Question Overclocking RAM to 3600mhz ?

[rcsverige]

I have Corsair 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600MHz CL18 Vengeance LP but currently is running at 3200mhz. I dont know why I forgot to ever OC the RAM but here we are. I am curious about how simple it is? I have seen some videos but I thought I would ask here as well.

Ryzen 7 5800x3D
ASUS RTX 3060 12gb OC
ASUS B550m-a
Corsair 16gb DDR4 3600 (3200mhz running right now)
1tb Samsung EVO SSD
250 Samsung EVO SSD
RM650x PSU

 

[Lutfij]

What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard? If your ram kit is advertised to go to DDR4-3600Mhz,it's as simple as enabling X.M.P or manually inputting the frequency, timings and votlage in BIOS(D.O.C.P).

 

[rcsverige]

I am on the latest version of BIOS since I recently installed my 5800x3d. My MB is rated to 3200mhz with the option of OC up to higher frequencies. But as I have dived more into the RAM, I am not so sure I would gain that much of a boost by increasing it to 3600 as oppossed to 3200. I think my best option would be just to buy more ram? What do you think?

 

[CountMike]

I am on the latest version of BIOS since I recently installed my 5800x3d. My MB is rated to 3200mhz with the option of OC up to higher frequencies. But as I have dived more into the RAM, I am not so sure I would gain that much of a boost by increasing it to 3600 as oppossed to 3200. I think my best option would be just to buy more ram? What do you think?

Your MB is rated for up to 4866MHz, where did you find 3200MHz limit ? While OC-ing RAM using it's XMP (DOCP with Assus).
https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-b550m-a/techspec/
Ryzen 5000 series memory controller is considered overclocked above 3200MHz. but can go up to 4000MHz+.
3200Mhzis not bad at all, there is little gain to 3600 but even more important for cache memory in x3D CPU. 3600MHz is considered as optimum (performance/$$$) for Ryzen so why not use when you already have easy opportunity ? Just enable DOCP.

 

[rcsverige]

Your MB is rated for up to 4866MHz, where did you find 3200MHz limit ? While OC-ing RAM using it's XMP (DOCP with Assus).
https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-b550m-a/techspec/
Ryzen 5000 series memory controller is considered overclocked above 3200MHz. but can go up to 4000MHz+.
3200Mhzis not bad at all, there is little gain to 3600 but even more important for cache memory in x3D CPU. 3600MHz is considered as optimum (performance/$$$) for Ryzen so why not use when you already have easy opportunity ? Just enable DOCP.

I was talking about what it will go to when I set DOCP. When I did that it automatically set it to 3200mhz. To get outside of that I will have to overclock which my board can do but not automatically. At least from what I know.

 

[CountMike]

I was talking about what it will go to when I set DOCP. When I did that it automatically set it to 3200mhz. To get outside of that I will have to overclock which my board can do but not automatically. At least from what I know.

No. it can't automatically overclock further than XMP because it doesn't have information that XMP provides. That's what XMP does, provides BIOS with information about best settings RAM manufacturer deems best to run at maximum speed. There's much more to it than just frequency.

 

[Misgar]

There may be only one DOCP speed present in the BIOS for your particular RAM, despite there potentially being more than one XMP setting in the SPD chips.

I use AIDA64 to interrogate the memory in my computers and it's surprising how often I find multiple XMP speeds, e.g. DDR4-3200, 3400, 3600, 3800, 4000MT/s, when the BIOS only shows one XMP/DOCP/EXPO profile.

Any overclocking speeds not available as automatic DOCP BIOS profiles will have to be applied manually, a rather tedious process of entering all the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary memory timings for each DIMM in turn.

Download a copy of CPU-Z or a trial copy of AIDA64 and use the program to interrogate the SPD (Serial Presence Detect) chips on your DIMMs. You may be pleasantly surprised to find several overclock profiles faster than 3200MT/s. Whether or not you can get them to work is a different matter.

For a complete set of timings in your DIMMs, download a copy of the datasheet from the manufacturers web site. It's usually enough to get the Primary and Secondary timings correct in the BIOS, when making manual changes.

Some motherboards are better than others and present multiple RAM overclocking options making tweaking easy. Others take a simplistic approach and only offer one overclocking profile. I rarely bother trying to push RAM faster than the XMP/DOCP/EXPO profile(s) available in the BIOS. It's too much hard work for very little gain in some apps.

I'd advise running MemTest86+ for at least one full pass after overclocking RAM, to check stability. Even one error in MemTest means you need to change a value somewhere, e.g. loosen CL (CAS) to reduce the chance of crashes.

The CPU-Z screenshot below shows values for XMP-4800, XMP-5600 and XMP-6000 in DDR5 RAM, plus the default (non XMP) JEDEC speed of DDR5-4800 with "looser" timings. Obviously the speeds in your DDR4 RAM will be lower.

 

[geofelt]

Ryzen is tightly tied to ram for performance.
But, I suspect that increasing speed to 3600 may not get you much,
This older article suggest it would not do much:

Don't waste money chasing RAM speed for gaming on AMD or Intel

Revisiting the question that every gamer considers when building a new gaming system: does RAM speed matter?

www.pcgamer.com

Today, we are starting to see 32gb as a recommended ram size in some games.
But, unless you are multitasking while gaming 16gb should be sufficient.