Advice on memory.

glasskuter · Feb 8, 2024

allan said:
but either label is almost certainly the same so yes,

I always thought so, too, and I believe to be correct in most cases. But one can not say it is 100% true, especially in OEM devices. I recently ran into a crazy situation where it proved untrue with my particular OEM mobo

I couldn't find exact same ram I had. (2 8gb sticks of Micron.) I ran Crucial's scanner and purchased 2 more 8gb sticks of supposedly compatible ram. It ran fine, but overall ram speed dropped. After a lot of testing different sticks of ram, 2 more motherboards and even purchasing other Micron ram from the OEM, it turned out that my particular motherboard had to have exact same Micron ram in all slots to run at full speed. I ended up with 2 sticks of Crucial ram that Crucial would not let me return for refund. Despite their scanner saying it was compatible, they considered it a case of me ordering the wrong ram and it was outside the return window by the time it was all worked out.

Wisewiz · Feb 8, 2024

@glasskuter

Bad luck. Sorry to hear that.

But I think all Crucial guarantees is that if they say the RAM is compatible with your mobo, it is. They can't say whether it's going to be compatible with your old (existing) memory for best performance.

bobkn · Feb 8, 2024

glasskuter said:
I always thought so, too, and I believe to be correct in most cases. But one can not say it is 100% true, especially in OEM devices. I recently ran into a crazy situation where it proved untrue with my particular OEM mobo

I couldn't find exact same ram I had. (2 8gb sticks of Micron.) I ran Crucial's scanner and purchased 2 more 8gb sticks of supposedly compatible ram. It ran fine, but overall ram speed dropped. After a lot of testing different sticks of ram, 2 more motherboards and even purchasing other Micron ram from the OEM, it turned out that my particular motherboard had to have exact same Micron ram in all slots to run at full speed. I ended up with 2 sticks of Crucial ram that Crucial would not let me return for refund. Despite their scanner saying it was compatible, they considered it a case of me ordering the wrong ram and it was outside the return window by the time it was all worked out.

Even exactly matching existing RAM may not be enough. RAM that runs with high specs as a pair may not be able to do that if all 4 slots are populated.

I ran some DDR4 3800 memory in an AMD X570 board. The RAM was from the QVL (qualified vendors list) for the board, but only for 1 or 2 DIMMs. When I went to 4, I had to drop the frequency back to 3600 to get stability. (I kept the remainder of the DOCP settings.)

Munk1955 · Feb 13, 2024

I use Corsair or Crucial in all my builds and have never had a bad stick to date.

desktop · Feb 15, 2024

I'm using G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB). I had G. SKILL in my previous build and they were great so I went with them again in my recent build. I've never had any issues with this RAM so I would definitely recommend.

hdmi · Feb 16, 2024

So here's another vote for G.Skill

Catnip · Feb 16, 2024

I'm using Gskill Trident Z RGB 2 x 16 GB as well, and it's working great. I had an issue with some Gskill Ripjaws not being able to run at full speed in my old motherboard that I never could figure out why, and I was a bit hesitant to try Gskill again. The Trident sticks were on a wicked sale at Newegg so I thought I would take the chance. I am very glad I did. Setup was a breeze and I have not had an issue to date and it's been almost a year.

Very impressed.

desktop · Feb 16, 2024

Catnip said:
I had an issue with some Gskill Ripjaws not being able to run at full speed in my old motherboard that I never could figure out why, and I was a bit hesitant to try Gskill again. The Trident sticks were on a wicked sale at Newegg so I thought I would take the chance. I am very glad I did. Setup was a breeze and I have not had an issue to date and it's been almost a year.

So how would you check to see if the RAM is running at the manufacturer's recommended settings? Would I have to look up the specs on my RAM and see what the clock speed is?

Berton · Feb 16, 2024

Try CPU-Z, gives lots of information.

CPU-Z | Softwares | CPUID

CPU-Z for Windows® x86/x64 is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system : Processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels. Mainboard and chipset. Memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD). Real time...

www.cpuid.com

desktop · Feb 16, 2024

So what am I looking for?

Berton · Feb 16, 2024

desktop said:
View attachment 87447

So what am I looking for?

This is my cheapo Notebook, looks like the DRAM Frequency is a bit better than what yours shows.

desktop · Feb 16, 2024

So how do I find out what mine is suppose to be?

Berton · Feb 16, 2024

desktop said:
So how do I find out what mine is suppose to be?

Usually specified in the manufacturer's manual.

desktop · Feb 16, 2024

I don't have a manufacturer's manual. Is there someplace else I could find it?

Berton · Feb 16, 2024

desktop said:
I don't have a manufacturer's manual. Is there someplace else I could find it?

I don't know about other memory vendors but there's a scanner feature on www.crucial.com that when run can give some information.

desktop · Feb 16, 2024

This is the info on G.Skillz page for that RAM:

PerpetualCycle · Feb 16, 2024

desktop said:
View attachment 87447

So what am I looking for?

Look at the SPD tab. That will tell you the manufacture's speced jdec settings. These are read from the memory card. The Last will probably be what you are running at. Post the SPD tab image.

Se my XMP setting (though I don't run XMP) is 4266 @ 19-26-26-46

But I run mine with my own settings. 4200 18-18-24-42 as you see in the memory tab (not a manufacture supported configuration)

SPD and Memory tabs:

desktop · Feb 16, 2024

PerpetualCycle · Feb 16, 2024

desktop said:
This is the info on G.Skillz page for that RAM:

View attachment 87450

Those are the XMP values (sort of a manufacturer overclock of the memory). Those should be stable. You probably do not have it set for XMP in your BIOS so it is running at the highest supported jdec setting of 2132 MT/s

If you want to run it at 3600 MT/s, you need to find the setting for XMP in the BIOS and enable it. You should, more speed and it will be stable.

PerpetualCycle · Feb 16, 2024

desktop said:
View attachment 87451

All of those are supported by your memory. It is apparently JDEC #6 running by default from what your memory tab said. Enable XMP in the BIOS to get the last column, which is faster.

EDIT: Argggh. XMP is Intel processor lingo. It is called DOCP on AMD processors. So look for that in BIOS.