the number of sticks—the memory bandwith is not significantly lower—for an 8-year old processor— than some screenshots I saw of Zen 4 processors, although the cache bandwidth is, at least on the 3D parts.

So, did anyone manage to increase the memory performance—by raising the memory frequency in 4-stick configuration—on a Zen3/Zen4 processor in a straightforward manner and with long-term stability—i.e. without crossing fingers and spending many night rebooting—and with some tanglible results in data/computationally-heavy applications or similar benchmarks?

Failing that, I will probably follow @Roland Of Gilead advice and wait for the 2x64GB kits to arrive.