what is XMP Profiles?

[Lucian28]

hi i recently bought a RipjawsX - F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM
and plug it in my gigabyte ga-f2a75m-hd2 my memory said 1600mhz so i enebled the
"xmp profile 1", and it run @ 2133mhz, but my question is i saw another "xmp profile 2"
what is XMP profiles and why is there 1 & 2 instead of one only??
can anyone explain it to me in a way that it would make sense.. thank you in advance

 

[sincreator]

XMP profiles are for ram that is set higher than what the board would natively support. Say your board says it supports up to 2133mhz ram(OC). That basically means that 1600mhz is probably the default and in order for you to use 2133mhz you will need to overclock. So you flip on a XMP profile and the ram gets auto overclocked to the settings for 2133mhz.

If your ram is only 1600mhz out of the box, the XMP profile for 2133mhz may not work properly for you, and cause a lot of issues. I recommend just running without XMP enabled if your ram is not 2133mhz by default.

 

[sincreator]

XMP profiles are an Intel creation that defines the speed and timings that the memory will run at. You can see what the XMP profiles are with installed RAM by using CPU-Z. Often times XMP1 and XMP2 will only differ in timings to help you quickly adjust for stability.

I run an AMD motherboard, and I have XMP options. Maybe they licensed it out to motherboard makers?

 

[Tradesman1]

XMP is a profile in the DRAMs SPD that provides info to the BIOS to set up the DRAM to run to spec - Profile 1 is the base timings for the spec of the DRAM, Profile 2 is normally what's considered an enthusiast set of timings for slightly better performance i.e. timings a hair tighter or CR (command rate set to 1 instead of the 'normal' 2)...basically it eliminates the need for a user to have to manually set the DRAM up, though it's still up to the programming of the BIOS to be able to implement those settings, which is why you see so many BIOS updates for mobos, most BIOS updates are primarily filled with updates for DRAM timings

 

[Lucian28]

XMP is a profile in the DRAMs SPD that provides info to the BIOS to set up the DRAM to run to spec - Profile 1 is the base timings for the spec of the DRAM, Profile 2 is normally what's considered an enthusiast set of timings for slightly better performance i.e. timings a hair tighter or CR (command rate set to 1 instead of the 'normal' 2)...basically it eliminates the need for a user to have to manually set the DRAM up, though it's still up to the programming of the BIOS to be able to implement those settings, which is why you see so many BIOS updates for mobos, most BIOS updates are primarily filled with updates for DRAM timings

so profile 2 is a much better option?

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd start with Profile 1 and ensure it's stable first, the info in the SPD is simply info, it's up to the BIOS to implement it and the BIOS can't always do it, that's why there are so many BIOS updates, the bulk of them are filled w/ DRAM updates, if it will run (Profile 2) stable, it should offer slightly better performance

 

[Lucian28]

I'd start with Profile 1 and ensure it's stable first, the info in the SPD is simply info, it's up to the BIOS to implement it and the BIOS can't always do it, that's why there are so many BIOS updates, the bulk of them are filled w/ DRAM updates, if it will run (Profile 2) stable, it should offer slightly better performance

ok thanks, by the way is there a way to see the profile settings before i even install or use it??

 

[Tradesman1]

When you first install, it will boot to the mobos default (normally 1333 or 1600), you can then use CPU-Z to take a look (info will be in the SPD tab) there's other apps to look also