[SOLVED] THREE different memory readings? Which do I believe?

[Mugsy]

I have an ASUS Motherboard with Ryzen 7 5800X processor and two 8GB sticks of of G.Skill DDR4-3600 memory. My performance is lackluster.

I recently upgraded from a Ryzen 3 3100 and all my readings were perfect, but after upgrading to the 5800X, I'm getting wonky Memory Frequency readings and don't know what to believe.

In the bios "Advanced Mode", it detects my memory correctly as DDR4-3600:

Yet, in "EZ Mode", it says my memory slots are detecting only "2133MHz":

And in Windows (Win11), "CPU-Z" reports my memory is running at a mere 1800MHz 😵:

I don't know what to believe. This is the SAME motherboard and SAME memory that correctly reported my memory as "DDR4-3600" for two years before the CPU upgrade. I'm running everything at stock speed with the stock profile.

Does anyone know what's going on? How do I get BIOS (UEFI) to correctly recognize my DRAM speed?

TIA

 

[Lafong]

You say "performance is lackluster".

Performance doing what?

Was it ever better than it is now with the current CPU and RAM?

 

[Mugsy]

Thx for the reply.

"Lackluster" as in benchmarks coming in well below Community Average. My own testing (with every background app disabled) shows the performance of my 5800X to be only "2.1x" that of my old 3100 (a 5600G upgrade I did for a friend showed better results.) Compared to the CPU benchmarks of other users, I'm well below average.

I suspect my sub-par results are due to DRAM timing issues, so I went into the UEFI bios to check and that's when I noticed all of the conflicting DRAM speed reports. I can't tweak my DRAM timing if I don't know what values to believe.

This is a recent upgrade (only around 3 weeks), so I haven't had it long enough to have ever had "better" results. (But as noted, same CPU & DRAM as before and my readings were always fine.)

I'm stumped.

 

[kerberos_20]

hi, bios is showing it correctly (first picture)
second picture shows you SPD clock, which is default frequency when you disable XMP
third picture is also correct, as real frequency is 1800MHz for DDR4-3600

 

[Lafong]

I don't know much about AMD, but I assume you are referring to Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 7 5800X.

The Passmark benchmark of those 2 shows that the latter has a 2.43x advantage over the former, but only a 1.56x advantage in single thread. That may or may not affect your thinking.

I don't know what "Community Average" is.

Can't help you on the RAM discrepancy.

 

[Satan-IR]

Have you enabled XMP after changing the CPU? Also check if the RAM voltage is set to 1.35V. When you enable the DOCP profile it shoudl do that automatically and it looks like it did here too. You have 3603 - timings - 1.35V.

Did the BIOS show DRAM statu at 3600 before? Maybe it's because the two CPU memory controllers are a bit different?

Updating to latest BIOS version might not be a bad idea if not already done. Also you can try resetting the CMOS and enabling the XMP/DOCP after that and see if it fixes that.

Also that CPU-Z shows 1800Mhz instead of 3600Mhz is normal. It's dual data rate so you have to multiplay that by 2. CPU-Z actually showing your RAM is runnin at 3600Mhz and in dual channel.

 

[Mugsy]

hi, bios is showing it correctly (first picture)
second picture shows you SPD clock, which is default frequency when you disable XMP
third picture is also correct, as real frequency is 1800MHz for DDR4-3600

Thx for the reply. I'm not entirely clear on the differences but I'll take your word for it.

Not that this is an AMD system and "XMP" is Intel. AMD systems use "DOCP" (which is enabled.)

 

[kerberos_20]

only asus uses d.o.c.p. 😛

 

[Mugsy]

Did the BIOS show DRAM statu at 3600 before? Maybe it's because the two CPU memory controllers are a bit different?

Updating to latest BIOS version might not be a bad idea if not already done. Also you can try resetting the CMOS and enabling the XMP/DOCP after that and see if it fixes that.

Also that CPU-Z shows 1800Mhz instead of 3600Mhz is normal. It's dual data rate so you have to multiplay that by 2. CPU-Z actually showing your RAM is runnin at 3600Mhz and in dual channel.

Thx for the reply. Yes, bios did indeed previously report my DRAM correctly as being DDR4-3600, so you can understand my confusion when it now reports it as DDR4-2133.

And thx for clarification the "1800MHz". Somewhere else, I just saw 1800MHz is the "FCLK" reading (vs Bus speed), but does that mean there's 2x multiplier I failed to set somewhere, or is it supposed to be 1/2 the CPU speed?

So the biggest mystery is the misreported DRAM speed and whether or not it's undermining my performance.

TIA

 

[Mugsy]

only asus uses d.o.c.p. 😛

Either way, it's enabled.

 

[kerberos_20]

ddr sends data on raising and falling edge of electric wave, so basicly it means frequency is 1800mhz, but it can run two commands per one clock, which doubles bendwith and work as 3600mhz (ddr - double data rate)
technically its ddr4-3600 ( no mhz) or 3600 MTs....but thanks to marketing noobs we got MHz there...bioses before used to report real frequency, which just added to confusion, so it reports effective speed instead
well in your case it runs as it should

 

[Satan-IR]

Thx for the reply. Yes, bios did indeed previously report my DRAM correctly as being DDR4-3600, so you can understand my confusion when it now reports it as DDR4-2133.

And thx for clarification the "1800MHz". Somewhere else, I just saw 1800MHz is the "FCLK" reading (vs Bus speed), but does that mean there's 2x multiplier I failed to set somewhere, or is it supposed to be 1/2 the CPU speed?

So the biggest mystery is the misreported DRAM speed and whether or not it's undermining my performance.

TIA

You don't have anything to worry about. You're system and RAM is working as it should and as advertised.

 

[Bob.B]

Thx for the reply. Yes, bios did indeed previously report my DRAM correctly as being DDR4-3600, so you can understand my confusion when it now reports it as DDR4-2133.

And thx for clarification the "1800MHz". Somewhere else, I just saw 1800MHz is the "FCLK" reading (vs Bus speed), but does that mean there's 2x multiplier I failed to set somewhere, or is it supposed to be 1/2 the CPU speed?

So the biggest mystery is the misreported DRAM speed and whether or not it's undermining my performance.

TIA

Download this.
PC Benchmark

Reboot and wait a few mins then run UBM with the browser closed.
Post a LINK to the results page.

 

[Karadjgne]

DDR4. Means Dual Data Rate 4th iteration. Ram typically has 4 reported speeds, default data rate, default dual data rate, xmp data rate and xmp dual data rate.

Default data speed is 1066MHz. If running cpu-z with a stock setting, this is what you'd see.
Default Dual data speed is 2133MHz. Which is exactly the same speed as 1066MHz, read as doubled. As in Dual data.

XMP data speed is 1800MHz. As in cpu-z or windows etc. XMP Dual data speed is 3600MHz.

Depending on whether the reporting software is reporting Data Rate or Dual Data Rate, 1800MHz and 3600MHz are exactly the same thing, there's No discrepancy, your ram is running exactly as it should.

Fclock is part of the Infinity Fabric used inside the cpu to communicate between cores and memory controller etc. The other parts being Mclock and Uclock. Fclock uses the Data Rate of the ram as a base for transmission speeds, maintaining a 1:1 ratio with the memory controller for better efficiency.

There's exactly nothing wrong, not from what you've posted.

 

[Vic 40]

Saw in one picture that your bios is version 3602 which is from 2021/03/12 , the last non beta one is,

Version 4021 from 2021/08/17

would be good to update that. You will need to enable DOCP again after that.

 

[Mugsy]

Post a LINK to the results page.

Thx. After closing all running apps (including in the tray), my results are decent (56%)... but my old video card (970GTX) probably skews my rating.

So hopefully, the odd "DDR4-2133" bios reading is an anomaly and not affecting my performance.

 

[Bob.B]

Thx. After closing all running apps (including in the tray), my results are decent (56%)... but my old video card (970GTX) probably skews my rating.

So hopefully, the odd "DDR4-2133" bios reading is an anomaly and not affecting my performance.

UBM is showing the ram running at 3600.

You might want to check the mobo site for the proper bios and chipset driver.

That's quite a mishmash of storage devices connected are you sure you need all that stuff?

 

[helper800]

The RAM will show below the XMP speed profile as the base effective frequency for the RAM which is 2133 mghz, which is accurate. That is not a discrepancy. 1800 mghz reported in CPU-z is the un doubled data rate which is technically correct. DDR stands for Double Data Rate. So the XMP profile shows the effective data rate rather than the undoubled data rate.

 

[Mugsy]

Thx. I'm quite certain the BIOS never reported the ram as "2133" prior to upgrading my CPU b/c I would have noticed, though I must admit I can't confirm it.

 

[kerberos_20]

Thx. I'm quite certain the BIOS never reported the ram as "2133" prior to upgrading my CPU b/c I would have noticed, though I must admit I can't confirm it.

that 2133 is hard coded on your ram modules, you just never noticed it
when you open CPU-z and switch to SPD tab, it will tell you same story
here some random example

at top you will see same stuff your bios shows, in this case DDR4-2132 (1066MHz), in timings table you can see XMP -3596 profile with 1798MHz
so those sticks can be clocked anywhere in between 2133-3600
if you disable XMP, ram would run at its lowest speed, from there you can do manual overclock or enable XMP profile to reach its rated clocks

 

[Mugsy]

That's quite a mishmash of storage devices connected are you sure you need all that stuff?

The 2TB HDD is mostly just data. Anything that requires speed is on an SDD, and Win11 boots from an nvme.

2 of the 4 USB drives are empty. None of them should have any impact on performance (though for some unexplained reason, my 128GB Samsung USB3 flash drive runs slower in a USB3 port than in a USB2 port. I don't have another USB3 drive to test to know if the problem is the drive or my computer. 🙁

 

[Bob.B]

The 2TB HDD is mostly just data. Anything that requires speed is on an SDD, and Win11 boots from an nvme.

2 of the 4 USB drives are empty. None of them should have any impact on performance (though for some unexplained reason, my 128GB Samsung USB3 flash drive runs slower in a USB3 port than in a USB2 port. I don't have another USB3 drive to test to know if the problem is the drive or my computer. 🙁

Having unneeded stuff connected is asking for trouble.
Your call.

 

[Karadjgne]

The drives are still accessed every time windows goes looking for a file, indexing etc. You also use system resources to acknowledge the drives, maintain ports etc. It can have a minor impact on the pc.

USB flash drives are not created equal. Many of the really cheap drives use controllers more comfortable using USB2 and cannot flow the full USB3 bandwidth or are in fact a USB2 drive intentionally labeled as USB3. Many times there's fine print that says USB3 compatible, way down on the bottom where nobody bothers to read.