[SOLVED] Asus X470 Prime Pro Ram Overclocking Problem

[Notbad2b]

Recently I got new ram for my computer and it is 32gb of G. Skill Trident Z Royal with a rated speed 3600mhz at cl19. I also have a ryzen 5 1600x for a processor. I am trying to overclock my ram to its rated speed of 3600mhz, but I can only max it out at 3000mhz without being sent into a boot loop. Is there anyway I can fix this such as a bios flash or anything?
PC Parts:
CPU: Ryzen 5 1600X
Motherboard: Asus x470 Prime Pro
Ram: 32gb of G. Skill Trident Z Royal, 3600mhz, CL19
GPU: MSI Mech RX 5700
Power Supply: Some EVGA 750W Gold Rated Power Supply I Got This Year

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's not going to happen. You'll be VERY lucky if you can get any memory kit to run at 3200mhz, much less 3600mhz. Mostly those 1st gen Ryzen CPUs, regardless of what motherboard you use them on, will only support 2933mhz even with BIOS updates and a board that supports much higher speed memory kits. The exception might be when using a higher speed kit with Samsung B-die ICs. Often those kits can be manually tuned to a higher speed, but generally speaking if you have a first Gen Ryzen CPU you will see a maximum speed of either 2933mhz or 3200mhz, if you're lucky.

If you are using a four DIMM kit, your maximum speed may be even lower than that. This is not a secret. This is known, as directly reported by AMD themselves.

Says RIGHT THERE on the specs for your motherboard:

3rd and 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 3600(O.C.)/3466(O.C.)/3200(O.C.)/3000(O.C.)/2933(O.C.)/2800(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz Un-buffered Memory *

2nd and 1st Gen Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics/ Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics/ 1st Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors
4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 3200(O.C.)/3000(O.C.)/2933(O.C.)/2800(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz Un-buffered Memory


First thing to do is make sure you have the MOST recent STABLE BIOS version for your motherboard installed. If you don't have the most recent stable, non-beta version, update.

Also, make sure they are installed in the second and fourth slots to the right of the CPU. If they are in any other slot combination, change them to the 2nd and 4th slots. The 4th slot is the one closest to the edge of the motherboard.

Then, try enabling the D.O.C.P profile in the BIOS but then before leaving the BIOS or saving the settings, change the memory frequency to 3200mhz, then save settings and exit. If that won't work, then I'd simply set it to 2933mhz and live with it, or return the memory kit and get a 3200mhz CL14 kit.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Please list the P/N of your RAM ?
Yes it is advisable to update Bios to the latest version.
Your CPU is officially rated for up to 2667MHz RAM so no guarantee it will reach the RAMs rated frequency. There would be no fast profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P so try manual Bios DRAM timings and voltage using a single module in the slot meant for single channel mode to test.

You may need the Dram calculator for a better chance of attaining the RAMs rated frequency

 

[Darkbreeze]

There would be no fast profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P

Can you clarify what you mean by this, because as it stands I have to disagree, so I'd prefer to allow you to clarify before saying that it's wrong. Trying to improve my civility skills you see.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Yes Darkbreeze I agree they do need improvement.


@ Notbad2b To clarify saying "There would be no fast profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P" is to mean that even if a kit of RAM had a pre programmed SPD Overclocked profile of 3600MHz as your proposed Kit consists, it would exceed JDEC standards. I also speak from experience and personally have not found any performance OC profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P that exceeds the Chips official rated frequency to work. The only way I have found in such cases is by Bios intervention to Primary DRAM Timings and Voltage. Getting the timings correct can be a minefield of frustration for the uninitiated to get them correct and have stability.
Time and time again forum queries ask why their RAM kits don't work and time and time again we discover a mismatch due to poor selection and a lack of understanding the precise nature and complexity of RAM.

There is much to know about RAM and how it interacts with your CPU. The CPU has an IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) which resides on the CPU and has an officially supported RAM frequency. Should you exceed this frequency then there is no guarantee you will attain the rated frequency of your RAM. It is the IMC that will determine your Overclock. It also depends on the chip sample (Silicon Lottery) and ofc the MB.

 

[CountMike]

Can you clarify what you mean by this, because as it stands I have to disagree, so I'd prefer to allow you to clarify before saying that it's wrong. Trying to improve my civility skills you see.

DOCP is Asus "speak" for XMP. Although it's unlikely you'd get 3600MHz out of 1st gen Ryzen, you can try to enable DOCP and set it and Memory to 3600 and leave FCLK on auto or set it to 1800. That RAM should have another(lower) XMP and you will see it in DOCP settings.
Another thing, you say you have 32GB of RAM but didn't say how many sticks, if 4 it would be mission impossible.
If you insist, you might want to try with https://www.techspot.com/downloads/7164-ryzen-dram-calculator.html to make and try manual adjustments.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I know what D.O.C.P means, that is not what I was asking. I was asking what was meant by there would be no fast profile when we know damn well that every modern memory kit comes with some kind of configuration profile, so certainly it is there.

I also speak from experience and personally have not found any performance OC profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P that exceeds the Chips official rated frequency to work.

So, I'm sorry, but this is fundamentally wrong. Every single day we deal with memory kits on both AMD and Intel platforms that are set to XMP profiles that exceed whatever the maximum "official rated frequency" as set by the CPU manufacturer is. So to me, this makes no sense. Again, sorry, I don't mean to be always contrary, but this is inaccurate and I have to call it how I see it.

If this were true, then there wouldn't be ANY memory kits on either Intel or AMD that could run at faster than 3200mhz, because that is the fastest NATIVE speed supported by any of the consumer processors on either platform, for any generation. But obviously, that is not the case, as both Intel and AMD support far greater memory speeds via manual or XMP, A-XMP, D.O.C.P or AMP profiles, all of which are the same thing using different names. The only thing the "official rated frequency" really pertains to is what the memory will, at best, per JEDEC guidelines for that CPU architecture, default to without any sort of profile or manual configuration involved.

That however is not the problem HERE. The problem HERE is that the memory kit is beyond what the CPU can support, period, no matter what kind of profile or manual configuration is used. 3200mhz is the fastest I've seen anybody manage to get a memory kit running at using a 1st Gen Ryzen CPU, regardless of what chipset is involved, or what BIOS version, and even then I've only seen that happen with a fairly high end board AND a B-die kit that was two DIMMs or less. If it was a 2nd Gen Ryzen CPU with a good board and a modern BIOS version, they could probably do 3200mhz with an average quality memory kit and maybe do 3400mhz, possibly even 3600mhz, with a very good memory kit. 3rd and 4th Gen Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors can do much better. The Ryzen 5000 series processors natively support 3200mhz with practically any memory kit so long as it is actually compatible with that particular motherboard, and will support XMP profiles way past 3600mhz, from what I hear, with 4000mhz being the sweet spot now.

Regardless, for THIS configuration, there is no way it's ever going to run at 3600mhz with that CPU. So the choices are pretty much either upgrade to a newer CPU model, return the kit and buy a lower speed kit, or run them at somewhere between 2933mhz and 3200mhz, if you can.

 

[MeanMachine41]

MeanMachine41 said:
I also speak from experience and personally have not found any performance OC profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P that exceeds the Chips official rated frequency to work.

I said personally I have not found a stable pre OC profile that works at 3600MHz when the CPU officially supports 3200MHz.
Once again you are taking me out of context and deliberately contrary IMO.
Yes I know you will come back with a wall of text however please be concise as TLDR is hardly helpful to the OP.

 

[CountMike]

DOCP doesn't necessarily follow XMP , my setup is good example. XMP for this RAM calls for CL18 at 3600MHz but DOCP sets it at CL17 and I can change it to CL16. Right now DOCP is set for 3000MHz and Frequency to 3600 so I get all settings for 3000 but working at settings for 3600MHz. without a real need to change anything else although further changes are possible to tune it up even better.

 

[Darkbreeze]

MeanMachine41 said:
I also speak from experience and personally have not found any performance OC profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P that exceeds the Chips official rated frequency to work.

I said personally I have not found a stable pre OC profile that works at 3600MHz when the CPU officially supports 3200MHz.
Once again you are taking me out of context and deliberately contrary IMO.
Yes I know you will come back with a wall of text however please be concise as TLDR is hardly helpful to the OP.

I'm not trying to take you out of context. I may be misunderstanding what you are trying to say though, which is WHY I asked for clarification. If so, apology extended, to the extent that it is merited. However, when you say that an OC profile such as XMP or D.O.C.P doesn't work when it exceeds the "chips" official rated frequency, it really does show a lack of endeavors in this area and the reason is twofold. For one, any memory profile that is higher than 3200mhz (Or much lower, like 2933, 2666, 2400, 2133, depending on the age of the platform and the particular CPU) is already exceeding the "official" specification for that hardware if it is higher, and there are literally millions of systems running with memory profile speeds that exceed anything JEDEC has officially approved in any way, ever.

And secondly, there are PLENTY of people out there, including myself, who've overclocked the memory beyond the frequency and timings that either JEDEC or the memory profile supports, so to say that memory profiles won't work outside the purview of what Intel, AMD or JEDEC have determined any particular CPU to run at natively or by default, is just silly.

 

[Darkbreeze]

DOCP doesn't necessarily follow XMP , my setup is good example. XMP for this RAM calls for CL18 at 3600MHz but DOCP sets it at CL17 and I can change it to CL16. Right now DOCP is set for 3000MHz and Frequency to 3600 so I get all settings for 3000 but working at settings for 3600MHz. without a real need to change anything else although further changes are possible to tune it up even better.

Right, because if you have to run a 3600 CL16 kit at 3200mhz to make it work, you can almost certainly reduce the timings to tighten things up, and drop the true latency further which will definitely help to reclaim some or all of the performance lost by reducing the memory frequency, but it is equally important to keep in mind that in doing so there is a requirement that you should perform a rather stringent process of testing the memory for errors and stability after or during doing so. You can't just change the timings, of course, and expect everything to be stable without doing the necessary testing to verify that it in fact is.

 

[CountMike]

Well, it's axiomatic that I tested memory and system every which way. Also consulted Dram calculator. Before anything, tested ram itself with Memtest86 and than with MemTest64 which tests it in Windows, those and benchmarks would surely trigger any problem.
This what I did may be a unique case surprised me too but it worked so I didn't have to do it all manually. Speaking of manually, manage so-so stability at 4000MHz but with so high Cl (32) that it was slower than at 3200 Cl16. At 3800 was more stable but Cl was 29 something making it slower than at 3600Cl16. This memory has Samsung b-die but apparently not all b-die is binned high.
On the other side if RAM will not run at rated speed that means something is not 100% compatible and lower Cl may not bring much of performance.