[SOLVED] MSI Z97 Gaming 5; i5-4690K; G.Skill Trident X (2400Mhz/C10) 4GB x 4 compatibility issue

paliastomi

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Feb 6, 2021
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M/B: MSI Z97 Gaming 5
CPU: i5-4690K at 4.2 Ghz
RAM: G.Skill Trident X 4GB (2400Mhz) x 4 running at 1600 Mhz
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB
HDD: WD Green 1TB

CPU-Z Report:

The issue i came upon is that i purchased a kit of G.Skill Trident X 4GB x 2 on top of the 2 i had before which were running on XMP profile at 2400Mhz/1.65V.
When I booted all 4 sticks with XMP profile at 2400Mhz the pc rebooted.
after 3 tries i set it at auto which set the speed at 1600Mhz
Is there a way for me to run all 4 sticks at 2400Mhz on this M/B and CPU and if not what is the best option i can go with?
CPU
M/B
https://ibb.co/NFsD4gP Memory
https://ibb.co/pjhfdpk Slot #1
https://ibb.co/zH2C20G Slot #2
https://ibb.co/bJ7YdX5 Slot #3
https://ibb.co/fQ9QNqz Slot #4
GPU
 
Last edited:
Solution
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.

Your motherboard should allow you to increase the ram voltage higher than the 1.65v spec.
Doing this often compensates for problems of mismatched ram.

If no joy, do not worry.
Intel performance does not much depend on fast ram.

Here is an older study:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.

Your motherboard should allow you to increase the ram voltage higher than the 1.65v spec.
Doing this often compensates for problems of mismatched ram.

If no joy, do not worry.
Intel performance does not much depend on fast ram.

Here is an older study:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell
 
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Solution
M/B: MSI Z97 Gaming 5
CPU: i5-4690K at 4.2 Ghz
RAM: G.Skill Trident X 4GB (2400Mhz) x 4 running at 1600 Mhz
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB
HDD: WD Green 1TB

CPU-Z Report:

The issue i came upon is that i purchased a kit of G.Skill Trident X 4GB x 2 on top of the 2 i had before which were running on XMP profile at 2400Mhz/1.65V.
When I booted all 4 sticks with XMP profile at 2400Mhz the pc rebooted.
after 3 tries i set it at auto which set the speed at 1600Mhz
Is there a way for me to run all 4 sticks at 2400Mhz on this M/B and CPU and if not what is the best option i can go with?
CPU
M/B
https://ibb.co/NFsD4gP Memory
https://ibb.co/pjhfdpk Slot #1
https://ibb.co/zH2C20G Slot #2
https://ibb.co/bJ7YdX5 Slot #3
https://ibb.co/fQ9QNqz Slot #4
GPU
The kits were designed to run XMP as a 2x4GB kit. You need to loosen the timings to get the same speed with 4 modules, but it may not even work. You are better off manually dropping the speed to 2133 and adjusting the ram settings to the advertised spec to see if all 4 modules will work together. You can then try increasing the speed while testing with memtest86 each time you increase, but there isn't much point.

From my own testing on an i7 2600K and i7 4770S, going from 2x8GB 1600 CL9 to 2x8GB 2133 CL10, I saw at most a 5-7 fps improvement on either system, so you are unlikely to even notice the fps loss at 2133 from 2400.
 
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Zerk2012

Titan
Ambassador
M/B: MSI Z97 Gaming 5
CPU: i5-4690K at 4.2 Ghz
RAM: G.Skill Trident X 4GB (2400Mhz) x 4 running at 1600 Mhz
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB
HDD: WD Green 1TB

CPU-Z Report:

The issue i came upon is that i purchased a kit of G.Skill Trident X 4GB x 2 on top of the 2 i had before which were running on XMP profile at 2400Mhz/1.65V.
When I booted all 4 sticks with XMP profile at 2400Mhz the pc rebooted.
after 3 tries i set it at auto which set the speed at 1600Mhz
Is there a way for me to run all 4 sticks at 2400Mhz on this M/B and CPU and if not what is the best option i can go with?
CPU
M/B
https://ibb.co/NFsD4gP Memory
https://ibb.co/pjhfdpk Slot #1
https://ibb.co/zH2C20G Slot #2
https://ibb.co/bJ7YdX5 Slot #3
https://ibb.co/fQ9QNqz Slot #4
GPU
Use the same XMP settings but change the speed to 2133 instead of 2400 and try it again.
 
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paliastomi

Prominent
Feb 6, 2021
6
0
510
Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.

Your motherboard should allow you to increase the ram voltage higher than the 1.65v spec.
Doing this often compensates for problems of mismatched ram.

If no joy, do not worry.
Intel performance does not much depend on fast ram.

Here is an older study:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

Thank you for the reply, i am going to increase 1.65v spec to a bit higher and post an update on how it goes
 

paliastomi

Prominent
Feb 6, 2021
6
0
510
The kits were designed to run XMP as a 2x4GB kit. You need to loosen the timings to get the same speed with 4 modules, but it may not even work. You are better off manually dropping the speed to 2133 and adjusting the ram settings to the advertised spec to see if all 4 modules will work together. You can then try increasing the speed while testing with memtest86 each time you increase, but there isn't much point.

From my own testing on an i7 2600K and i7 4770S, going from 2x8GB 1600 CL9 to 2x8GB 2133 CL10, I saw at most a 5-7 fps improvement on either system, so you are unlikely to even notice the fps loss at 2133 from 2400.

I was not aware, i just downloaded memtest, will update
 
Thank you for the reply, i am going to increase 1.65v spec to a bit higher and post an update on how it goes
I would not push the ram past 1.65v, because that is already very high for DDR3. Just drop the speed to 2133 CL10 and you shouldn't need more than 1.6v. The max voltage you might need with your 4 modules at 2133 CL10, would be 1.65v. The XMP spec for your 2x4GB kits is 1.65v at 2400 CL10.
 

paliastomi

Prominent
Feb 6, 2021
6
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510
Update: I enabled X.M.P Profile 1, set the frequency to 2133Mhz at 1.65V and it's been running stable for past 30 minutes, will update if any issues occur, looks promising tho
 

paliastomi

Prominent
Feb 6, 2021
6
0
510
Thanks to geofelt's answer and a bit of research I managed to do it, I found a review for this memory TridentX 16GB (4 x 4GB) Kit on Newegg which gave me the proper voltage, all i had to do was manually raise the DRAM voltage from 1.65V to 1.75V.
I did this by enabling Memory Try It! option in my BIOS with CL10 Performance at 2400Mhz, changed Dram voltage from 1.65V to 1.75V (X.M.P Disabled) saved settings and booted, since the boot it has been working without any complications or issues.
At first i was afraid that i might break something but all that happened was Windows didn't boot when something was not right and in the end i came out very satisfied!
Many Thanks to everyone and geofelt especially!
 
Last edited:
Update: with a bit fo research I managed to do it, I found a review for this memory TridentX 16GB (4 x 4GB) Kit on Newegg which gave me the proper solution, all i had to do was manually raise the DRAM voltage from 1.65V to 1.75V.
I did this by enabling Memory Try It! option in my BIOS with CL10 Performance at 2400Mhz, changed Dram voltage from 1.65V to 1.75V (X.M.P Disabled) saved settings and booted, since the boot it has been working without any complications or issues.
Many Thanks to everyone!
Running more than 1.65v daily could degrade the memory controller. Higher voltage is fine if only running the system say a few hours a day, but it's still going to possibly kill the memory controller over time. Seriously, there is no good reason to run higher than 1.65v just to get 2400, when everything you will be doing on the system will only be 2-3% faster at most.

You are running an old system, which may mean you don't have the money available right now for a new system, so does it make sense to potentially kill your ram just for a tiny boost that you are very unlikely to notice? 2133 CL10 1.60-1.65v should be all you need and I'm recommend you not push it harder. Though of course it's your hardware, so you can do what you want with it.