[SOLVED] Weird RAM issue on MSI B450 Tomahawk

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

Hello everyone,

I recently helped my mom rebuild her PC I upgraded her PC from an FX-6300 and 8GB of DDR3 RAM to a R7 2700X with 16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 RAM. Me being the nice person I am decided to help her save money so I gave her the CPU and RAM, and she purchased the motherboard and SSD (she already had a video card).

Now here is where my story starts (I'll try to make this as clear and concise as possible). When I updated my MSI B450 Tomahawk BIOS with the R7 2700X and 16GB 3000MHz G.SKILL Aegis still inside, I turned the XMP profile on and it was showing 3000MHz both in the motherboard settings and Windows 10. I updated my BIOS so it would be compatible with the 3000 series Ryzen CPUs.

When I swapped the CPU with a R9 3900X and 32GB 3200MHz G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series, I turned on the XMP profile and it showed 3200MHz in the motherboard settings but in Windows 10 it showed 1600MHz.

I then returned that RAM and bought a 32GB 3600MHz Viper Steel Series and installed it. When I turned on XMP profile it went to a blank screen and wouldn't turn back on, so I had to reset the CMOS, I think the reason why it failed was because the maximum the motherboard can handle is 3466MHz, and me being foolish I thought that because the RAM is 3600MHz the XMP profile would automatically show a profile to OC to 3466MHz, but that wasn't the case. So now even when I run this at stock speed it doesn't show 2666 MHz, it shows 1333MHz. I notice something weird that even when I OC it to 3000MHz it'll show 1500MHz in Windows and when I OC it to 3200MHz it'll show 1600MHz.

I don't understand what's happening, is it a bad BIOS update or something that's sending the wrong information to Windows 10, or is it because on this specific RAM I'm not able to activate the XMP profile so it won't show the proper amount on Windows?

Now fast forward 1 day later, this time I went through both the official supported memory list of the motherboard and from AMD's official website, and I found two different sets of RAM that were listed as supported on both sites. So hopefully this fixes this issue, because if not, I'm wondering if it's a motherboard issue, because I don't want to have to change my motherboard, as I just installed back my CPU, GPU and new SSD inside the case.

If these two new sets of RAM don't change anything do you think I should change the motherboard? Or should I reinstall Windows 10 and see if it reads the full RAM speed. The reason I'm asking is because when I setup my mom's PC with her new motherboard, it's a B450 Aorus M, and when I do the XMP OC to her RAM on that Gigabyte motherboard it shows up as 3000MHz in both motherboard settings and Windows 10. Now the thing is when I had set that I was installing Windows 10 right after I did that, so maybe that was part of something? Also we're both using the same build of Windows 10.

Anyways thanks for reading and please give me your thoughts on this issue, I would really appreciate any info you guys can give me.

p.s. This kind of issue has never happened to me before, whenever I set my RAM frequency in the BIOS it always would show the same amount in Windows and all other benchmark tools.

 

[CountMike]

Hello everyone,

I recently helped my mom rebuild her PC I upgraded her PC from an FX-6300 and 8GB of DDR3 RAM to a R7 2700X with 16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 RAM. Me being the nice person I am decided to help her save money so I gave her the CPU and RAM, and she purchased the motherboard and SSD (she already had a video card).

Now here is where my story starts (I'll try to make this as clear and concise as possible). When I updated my MSI B450 Tomahawk BIOS with the R7 2700X and 16GB 3000MHz G.SKILL Aegis still inside, I turned the XMP profile on and it was showing 3000MHz both in the motherboard settings and Windows 10. I updated my BIOS so it would be compatible with the 3000 series Ryzen CPUs.

When I swapped the CPU with a R9 3900X and 32GB 3200MHz G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series, I turned on the XMP profile and it showed 3200MHz in the motherboard settings but in Windows 10 it showed 1600MHz.

I then returned that RAM and bought a 32GB 3600MHz Viper Steel Series and installed it. When I turned on XMP profile it went to a blank screen and wouldn't turn back on, so I had to reset the CMOS, I think the reason why it failed was because the maximum the motherboard can handle is 3466MHz, and me being foolish I thought that because the RAM is 3600MHz the XMP profile would automatically show a profile to OC to 3466MHz, but that wasn't the case. So now even when I run this at stock speed it doesn't show 2666 MHz, it shows 1333MHz. I notice something weird that even when I OC it to 3000MHz it'll show 1500MHz in Windows and when I OC it to 3200MHz it'll show 1600MHz.

I don't understand what's happening, is it a bad BIOS update or something that's sending the wrong information to Windows 10, or is it because on this specific RAM I'm not able to activate the XMP profile so it won't show the proper amount on Windows?

Now fast forward 1 day later, this time I went through both the official supported memory list of the motherboard and from AMD's official website, and I found two different sets of RAM that were listed as supported on both sites. So hopefully this fixes this issue, because if not, I'm wondering if it's a motherboard issue, because I don't want to have to change my motherboard, as I just installed back my CPU, GPU and new SSD inside the case.

If these two new sets of RAM don't change anything do you think I should change the motherboard? Or should I reinstall Windows 10 and see if it reads the full RAM speed. The reason I'm asking is because when I setup my mom's PC with her new motherboard, it's a B450 Aorus M, and when I do the XMP OC to her RAM on that Gigabyte motherboard it shows up as 3000MHz in both motherboard settings and Windows 10. Now the thing is when I had set that I was installing Windows 10 right after I did that, so maybe that was part of something? Also we're both using the same build of Windows 10.

Anyways thanks for reading and please give me your thoughts on this issue, I would really appreciate any info you guys can give me.

p.s. This kind of issue has never happened to me before, whenever I set my RAM frequency in the BIOS it always would show the same amount in Windows and all other benchmark tools.

First thing, DDR4 is Double Data Rate so 1600 = 3200MHz. depending where you read it.

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

First thing, DDR4 is Double Data Rate so 1600 = 3200MHz. depending where you read it.

Yes but what I don't understand is how does 3000MHz show in my mom's BIOS settings and also in Windows task manager, like it actually matches up so even if I revert it back to 2666MHz, task manager will show the same thing. Even when I had that CPU and RAM installed on my board before it was good, now whenever I set the frequency it shows up weird in task manager and all benchmarking tools.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I don't understand what's happening, is it a bad BIOS update or something that's sending the wrong information to Windows 10, or is it because on this specific RAM I'm not able to activate the XMP profile so it won't show the proper amount on Windows?

How are you checking ram speed in windows 10?
If you're using Task Manager, then it is known to show inaccurate data. Use CPU-Z instead.
Post screenshot from CPU-Z -memory section.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Note - DRAM frequency shown in CPU-Z is actual frequency. Effective frequency is 2x more (because of how Double Data Rate works).

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

How are you checking ram speed in windows 10?
If you're using Task Manager, then it is known to show inaccurate data. Use CPU-Z instead.
Post screenshot from CPU-Z -memory section.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

I used both versions of cpu-z, the regular one and the msi one, they both show the same frequency that task manager is showing which is so weird because you would think that they would atleast show the right frequency rate. I'm wondering if it's just a bug in Windows 10 in one of the recent updates. You think so?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Ignore Task Manager. Consult CPU-Z only.
Take into account actual and effective DRAM frequency.

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

Ignore Task Manager. Consult CPU-Z only.
Take into account actual and effective DRAM frequency.

Yeah the problem is that CPU-Z is showing me the same exact frequency. I don't know what's going on I've never had this issue before and I've used CPU-Z many times before without fail. I wonder what the issue could be

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show the screenshot of CPU-Z?

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

Can you show the screenshot?

I have to head to an appointment, so I'm going to have to sleep now, I will post screenshots when I get back from my appointment.

 

[CountMike]

Yes but what I don't understand is how does 3000MHz show in my mom's BIOS settings and also in Windows task manager, like it actually matches up so even if I revert it back to 2666MHz, task manager will show the same thing. Even when I had that CPU and RAM installed on my board before it was good, now whenever I set the frequency it shows up weird in task manager and all benchmarking tools.

Windows are flaky when it comes to reading memory, and some programs pick it up from there
Please use CPU-Z Memory and SPD tabs that read directly from BIOS.

 

[SkyNetRising]

BTW - SPD info is read from SPD table on ram modules (not from BIOS).

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

Windows are flaky when it comes to reading memory, and some programs pick it up from there
Please use CPU-Z Memory and SPD tabs that read directly from BIOS.

Okay when I get back from my therapy appointment I will post screenshots so you guys can diagnose the issue.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

Can you show the screenshot of CPU-Z?

Here are the screenshots of my mom's PC first, the Gigabyte B450 Aorus M

Motherboard with XMP off:

Here's what Windows 10 show with XMP off (CPU-Z Memory Tab):

Here's what Windows 10 show with XMP off (CPU-Z SPD Tab):

Motherboard with XMP on:

Here's what Windows 10 show with XMP on (CPU-Z Memory Tab):

Here's what Windows 10 show with XMP on (CPU-Z SPD Tab):

Here are the screenshots of my PC, the MSI B450 Tomahawk

Motherboard with XMP off:

Here's what Windows 10 show with XMP off (CPU-Z Memory Tab):

Here's what Windows 10 show with XMP off (CPU-Z SPD Tab):

Motherboard with 3200MHz on:

Here's what Windows 10 show with 3200MHz OC on (CPU-Z Memory Tab):

Here's what Windows 10 show with 3200MHz OC on (CPU-Z SPD Tab):

Please check out these screenshots and let me know what you think.

 

[SkyNetRising]

On Gigabyte B450 Aorus M Task Manager is showing correct values.
On MSI B450 Tomahawk Task Manager is showing incorrect values.

CPU-Z is showing correct values all the time.
Get DRAM frequency from CPU-Z, multiply by 2 and you get correct effective DRAM frequency value.
As I told you before - Task Manager it is known to show inaccurate data. You have just provided clear example for that.

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

On Gigabyte B450 Aorus M Task Manager is showing correct values.
On MSI B450 Tomahawk Task Manager is showing incorrect values.

CPU-Z is showing correct values all the time.
Get DRAM frequency from CPU-Z, multiply by 2 and you get correct effective DRAM frequency value.
As I told you before - Task Manager it is known to show inaccurate data. You have just provided clear example for that.

Yeah I even reinstalled Windows and it looks like you're correct it keeps showing the wrong amount on the MSI board, do you think it's because of a bad BIOS update that's why it's not reading the right values in the task manager or do you think some windows update may have caused that?

So you're basically saying I can rest easy that my RAM is running at the right frequency, is that correct?

 

[SkyNetRising]

So you're basically saying I can rest easy that my RAM is running at the right frequency, is that correct?

Yes - exactly.
Ignore Task Manager reported values.

 

[Lord_Tiger_Fu]

Yes - exactly.
Ignore Task Manager reported values.

Thanks bro, I do have one question to ask, my PC used to work way faster (or should I say more optimized) with my 2700X, is something bottlenecking it, because before I used to use an SSD but I'm now using NVME SSD and figured it would be way faster, which it is but certain things like when I'm on the web browser when I click on a file to download it takes a bit longer than expected, like not in terms of download speed but download startup time. Also some webpages take a while to register that I've clicked something before it loads a page. I don't know if you understand what I'm meaning to say, but it seems as though NVME turns off temporarily when not in heavy usage, and turns back on when downloading something. Is this even a thing?

Please let me know your thoughts on this matter and thanks once again for that RAM advice.

Edit: I'm messing around with the power options in Windows and it seems to be more optimized, so I guess I'll mess around tweak stuff as needed. Thanks for your help and support.

 

[TwitchyTanner]

Thanks bro, I do have one question to ask, my PC used to work way faster (or should I say more optimized) with my 2700X, is something bottlenecking it, because before I used to use an SSD but I'm now using NVME SSD and figured it would be way faster, which it is but certain things like when I'm on the web browser when I click on a file to download it takes a bit longer than expected, like not in terms of download speed but download startup time. Also some webpages take a while to register that I've clicked something before it loads a page. I don't know if you understand what I'm meaning to say, but it seems as though NVME turns off temporarily when not in heavy usage, and turns back on when downloading something. Is this even a thing?

Please let me know your thoughts on this matter and thanks once again for that RAM advice.

Edit: I'm messing around with the power options in Windows and it seems to be more optimized, so I guess I'll mess around tweak stuff as needed. Thanks for your help and support.

Look for specific drivers in regards to your AMD CPU chipset and any NVMe or PCIe drivers in regards to storage.