Question Bought DDR5 Motherboard with up to O/C 6000, but bought 6200Mhz cl36 memories. Problem?

[Rainzord]

Hello all!

I bought a new PC with these general specs:

i7-12700 CPU
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z690 AERO G (which supports O/C up to 6000 speed for memory DDR5)
And memory sticks of Corsair DDR 5 32G (16x2) 6200 CMK32GX5M2B6200C36, which is 6200Mhz CL36.
(also, bought 3090 Ti Gaming OC, but i guess its not that relevant right for my question).

The thing is, I noticed after some inquiries I made, that you can only OC with that motherboard up to 6000Mhz, while my memory sticks can OC up to 6200.

I was wondering - will it create a problem when OCing it? I guess I will have to OC up to 6000MHZ and not more, right? What would happen otherwise? Stability issues?

I'm not sure if I should call the shop and ask them to upgrade my motherboard to Z690 Aeorus Pro (which accommodates up to 6200 OC). My PC was plenty expensive as it is, and I'm not sure I wanna add another 100$ for that extra 200mhz in OC.

My biggest concern is that since the motherboard doesn't support more than 6000 OC, it will create problems with my XMP profile or whatever with those ddr5 sticks.

Please help and advise!
Also take in mind that unless an issue, since I already made the purchase, I would prefer not to change stuff, unless its somewhat vital to do so.

 

[Lutfij]

The max supported by the board and is validated at their labs is DDR5-6000MHz. Anything made to run beyond that number might end up with you finding instability or perhaps functionality issues.

You actually paid for the extra 200MHz, so at this point either eek out all of that frequency with a board that supports it or drop down a ram kit that is within/at/or under the ram frequency limit of the board.

Out of curiosity, wat BIOS version are you working with at the time of writing?

 

[alceryes]

Motherboards can regularly run RAM over the listed max speed. Whether your memory controller or interconnects can run at that speed is another story.
Even if you can only run at 6000MT/s you may be able to drop the CL down to 34 to get a bit more performance.

 

[Rainzord]

The max supported by the board and is validated at their labs is DDR5-6000MHz. Anything made to run beyond that number might end up with you finding instability or perhaps functionality issues.

You actually paid for the extra 200MHz, so at this point either eek out all of that frequency with a board that supports it or drop down a ram kit that is within/at/or under the ram frequency limit of the board.

Out of curiosity, wat BIOS version are you working with at the time of writing?

The computer is still being assembled at the place I bought it from, as they first order the parts and then build it together. It will take several more days for them to finish, but they already ordered the items.
I'm aware that I paid for ramsticks that have 200Mhz more than the published maximum of that motherboard I bought, but I was wondering if it would be possible to use an XMP profile that allows to OC the ramsticks up to 6000MHz and the fact that the ramsticks can OC up to 6200MHz are not generally a problem with a motherboard that states to support up to 6000Mhz OC?

I am generally willing to forego those 200 extra MHz as it might create a problem with the shop (as they already ordered the parts) and a better motherboard will cost about 100$ more and I'm not sure it's worth to add an extra 100$ for that 1 fps if I manage to OC it up to 6200Mhz), but I'm not sure if it is bad idea to pair a maximum OC 6200Mhz ramsticks with maximum OC 6000 motherboard.

Motherboards can regularly run RAM over the listed max speed. Whether your memory controller or interconnects can run at that speed is another story.
Even if you can only run at 6000MT/s you may be able to drop the CL down to 34 to get a bit more performance.

I'm not really sure I follow through, does that mean the motherboard I listed can still OC it with XMP profile up to 6200Mhz anyway although its listed only up to 6000Mhz?

 

[alceryes]

I'm not really sure I follow through, does that mean the motherboard I listed can still OC it with XMP profile up to 6200Mhz anyway although its listed only up to 6000Mhz?

Can you manually enter a number or do you have to select from a list? If it's from a list then, yeah, whatever your motherboard has is it. I suppose you could try a bit of BCLK overclock to up it further but that can lead to random instability that's difficult to pin down.
If you can only get up to 6000MT/s then you may be able to drop the CL from 36 to 34 (or even 32), still gaining some performance.

 

[Rainzord]

Can you manually enter a number or do you have to select from a list? If it's from a list then, yeah, whatever your motherboard has is it. I suppose you could try a bit of BCLK overclock to up it further but that can lead to random instability that's difficult to pin down.
If you can only get up to 6000MT/s then you may be able to drop the CL from 36 to 34 (or even 32), still gaining some performance.

Ohhh really? I didn't know that.

Well basically as I wrote, the shop where I bought it are going to assemble it and I also asked them to do the XMP profile thing. I haven't received my PC yet, and I was wondering if it was a really bad fault buying a 6200MHz memory when my motherboard is limited to 6000 O/C maximum. So I guess according to what you say its not so bad and maybe I can even play with the CL a bit further. I have yet to receive my new PC (should get it in 4-5 days) and then I can see what did they change in the Bios.

For reference, these are the memories and motherboard i'm talking about:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 AERO G -
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z690-AERO-G-rev-1x/sp#sp
Specs for Memory:

1. Support for DDR5 6000(O.C.) / 5800(O.C.) / 5600(O.C.) / 5400(O.C.) / 5200(O.C.) / 4800 / 4000 MHz memory modules
2. 4 x DDR DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB (32 GB single DIMM capacity) of system memory
3. Dual channel memory architecture
4. Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
5. Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules
6. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

The RAM:

Corsair DDR 5 32G (16x2) 6200 CMK32GX5M2B6200C36
https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categ...y---Black/p/CMK32GX5M2B6200C36#tab-tech-specs

Fan Included
No

Memory Series
VENGEANCE DDR5

Memory Type
DDR5

PMIC Type
Overclock PMIC

Memory Size
32GB (2 x 16GB)

Tested Latency
36-39-39-76

Tested Voltage
1.30V

Tested Speed\
6200

Memory Color
BLACK

SPD Latency
40-40-40-77

SPD Speed
4800MHz

SPD Voltage
1.1V

Speed Rating
PC5-49600 (DDR5-6200)

Compatibility
Intel 600 Series
Heat Spreader
Aluminum
Package Memory Format
DIMM
Performance Profile
XMP 3.0
Package Memory Pin
288



Not sure if this info provides extra insight.

 

[alceryes]

Other than some extra money spent (possibly), there's nothing wrong at all with running DDR5 6200 at 6000 speeds.
Enjoy your new rig!

 

[Rainzord]

Other than some extra money spent (possibly), there's nothing wrong at all with running DDR5 6200 at 6000 speeds.
Enjoy your new rig!

Ty kind sir

The guy at the shop said the PC is ready, and I will pick it up on friday (can't wait!).

He also said he enabled the XMP profile, and its at 5200MHz. I asked why not 6000MHz and he said "thats what the xmp profile gave". Didn't sound like he was very knowledgeable about it.

In general, should it be a problem to push up the MHz up to 6000Mhz? Can you recommend a good guide for someone like me with fair technical knowledge, but that had never done this before?

 

[alceryes]

He also said he enabled the XMP profile, and its at 5200MHz. I asked why not 6000MHz and he said "thats what the xmp profile gave". Didn't sound like he was very knowledgeable about it.

This is a red flag. Were these components guaranteed to work at full, advertised speeds? Was the speed that the memory would run at discussed at all during part choice?

I'm not sure if you've already paid or if you have leverage for a full refund, but I wouldn't accept this. It needs to not only boot into Windows but pass at least one full Memtest86 pass, 10 mins of running Prime95 stress test (no AVX options selected), and go through several Unigine Superposition 4k runs, at the speed your were told it would run, without issues.

When you talk to them, you can approach it like you're trying to help them out. If it doesn't pass these things you're just gonna bring it back and complain to the manager and/or return it.

 

[Rainzord]

This is a red flag. Were these components guaranteed to work at full, advertised speeds? Was the speed that the memory would run at discussed at all during part choice?

I'm not sure if you've already paid or if you have leverage for a full refund, but I wouldn't accept this. It needs to not only boot into Windows but pass at least one full Memtest86 pass, 10 mins of running Prime95 stress test (no AVX options selected), and go through several Unigine Superposition 4k runs, without issues.

When you talk to them, you can approach it like you're trying to help them out. If it doesn't pass these things you're just gonna bring it back and complain to the manager and/or return it.

Unfortunately I wasn't really aware of all the tech details of the memory when I was making my choices with their advice. After digging about memories (right after I made the purchase), I found out something I didn't know - that the memories come at the normal "maximum" 4800MHz speed, and that their speed needs to be changed via XMP. After finding it out, I contacted the shop, and the manager told me there is no guarantee it will work at maximum speed, and its up to "luck" but usually they do work well. Again, that was after the purchase.

I just called the shop again after what I read you wrote, and the manager picked up, he told me that the employee didn't see well but it was actually 6200Mhz not 5200Mhz and they also did a memtest to confirm it works well, so I guess I'm good to go. That employee is a salesperson and not a tech person which mightve caused the confusion. The shop is pretty reliable and I had bought there before my previous PC which was good.

I hope everything will be fine and 6200Mhz will be ok as well We'll see on friday I guess. I'm planning to try and boot from my Windows 10 from my older SSD (its not old per se, just from my previous PC) and hope it will run well.

 

[alceryes]

I just called the shop again after what I read you wrote, and the manager picked up, he told me that the employee didn't see well but it was actually 6200Mhz not 5200Mhz and they also did a memtest to confirm it works well, so I guess I'm good to go.

👍
Just so you know, high memory speeds require a good memory controller. Once you stress a CPU the memory controller is one of the things that can have issues. Hopefully they did a full suite of stress tests to confirm stability.

 

[alceryes]

I'm planning to try and boot from my Windows 10 from my older SSD (its not old per se, just from my previous PC) and hope it will run well.

It won't run well, even if it boots at all.
You need to perform a fresh, clean OS install, run Windows updates and install all the latest drivers, and then install your programs/games. You can move over data files afterwards.

 

[Rainzord]

👍
Just so you know, high memory speeds require a good memory controller. Once you stress a CPU the memory controller is one of the things that can have issues. Hopefully they did a full suite of stress tests to confirm stability.

Thank you for that information. What determines which memory controller I have, and if it's good? Is it possible to improve it?

It won't run well, even if it boots at all.
You need to perform a fresh, clean OS install, run Windows updates and install all the latest drivers, and then install your programs/games. You can move over data files afterwards.

Is it worth to try and boot with my old SSD drive and to see if windows works? I read online that if I do that, windows will probably adjust and install updates to adapt to the new hardware. I did not find a conclusive answer whether its a real issue or not.
I have sooo many apps on my old windows, it will be a huge hassle to reinstall everything (like my Antivirus, all those temperture monitoring apps, various apps I can't really remember which is what.


Do you think it's very crucial to make a new install?

 

[alceryes]

Thank you for that information. What determines which memory controller I have, and if it's good? Is it possible to improve it?




Is it worth to try and boot with my old SSD drive and to see if windows works? I read online that if I do that, windows will probably adjust and install updates to adapt to the new hardware. I did not find a conclusive answer whether its a real issue or not.
I have sooo many apps on my old windows, it will be a huge hassle to reinstall everything (like my Antivirus, all those temperture monitoring apps, various apps I can't really remember which is what.


Do you think it's very crucial to make a new install?

It may possibly work, yes. if it works the OS would try to recognize all the new hardware and install new generic drivers.
However, I GUARANTEE you that the absolute best-case scenario is that you have a slower system than if you wipe the OS and install everything from scratch. Again, this is the best-case scenario.

 

[Rainzord]

It may possibly work, yes. if it works the OS would try to recognize all the new hardware and install new generic drivers.
However, I GUARANTEE you that the absolute best-case scenario is that you have a slower system than if you wipe the OS and install everything from scratch. Again, this is the best-case scenario.

Alright, thank you sooo much. I will make a USB install of Win11 then. Really thank you for your advice ❤

 

[Karadjgne]

One thing I've found about website listed ram speeds. Take them with a grain of salt because they are generally out of date. At the time that Gigabyte website was last updated, 6000 was the fastest ram available. So that's the fastest they could list, as it's the fastest they could say was viable. Since that date, ram has gotten faster, but vendors are intrinsically lazy when it comes to updating anything other than bios, media or chipset driver files.

That board could probably handle 8000 ram with no issues, and since last I looked the world record was 8888, but that was on 5400 ram. DDR5 might hit 8000 available in a couple years, DDR4 started out at a measly 2133, but whether Giga updates its boards websites to reflect those new fast ram is anyone's guess.

 

[Rainzord]

One thing I've found about website listed ram speeds. Take them with a grain of salt because they are generally out of date. At the time that Gigabyte website was last updated, 6000 was the fastest ram available. So that's the fastest they could list, as it's the fastest they could say was viable. Since that date, ram has gotten faster, but vendors are intrinsically lazy when it comes to updating anything other than bios, media or chipset driver files.

That board could probably handle 8000 ram with no issues, and since last I looked the world record was 8888, but that was on 5400 ram. DDR5 might hit 8000 available in a couple years, DDR4 started out at a measly 2133, but whether Giga updates its boards websites to reflect those new fast ram is anyone's guess.

Interesting, thank you for that insight. Maybe I was a bit too worried for nothing then.

 

[Karadjgne]

There's very, very few boards that are stuck at specific speeds, and those are very cheap budget boards and only list any native memory controller speeds, like 2133, 2400, 2666 etc. Once you start seeing speeds listed with (OC) after, it means the fastest shown is the current limit as far as they can prove.

So I'd say you may need to update the bios to the latest, which will include all of the memory tables for currently available ram, not just the older stuff from the last web page update, if there even has been any.

Other than that, it's okay to be concerned, that's a big chunk of cash, but the fact you asked for help/clarification and didn't just freak out like it's the end of the world and blow up the post with 'what ifs' says a lot. There's every indication you'll be just fine, albeit after a possible additional step or two, which is to be expected with cutting edge equipment.

 

[Rainzord]

There's very, very few boards that are stuck at specific speeds, and those are very cheap budget boards and only list any native memory controller speeds, like 2133, 2400, 2666 etc. Once you start seeing speeds listed with (OC) after, it means the fastest shown is the current limit as far as they can prove.

So I'd say you may need to update the bios to the latest, which will include all of the memory tables for currently available ram, not just the older stuff from the last web page update, if there even has been any.

Other than that, it's okay to be concerned, that's a big chunk of cash, but the fact you asked for help/clarification and didn't just freak out like it's the end of the world and blow up the post with 'what ifs' says a lot. There's every indication you'll be just fine, albeit after a possible additional step or two, which is to be expected with cutting edge equipment.

Thanks for the kind words

Here's a quick follow-up, incase someone stumbles on this thread later on.

So I did use the XMP profile of 6200Mhz 36-39-39, but I had an abundance of blue screens (BSODs) whenever I put some load on my PC. It wasn't clear it was due to the memory XMP profile, as the blue screens were various and did not seem to be connected to the XMP profile.
After concluding it wasn't any of the drivers faults (had some blue screens that suggested that), I updated my bios to the most updated once - and one of the Bios updates in the history showed that my Motherboard should support 6200Mhz as well. I was terrified of updating bios cause I never did that before and I was afraid I would brick my Mboard. I was not 100% sure the blue screens were due to the memory, but anyway I used a USB stick and followed a simple guide (rather than using the Gigabye App Center in windows - I was afraid that my windows would get blue screen while updating my bios which would rek my Mboard).
After updating the Bios, the BSODs continued unfortunately, and once I disabled XMP - my PC stopped blue screening entirely so then I concluded the BSODs are due to the XMP profile.
I had only one XMP profile (the one noted above), however I read you can choose many other custom profiles inside the Bios, and after a bit of searching in the bios and looking at some examples of similar cases on YT (didn't find ones that match exactly my motherboards' setup), I found out where it is.

I ended up trying 6000Mhz with 36-36-36 (like someone suggested, slightly better CAS but a bit lower Mhz), and it works perfectly with heavy loads and Memtest and running many stuff at once to stress test it, with no more BSODs.

Anyways it was a real stressful whole day for me until I learned how to weave through all this information and how to make it work well. I'm happy now that it works well with acceptable speeds and I got it figured out. I feel like I have a degree in RAM memory lol now with all the new stuff I learned about RAMs haha.

Also, I will keep an eye for future Bios upgrades. One thing to note is that I did not try the other custom profiles that had 6200Mhz in them, so might as well give them a try too at some point. It was stressful and quite the hassle so for now I'll just enjoy my PC as it is now.

thank u guys for your advice