Motherboard recommendations. Stay with DDR4 or go to DDR 5?
- Thread starter Megaman
- Start date
Megaman
Well-known member
Ok so I found some time to do some research (and play games, currently testing this system with XMP off to see if I run into problems) many people are coming across BSOds and black screens , games crashing etc with XMP and DDR4.
As mentioned last time my memory is not in the QVL list for this strix board. Looking at the g skill website it also shows these sticks are not on the QVL list for the strix board.
https://www.gskill.com/qvl/165/166/1536653463/F4-3200C14D-16GTZR-Qvl
Is this likely to be implemented with a newer BIOS or have I simply gone with a board that won’t support these sticks at their full speeds? I’m surprised these are not on the QVL but the 3600mhz sticks and others, are.
Personally, I’d rather the board manage my voltages with the sticks rather than me playing around with them.
As mentioned last time my memory is not in the QVL list for this strix board. Looking at the g skill website it also shows these sticks are not on the QVL list for the strix board.
https://www.gskill.com/qvl/165/166/1536653463/F4-3200C14D-16GTZR-Qvl
Is this likely to be implemented with a newer BIOS or have I simply gone with a board that won’t support these sticks at their full speeds? I’m surprised these are not on the QVL but the 3600mhz sticks and others, are.
Personally, I’d rather the board manage my voltages with the sticks rather than me playing around with them.
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Most people are having to manually tweak to get their sticks running. It's a symptom of the new memory controller and the death of Ring Bus.
IMO, just play with the voltages. You don't need to run stress tests as we know the memory is stable, so you just test it with games. From what you've said, it's the IMC acting up, and the IMC on the 12700K seems to be quite weak compared to the 12900K - just poor binned memory controllers it seems.
I would set your DRAM voltage to 1.36v (because some of the boards are undervolting just a hair, so with 1.36 you'll get 1.35 effective), and then start messing with the CPU System Agent voltage. I suggest trying 1.25v. This is a very safe voltage, no need to worry, and you won't see a difference in temps or power. You can go up to 1.4v for 24/7 daily, but I can't imagine 3200CL14 2x16gb sticks requiring more than 1.3v MAX even on the worst binned IMC.
If the SA voltage alone does not correct the issue, then it's time to look at the CPU itself - set voltage mode to Offset, and then give it a +050 or +100mv offset and see if that helps.
You moved to a very new architecture, on a new platform, on the bleeding edge of hardware -- there will be growing pains, and this is one of them. If you aren't willing to tweak manually, then I'm not sure buying the newest hardware on the market is a particularly good idea. I'm not saying you're incapable or that you're complaining yourself, but I've seen a lot of people bitchng and throwing tirades about XMP not working correctly or crashing, and then blaming Intel or ASUS or GSkill etc - in my opinion that's just not logical. I can't run XMP on my 4000CL16 sticks, I had to manually tweak to get 3866 stable as 4000 is too much for the crap IMC on my 12700K. I will try again when I get back now that BIOS' are far more stable, but yeah.
What BIOS is your board on? When I got my TUF, the stock BIOS was atrocious and nothing worked. The second I flashed to the first beta BIOS, things were vastly better. I can send you links to the most up-to-date BIOS, beyond what is listed on the ASUS website. I get them from Shamino, one of the main BIOS writers for ASUS.
IMO, just play with the voltages. You don't need to run stress tests as we know the memory is stable, so you just test it with games. From what you've said, it's the IMC acting up, and the IMC on the 12700K seems to be quite weak compared to the 12900K - just poor binned memory controllers it seems.
I would set your DRAM voltage to 1.36v (because some of the boards are undervolting just a hair, so with 1.36 you'll get 1.35 effective), and then start messing with the CPU System Agent voltage. I suggest trying 1.25v. This is a very safe voltage, no need to worry, and you won't see a difference in temps or power. You can go up to 1.4v for 24/7 daily, but I can't imagine 3200CL14 2x16gb sticks requiring more than 1.3v MAX even on the worst binned IMC.
If the SA voltage alone does not correct the issue, then it's time to look at the CPU itself - set voltage mode to Offset, and then give it a +050 or +100mv offset and see if that helps.
You moved to a very new architecture, on a new platform, on the bleeding edge of hardware -- there will be growing pains, and this is one of them. If you aren't willing to tweak manually, then I'm not sure buying the newest hardware on the market is a particularly good idea. I'm not saying you're incapable or that you're complaining yourself, but I've seen a lot of people bitchng and throwing tirades about XMP not working correctly or crashing, and then blaming Intel or ASUS or GSkill etc - in my opinion that's just not logical. I can't run XMP on my 4000CL16 sticks, I had to manually tweak to get 3866 stable as 4000 is too much for the crap IMC on my 12700K. I will try again when I get back now that BIOS' are far more stable, but yeah.
What BIOS is your board on? When I got my TUF, the stock BIOS was atrocious and nothing worked. The second I flashed to the first beta BIOS, things were vastly better. I can send you links to the most up-to-date BIOS, beyond what is listed on the ASUS website. I get them from Shamino, one of the main BIOS writers for ASUS.
Megaman
Well-known member
EDIT: for clarity, I’m running 2x8GB sticks not 2X16GB.
I’m on the latest, 0901 from the ASUS site.
I hear ya on the initial BIOS releases. Many couldn’t boot into windows and were getting BSODs, black screens, fail to post etc…
If I have to bump voltages to get things working than I’ll do that. Otherwise I can enable XMP and reduce the RAM speeds if **** doesn’t go well. Ideally I’d like to run the full speed so hopefully a small SA/DRAM voltage bump is all it needs.
Yeah send me a link to those BIOs I may have a play around.
I’m on the latest, 0901 from the ASUS site.
I hear ya on the initial BIOS releases. Many couldn’t boot into windows and were getting BSODs, black screens, fail to post etc…
If I have to bump voltages to get things working than I’ll do that. Otherwise I can enable XMP and reduce the RAM speeds if **** doesn’t go well. Ideally I’d like to run the full speed so hopefully a small SA/DRAM voltage bump is all it needs.
Yeah send me a link to those BIOs I may have a play around.
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Megaman
Well-known member
OK so I have had no crashes at all with XMP disabled, safe to say it was that now.
Looking at my motherboard manual for memory compatibility the 3200 and below don't have "OC" next to them which I would assume means no XMP to be supported.
Is this likely to change with a BIOS update? Shall I hold off for one or should I just get a new 16GB kit?
Looking at my motherboard manual for memory compatibility the 3200 and below don't have "OC" next to them which I would assume means no XMP to be supported.
Is this likely to change with a BIOS update? Shall I hold off for one or should I just get a new 16GB kit?
1 don’t buy a 16 GB kit. You need 32 GB for smooth operation these days. Trust me I tried with 16 GB and now with 32 GB, there is a real difference.
It seems to me you can always manually clock your ram to whatever without XMP. The QVL on all Z690 boards is pretty bad. I see most G Skill kits with tight timings being missed on both TUF and Strix A D4 motherboards. You should just try with manual non XMP settings and save it as a profile and hopefully you should be fine.
Otherwise get the cheapest 32 GB kit on the QVL list that is available. Preferably C16 or less as Intel is actually sensitive to C14/C16 unlike AMD. I would go for 3600/3800 as you can still run gear 1.
It seems to me you can always manually clock your ram to whatever without XMP. The QVL on all Z690 boards is pretty bad. I see most G Skill kits with tight timings being missed on both TUF and Strix A D4 motherboards. You should just try with manual non XMP settings and save it as a profile and hopefully you should be fine.
Otherwise get the cheapest 32 GB kit on the QVL list that is available. Preferably C16 or less as Intel is actually sensitive to C14/C16 unlike AMD. I would go for 3600/3800 as you can still run gear 1.
Megaman
Well-known member
OK so which 3600mhz kit would be sweet for this setup from this list? I could do 3800mhz. Or perhaps a Dominator kit.
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/memory/ddr4?page=1
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/memory/ddr4?page=1
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Is is important that you choose the kit listed in the QVL. Go for anything that is 3600 C16 32 GB kit. Everything else is secondary. And yes most 3600 kits will run 3800 on an Intel platform. On AMD it will shite the bed and processor will start throwing up and your AIO coolant will leak. Probably.