Question XMP instability with DDR5 in an MSI Z690-A. Possible to stabilize?

[awesome_dood_123]

I recently finished building a PC with an MSI Z690-A DDR5 (non-wifi) MOBO and installed 4 sticks of Corsair Vengeance 5600mhz DDR5 CL36 (64 GB total, CMK32GX5M2B5600C36)

MSI states that it is compatible up to speeds of 6400mhz DDR5 when overclocked. So I enabled XMP for 5600, and my PC got stuck in a boot loop. MSI fortunately has protections against this and booted back into the BIOS while disabling XMP. I flashed my BIOS with the most up-to-date version available for my specific MOBO and reinstated my XMP. The system was stable while idle at 5600mhz until I started to play a few games. Some took longer than others but all of them ended up crashing within minutes of launch. I disabled XMP and no more crashes.

Is it possible at the current time with my specific board and memory sticks to have a stable experience gaming while either enabling XMP or manually overclocking my RAM to reach 5600mhz speeds? All 4 sticks are installed and I haven't tested 2 sticks in 1/3 or 2/4 just yet.

PSU: Corsair HX1200 80 Plus Platinum
CPU: i9-12900K
GPU: RTX 3090 Ti

 

[SkyNetRising]

Usually on dual channel boards it is harder to achieve ram overclock with 4 ram modules (rather than with 2 modules).
Load XMP and then lower ram frequency to 5400, 5200, 5000mhz until stability is reached.

Or try with 2 modules instead and XMP enabled.

 

[geofelt]

You have mismatched ram.
Two kits of 32gb.
The same part number does not constitute a match.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.

Contact Corsair support ram guys. They might be able to help.
OTOH, you are not losing significant performance running at a lesser speed.
To check stability,
Run memtest86 or memtest86+
They boot from a usb stick and do not use windows.
You can download them here:

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

MemTest86 is the original self booting memory testing software for x86 and ARM computers. Supporting both BIOS and UEFI, with options to boot from USB.

www.memtest86.com

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Memtest86+ is an advanced, free, open-source, stand-alone memory tester for 32- and 64-bit computers (UEFI & BIOS supported)

www.memtest.org

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

Running several more passes will sometimes uncover an issue, but it takes more time.

 

[Endre]

I recently finished building a PC with an MSI Z690-A DDR5 (non-wifi) MOBO and installed 4 sticks of Corsair Vengeance 5600mhz DDR5 CL36 (64 GB total, CMK32GX5M2B5600C36)

MSI states that it is compatible up to speeds of 6400mhz DDR5 when overclocked. So I enabled XMP for 5600, and my PC got stuck in a boot loop. MSI fortunately has protections against this and booted back into the BIOS while disabling XMP. I flashed my BIOS with the most up-to-date version available for my specific MOBO and reinstated my XMP. The system was stable while idle at 5600mhz until I started to play a few games. Some took longer than others but all of them ended up crashing within minutes of launch. I disabled XMP and no more crashes.

Is it possible at the current time with my specific board and memory sticks to have a stable experience gaming while either enabling XMP or manually overclocking my RAM to reach 5600mhz speeds? All 4 sticks are installed and I haven't tested 2 sticks in 1/3 or 2/4 just yet.

PSU: Corsair HX1200 80 Plus Platinum
CPU: i9-12900K
GPU: RTX 3090 Ti

Hello!

Unfortunately, this is a well known issue with DDR5.
You have 2 options:

1. Use only 2 memory modules inserted in slots 2 & 4.
2. Use all modules at JEDEC (default) speed. No XMP.