MSI A88X-G43 issue with 2133 mhz Ram

[ethereal essence]

Hey guys building a system for the wife and I'm running into some weird issues here. First, system specs

CPU: AMD A10 7850k (stock clocks)
Ram: GSkill Ares 2133 mhz ram (2x4GB)
Mobo: MSI A88X-G43

MSI's website claims support for 2133 mhz natively, and the A10 supports it native as well. I have XMP enabled and tried both profiles.

so here's whats going on. I'm trying to get the ram stable at 2133 mhz and well, games keep crashing, artifacts ect. At first I thought it was bad ram but when I clock the ram at 1866 mhz, it is fine. I noticed in my troubleshooting last night that my NB is clocked at 1800 mhz. I know that is my problem right there but I also noticed that the bios was version 3.3 (and support for kaveri was added in 3.4). I updated the bios to 3.5.

The system is nowhere near as unstable as it was before the update but I'm still having problems with games crashing. CPUz still shows the northbridge at 1800 mhz. I don't have much experience overclocking but I'd appreciate any help I can get. Thanks guys.

 

[Calvin7]

trying to get the ram stable at 2133 mhz - What does that mean?

You don't list your RAM part number. This RAM requires higher than stock 1.5v.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231653

The motherboard features Intel Extreme Memory Profiles (XMP) for memory. It is [Disabled] by default.
Can you show where you found this information,"MSI's website claims support for 2133 mhz natively"?

 

[ethereal essence]

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/A88XG43.html#/?div=Detail

states that it supports 2133mhz ram and doesn't mention requiring an overclock.

link to ram:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231653

and it is set for 1.6v in bios

and what I mean is, getting my system stable with my ram set to 2133 mhz. Every game crashed after about 10-30 mins. Every game, every time. After I dropped my ram speed to 1866 mhz, it ran just fine.

I enabled XMP. I tried both profiles to the same effect. After updating my bios the problems was less severe but still occurred. Also the ram passed Memtest at lower speeds.

 

[Calvin7]

Games crashing may be related to using too high a setting for the APU graphics. AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta driver uses AMD Mantle which may be worthwhile trying.

If the memory shows errors at 2133MHz in Memtest86+ then I would have the kit replaced under warranty.
http://www.memtest.org/

 

[ethereal essence]

I'll re-run some tests but at the same exact settings in game, with the ram clocked at 1866 mhz, the games run flawlessly (although at lower framerates obviously) so it isn't the settings. What makes me think that it is the motherboard is the north bridge clock speed, which by my understanding, would need to be clocked at the same speed as my ram to ensure stability.

I don't have much overclocking experience, so I'm hesitant to overclock the northbridge. I may just keep it at 1866 mhz, but it would be nice to get the performance boost that 2133 mhz would offer.

thanks for the help though.

 

[lawrencewoodman]

I was going to get this motherboard and cpu combination, but have noticed a few people struggling with it and 2133Mhz memory. When I look at the supported memory list, I can see that the maximum memory supported on the list is 1866Mhz. This is making me change my mind, which is a shame as otherwise it looks like a good value for money board.