[SOLVED] Does "auto" overclocking a CPU reduce RAM GHz in general?

joeljoel1947

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Nov 11, 2010
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Hi all,
First time over-clocker, long time PC builder here. I normally just let things run "stock" so as to not ever risk anything.

Got a new decent rig put together a few days ago and started tweaking tonight for fun:

Ryzen 5600x (Overclocked to 4.2GHz)
AMD Radeon 6900 XT Red Devil PowerColor GPU (Overclocked to 2634 MHz)
TUF Gaming B550M Gundam Zaku II Edition MB
32GB PNY Anarchy X (4x8GB) 3.2GHz DDR4 RAM
1000 Watt ROG STRIX Gaming PSU
MUSETEX MESH Micro ATX Case
WD_BLACK 1TB SN750 NVMe for Windows and fast things needed
8TB WD Black 3.5" HDD for main storage
Windows 10

So the BIOS of my MB had a cool "auto overclock" option for the CPU, I hit that and it boosted the base clock of my CPU from 3.7 to 4.2. That was cool. Then I downloaded the AMD Radeon software for my GPU, which also had automagical overclocking, and that went well too.

I then booted back to BIOS and saw that my RAM was now running at 2133 GHz instead of the 3.2 GHz that it is supposed to be. I manually changed it in BIOS to the 3.2 GHz it should be (it was set to "auto" speed in the menu).

Well, my PC did NOT like that. I was sweating bullets as it cycled on and off before it finally went back to a BIOS "safe mode". I tried everything above a second time and same issue. Furthermore in a message at the bottom it said that due to the overclock of the CPU, it adjusts everything else in the BIOS so that the system preforms stable. It said it would reduce RAM speed but that I could ATTEMPT to make it another speed manually if I wanted (and trust me 3.2 GHz it did NOT like!) Obviously putting my RAM up to 3.2 GHZ made it unstable. It got all angry birds at me.....

The questions are:
  1. Is this normal that auto overclocking a CPU auto adjusts RAM speed down?
  2. Is there maybe a BIOS update on my motherboard (I checked and mine is from February 2021) that would help?
  3. Am I better off forgoing the "auto" adjustments and doing manual overrides instead once I study proper overclocking for 3+ months? :)
  4. Is the reduction in RAM speed going to really affect anything in the real world with the above components?
Thanks all, just curious what my issue might be...(if any)...
 
Last edited:
Solution
Hi all,
First time over-clocker, long time PC builder here. I normally just let things run "stock" so as to not ever risk anything.

Got a new decent rig put together a few days ago and started tweaking tonight for fun:

Ryzen 5600x (Overclocked to 4.2GHz)
AMD Radeon 6900 XT Red Devil PowerColor GPU (Overclocked to 2634 MHz)
TUF Gaming B550M Gundam Zaku II Edition MB
32GB PNY Anarchy X (4x8GB) 3.2GHz DDR4 RAM
1000 Watt ROG STRIX Gaming PSU
MUSETEX MESH Micro ATX Case
WD_BLACK 1TB SN750 NVMe for Windows and fast things needed
8TB WD Black 3.5" HDD for main storage
Windows 10

So the BIOS of my MB had a cool "auto overclock" option for the CPU, I hit that and it boosted the base clock of my CPU from 3.7 to 4.2. That was...
Hi all,
First time over-clocker, long time PC builder here. I normally just let things run "stock" so as to not ever risk anything.

Got a new decent rig put together a few days ago and started tweaking tonight for fun:

Ryzen 5600x (Overclocked to 4.2GHz)
AMD Radeon 6900 XT Red Devil PowerColor GPU (Overclocked to 2634 MHz)
TUF Gaming B550M Gundam Zaku II Edition MB
32GB PNY Anarchy X (4x8GB) 3.2GHz DDR4 RAM
1000 Watt ROG STRIX Gaming PSU
MUSETEX MESH Micro ATX Case
WD_BLACK 1TB SN750 NVMe for Windows and fast things needed
8TB WD Black 3.5" HDD for main storage
Windows 10

So the BIOS of my MB had a cool "auto overclock" option for the CPU, I hit that and it boosted the base clock of my CPU from 3.7 to 4.2. That was cool. Then I downloaded the AMD Radeon software for my GPU, which also had automagical overclocking, and that went well too.

I then booted back to BIOS and saw that my RAM was now running at 2133 GHz instead of the 3.2 GHz that it is supposed to be. I manually changed it in BIOS to the 3.2 GHz it should be (it was set to "auto" speed in the menu).

Well, my PC did NOT like that. I was sweating bullets as it cycled on and off before it finally went back to a BIOS "safe mode". I tried everything above a second time and same issue. Furthermore in a message at the bottom it said that due to the overclock of the CPU, it adjusts everything else in the BIOS so that the system preforms stable. It said it would reduce RAM speed but that I could ATTEMPT to make it another speed manually if I wanted (and trust me 3.2 GHz it did NOT like!) Obviously putting my RAM up to 3.2 GHZ made it unstable. It got all angry birds at me.....

The questions are:
  1. Is this normal that auto overclocking a CPU auto adjusts RAM speed down?
  2. Is there maybe a BIOS update on my motherboard (I checked and mine is from February 2021) that would help?
  3. Am I better off forgoing the "auto" adjustments and doing manual overrides instead once I study proper overclocking for 3+ months? :)
  4. Is the reduction in RAM speed going to really affect anything in the real world with the above components?
Thanks all, just curious what my issue might be...(if any)...
  1. No, it's not "normal", overclocking CPU and RAM are not connected in any way.
  2. Yes update BIOS, most of updates are for memory and and AGESA code improvements.
  3. You don't really need to OC that CPU, it can do just fine if you just enable PBO and turbo modes. That auto OC by BIOS is a joke comparing with what you can do by manual OC.
PS.
Give Ryzen Master a try with auto OC, it doesmuch better job and it will still be able to vary frequency as required.
4. just enable XMP for memory. Depending on a program there will be a lot of difference between base speed and max.
 
Solution