Question RAM is running faster than should be possible?

[Poppertop]

Hi all. I thought I did enough research before buying my RAM, but now that I’ve got it installed, I’m very confused. I have an MSI B450-A PRO MAX motherboard and a Ryzen 5 3600XT CPU. When buying new RAM, I found that I could get 3600 MHz sticks for the same price as 3200 MHz sticks. I wasn’t sure if this would work because the CPU and MB both say on the manufacturers’ websites that they support 3200 MHz (that’s the max for the CPU and the MB lists 3466 and 3733 but not specifically 3600). From what I read, it should automatically downclock to whatever is the fastest that can be used right? But both Windows and CPUZ are showing 3600 MHz. I could only achieve this with A-XMP because it defaults to 2133 MHz. What did I misunderstand? Or are the values being reported by Windows and CPUZ not technically correct? Is my CPU overclocking to compensate? The RAM is G.Skill Ripjaw V 2x8 GB 3600 MHz in slots 2 and 4.


Next question depending on the answer to the first one. Should I reduce the frequency to 3200 MHz? If so, would I need to adjust timings and voltage or would it be fine to just change the frequency? If my components are not meant to handle 3600 MHz and are being forced to by A-XMP, I don’t want to create unnecessary heat for no benefit (especially with a stock CPU cooler). I haven’t noticed any instability yet but honestly I’ve been scared to run it because I don’t want to damage my components or corrupt any files, so not much testing has taken place. If I need to, I can just get the 3200 MHz sticks instead.

Also (pretty sure this is irrelevant) my GPU is Nvidia RTX 3070

 

[Gam3r01]

AMD only claims speeds up to 3200, so 3600 is technically an overclock, hence the lack of specs listed.
That said, if your RAM is running at 3600 with nothing special done (just XMP) then there is no need to worry.
Just run the system as is, everything is normal.