Question Can't run my Gskill DDR3 at 2400mhz without freezing my PC

[teidybugi]

Hi!

My specs are:
i7-4790 @3.6 (boost 4.0)
gigabyte Z97X-SLI-CF (latest bios)
Ram G Skill TridentX F3-2400C10-4GTX 2x4gb, I have additional corsair 2x4gb, which I am not using for this problem
GPU: EVGA gtx 1080ti FTW3
PSU: CS750M — 750 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold

I would like to get some help or assistance how can I run my ram at 2400mhz without my pc freezing all the time. Right now I am running at 2133mhz (XMP profile 1) which is stable, but I don't know that much about rams and sadly I am not sure what I have to do to get it work.

Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated!
teidybugi

 

[boju]

What dram voltage is xmp setting for the ram?

 

[teidybugi]

I've just double checked. It shows for DRAM Voltage 1.668V, for Profile DDR Voltage it shows 1.65V. I have put the picture as well if it helps any better.

https://imgur.com/DmpVTNc

View: https://imgur.com/DmpVTNc

But I did tried last week to manually put the timings 10-12-12-31 and upped the voltage to 1.7 and it kinda worked. I was playing games no problems but after 10 hours, I've started to watch a stream and pc froze in the next 15 mins, and after a restart, it froze in 10 mins.

 

[boju]

1.7 is too high, even 1.65 is stretching the limits.

Is your bios updated to the latest? Try update bios first, if still no good try relax memory CL timings. Keeping as is running at 2133 though ya won't be missing out on much vs 2400.

Do you know how to manually set ram?

Disable xmp, manually set ram speed 2400.
In advanced memory where there's a list of timing numbers try;

CL: 14
tRCD: 16
tRP: 16
tRAS: 31

Dram voltage between 1.55~165.

 

[teidybugi]

Yeah I know it won't be that much of a difference, but I have this pc for almost 5 years and I haven't been bother to get this ram to the speed that it was meant to be, but now I would like to see if it's even possible, that's all. I just tried the timings you provided and first I've tried at 1.64 voltage, pc forze in less than 1 min, then I tried with 1.56 voltage and it froze the same as before. Now I've put it back to 2133.

 

[boju]

Bios updated?

Upping vcore cpu voltage might help memory controller at those memory speeds. 1.2v, max 1.35v.

 

[teidybugi]

Yes, bios is the latest (F10b). Just tried with ram (your timings) at 1.64 voltage, first try cpu vcore at 1.2, it froze in a min and then with 1.35, again froze the same as before.

 

[boju]

Looks like you'll have to settle for 2133.

You're using a2 and b2 slots? Those are 2nd and 4th slot from cpu. And the Corsair ram mentioned in your op, they aren't installed yeah?

 

[teidybugi]

Yes I'm using 2nd and 4th slots on motherboard, I double checked this week and it's correct. No I don't have corsair memory installed since I want to get Gskill ones to 2400 and with corsair it would be even bigger mess. I was running 16gb with those 2 set of pairs, but I had to lower speed to 1333mhz to get it stable. I bought that ram because like I said I didn't want to bother with gskill and just wanted additional 8gb of ram, so I went with cheaper option and other than lower speed I didn't had any problems with it. But now I would like to get more juice out of my PC and if it would be possible to run at higher speed, I will mostly likely try to switch corsair with the proper gskill. Maybe I should mention, not sure if it helps, but I did 3 memtest86 runs this week at different speeds (1600, 2133, 2400) and I didn't get any errors only notes "ram may be vulnerable to high frequency rowhammer bit flips", but from what I've read this should't be that much problematic, but of course I could be wrong.

 

[boju]

Mixing ram is never guaranteed, it may or may not work.

What specs are the corsair's?

If there are ram problems memtest will find it and throw errors if not crash itself. Im not sure what you mean you had ram running at 2400 with no errors.

Perhaps look into reinstalling Windows.

 

[teidybugi]

The 3 runs I did with memtest86 I did first with 1600mhz, then I did with 2133mhz and the last I did it with 2400mhz, that's what I meant with 2400. Corsair ram is corsair vengeance lp 1600mhz (2x4GB). I know it's not okay mixing it, but I just went it with and said if it's gonna work i'll leave it be, otherwise I would already return it. I would like to try reinstalling windows like the last resort, because I did reinstall it couple of years ago (yes it's quite long) I had some fps problems, and even reinstalling didn't help. But I guess it could help here.

 

[Karadjgne]

Ddr3 can go upto 1.8v. There were 2 common voltages back then, the earlier ddr3 was mostly 1.65v but most later revisions were 1.5v. So 1.65v for a set of 2400 isn't out of the ordinary.

9-9-9-24 was common for 1600. 10-11-11-30 was common for 1866. 10-12-12-31 would be on the tight side for 2133, so for 2400 you'd be looking at 14-16-16-38 for something a little looser.

If you look at any ram listed as 1866 or higher on any Intel mobo, it's listed as (OC). This isn't just because Intel set its certification at 1600 for the memory controller and higher values are OC values. It also can mean you'll need OC on the cpu as well. Values such as 2400 can be very demanding on the memory controller in the cpu and OC sets higher voltages.

Try bumping your system agent, vccio up a notch (not sure what gigabyte calls it on that bios) and give the memory controller a little more juice to work with.

 

[boju]

Wouldn't be setting dram to 1.8v, the mc wouldn't last too long. I know you didn't mean it like that though karadjgne but for the op.

Memory is part of the performance, what makes you think your fps problems were memory related? Did 16GB ram help?

You'll find 8GB causes high pagefile usage in a lot of games since Windows can consume quite a bit of ram, between 1.5~3GB. Vram data flows in and out of system ram so 16GB ram i would agree is recommended to support a card like your 1080ti.

 

[geofelt]

Does the g.skil ram have a XMP with 2400 speed? I would think it does and that is what you should use.
The xmp setting is imbedded in the ram and represents the specs needed to run at 2400.

Intel with a discrete graphics card is not sensitive to ram speeds.
here is a scaling study:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/7

As you go higher in speed, you also go higher in timings, offsetting much of the benefit.

If you were able to get your 1600 speed corsair ram to play nice, I would use that.
The added memory will benefit you more that any minor ram speed increase.

 

[teidybugi]

Ddr3 can go upto 1.8v. There were 2 common voltages back then, the earlier ddr3 was mostly 1.65v but most later revisions were 1.5v. So 1.65v for a set of 2400 isn't out of the ordinary.

9-9-9-24 was common for 1600. 10-11-11-30 was common for 1866. 10-12-12-31 would be on the tight side for 2133, so for 2400 you'd be looking at 14-16-16-38 for something a little looser.

If you look at any ram listed as 1866 or higher on any Intel mobo, it's listed as (OC). This isn't just because Intel set its certification at 1600 for the memory controller and higher values are OC values. It also can mean you'll need OC on the cpu as well. Values such as 2400 can be very demanding on the memory controller in the cpu and OC sets higher voltages.

Try bumping your system agent, vccio up a notch (not sure what gigabyte calls it on that bios) and give the memory controller a little more juice to work with.

For how much should I bump up my system agent, vccio? And I'm assuming I should stay at 1.65 voltage?

Wouldn't be setting dram to 1.8v, the mc wouldn't last too long. I know you didn't mean it like that though karadjgne but for the op.

Memory is part of the performance, what makes you think your fps problems were memory related? Did 16GB ram help?

You'll find 8GB causes high pagefile usage in a lot of games since Windows can consume quite a bit of ram, between 1.5~3GB. Vram data flows in and out of system ram so 16GB ram i would agree is recommended to support a card like your 1080ti.

No, 16gb didn't helped with the fps problem. That fps problem is my oldest problem I have, which I've try to fix it with reinstalling windows but it didn't helped. Basically once in a whale when I start up my pc, I'll get much lower fps, like almost half lower, and for the longest time I thought it was my previous GPU gtx 970, but after I switched to 1080ti the same problem still happens, but less often. But that problem was happening before I even got the second corsair pair ram, so I'm still not sure what's the cause of it. I guess that's for another topic, but firstly I want to see if I can get this ram to 2400mhz and who knows, it could help with the problem (which I hardly doubt it).

Does the g.skil ram have a XMP with 2400 speed? I would think it does and that is what you should use.
The xmp setting is imbedded in the ram and represents the specs needed to run at 2400.

Intel with a discrete graphics card is not sensitive to ram speeds.
here is a scaling study:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell/7

As you go higher in speed, you also go higher in timings, offsetting much of the benefit.

If you were able to get your 1600 speed corsair ram to play nice, I would use that.
The added memory will benefit you more that any minor ram speed increase.

I mentioned in the beginning that I already tried with XMP profile 1 and it causes my pc to froze, or did you meant to use XMP profile and from there to tweak other settings? And the last time I've tried corsair wasn't that stable at 1600, but I was trying to put both pairs at the same speed, maybe if I would put corsair only to 1600mhz it could perhaps work (that's meant only for corsair memory, not helping gskill to get to 2400mhz), but I can play with that later, now my priority is to try getting gskill to 2400mhz.

 

[boju]

I run a 2600k at 4.5 with 32GB ram at 1600 with no problems. 16GB before 32 was fine also, me upgrading to 32GB was to do with another problem i had which turned out not a ram issue but none the less thought id try them all together and they all worked.

If 1600MHz is good for me, 1333 for you or whichever speed you had your ram at wouldn't be the problem you're having. Start to look elsewhere i reckon.

 

[geofelt]

You said that you used XMP profile 1(2133)
There may be several XMP profiles available.
Does the motherboard show the possibility of something like XMP profile 2 for 2400 speed?

Memtest should show NO errors.
"ram may be vulnerable to high frequency rowhammer bit flips" is bothersome.
Consider the possibility that your ram has a defect.
Contact g.skil customer support.
Your ram will have a lifetime warranty.

 

[teidybugi]

I run a 2600k at 4.5 with 32GB ram at 1600 with no problems. 16GB before 32 was fine also, me upgrading to 32GB was to do with another problem i had which turned out not a ram issue but none the less thought id try them all together and they all worked.

If 1600MHz is good for me, 1333 for you or whichever speed you had your ram at wouldn't be the problem you're having. Start to look elsewhere i reckon.

Yes, like I said that problem is for another topic, for which I'll have to do more tests to determine what could be the cause of it. But for now I just really want to see if Gskill ram can run at 2400mhz at all. I've already noticed a bit nicer fps in games, the lowest fps are a bit higher and average is slightly better at 2133mhz, than before with mixed ram at lower mhz. But I do get a bit of lag in GTA, but that's not having enough ram.

You said that you used XMP profile 1(2133)
There may be several XMP profiles available.
Does the motherboard show the possibility of something like XMP profile 2 for 2400 speed?

Memtest should show NO errors.
"ram may be vulnerable to high frequency rowhammer bit flips" is bothersome.
Consider the possibility that your ram has a defect.
Contact g.skil customer support.
Your ram will have a lifetime warranty.

I did tried with XMP profile 2 aswell, and it was more stable, but when I've tried to play a game (at the time it was GTA V) I got a graphics driver error, which I haven't got before and I tried the game couple of times and I've always received the driver error. I checked online and someone mention it could be the cause of the XMP profile and since I've just enabled it, I was sure it was the problem. So I don't know how could I make profile 2 to work or even why it gives me the graphics driver error. I guess I could try to write directly to support. However I did posted similar topic (a bit more in detailed, I've tried to be more simple here and explain it as we go) on official forum, but it looks like for ddr3, there's not many people on it.

 

[boju]

Was hoping to save you the hassle somehow if finding out the root cause of your issue but if you reckon there's a difference in ram speed then sure. Ram speed does play a part but not that much, your problem does sound more sincere to a different problem

 

[teidybugi]

Yeah, I got too many problems at once 😛. But that's why I would like get to 2400mhz, to get as much as performance, I know it really won't be much difference if any between 2133mhz and 2400mhz, but at least I want to try it. And in the I would like to get a bit more knowledge about ram, which you guys already gave it to me with helping and giving great suggestions.

 

[geofelt]

I think you should re-examine your objectives.

If your objective is to take a perplexing issue and solve it, keep on working at it.

OTOH, if your objective is to improve performance by going from 2133 to 2400 speed, you are beating a dead horse.
Because higher speed is accompanied by higher cas numbers, the difference in fps in a game is negligible, less than .01% same difference if your speed was 1600.
Read the AnandTech article I linked above.

I would look for better performance buy getting 16gb to work, even at 1600 speed.

 

[teidybugi]

Firstly I would just like to solve it, to get ram working at 2400mhz, I went this far to create this topic and all of those tests. And after that I would try it, like you suggested to get all of 16gb ram working with at least at 1600mhz and check the performance what's better and go on from there. I was sitting idly on this for the last couple of years so I don't mind it even if I beat a dead horse.

 

[geofelt]

OK

Then contact g.skil support.
They know their products best and can offer the most authoritative advice.
You might come out of it with a deficient ram kit that should be replaced.

Research issues with the latest gigabyte bios update.
Look at what was fixed with each level.
Gigabyte forums are a good place to go.
It seems to me that the likely cause is an inability of the gigabyte bios to handle 2400.
You might discover a defect in your motherboard or the ability of the bios to properly overclock the ram to 2400.

 

[teidybugi]

Alright, I'll do what you say. Thanks for the suggestions and I will keep you posted about the progress here.

 

[gskill support]

Test each module individually to see if you can get one module to be stable at DDR3-2400. If both work fine by itself, then we can continue to see why they don't work together.