Solved XMP Necessary for Higher RAM speeds

jvickers · Sep 19, 2021

I didn't see a hardware thread, so I put this here. It's probably just me, but I was unaware that you need XMP enabled in the BIOS to reach higher DRAM speed.

I was running without it enabled and found that my DRAM frequency was 2400 MHz as shown in the Task Manager. Once I enabled XMP, the speed went up to 3200 MHz. I hopefully will see an increase in performance.

I just thought I'd throw that out there.

Ghot · Sep 19, 2021

jvickers said:
I didn't see a hardware thread, so I put this here. It's probably just me, but I was unaware that you need XMP enabled in the BIOS to reach higher DRAM speed.

I was running without it enabled and found that my DRAM frequency was 2400 MHz as shown in the Task Manager. Once I enabled XMP, the speed went up to 3200 MHz. I hopefully will see an increase in performance.

I just thought I'd throw that out there.

You can also set the RAM manually to achieve those higher speeds.
Sometimes just turning on XMP (Intel) or XMP/DOCP (AMD), makes things unstable, and only setting the RAM frequency, timings and voltages manually, will allow you to reach the manufacturer's specs on the RAM modules.

jvickers · Sep 19, 2021

Ghot said:
You can also set the RAM manually to achieve those higher speeds.
Sometimes just turning on XMP (Intel) or XMP/DOCP (AMD), makes things unstable, and only setting the RAM frequency, timings and voltages manually, will allow you to reach the manufacturer's specs on the RAM modules.

Thanks for letting me know. If things become unstable, I'll know to try setting things manually, though I've not done that before. Currently, things seem pretty stable. But then, I just enabled it.

Dru2 · Sep 19, 2021

jvickers said:
I didn't see a hardware thread, so I put this here. It's probably just me, but I was unaware that you need XMP enabled in the BIOS to reach higher DRAM speed.

I was running without it enabled and found that my DRAM frequency was 2400 MHz as shown in the Task Manager. Once I enabled XMP, the speed went up to 3200 MHz. I hopefully will see an increase in performance.

I just thought I'd throw that out there.

Yes, that is true. And yes, unfortunately many paying for high speed RAM don't realize it needs to have XMP enabled (or manually set) to hit those high speeds paid for.

And while you can also manually set the timings, speed, and voltage (required to "manually" set the RAM at it's rated specs) this isn't for the faint of heart, and why XMP is so simple as it takes the guesswork out of manually setting those timings, voltage, and speeds.

And though I know how to manually set my RAM, XMP is by far simpler and easy - just a one stop switch. Most recommending a manual setting are those experienced with overclocking and playing in the BIOS.

Dru2 · Sep 19, 2021

jvickers said:
Thanks for letting me know. If things become unstable, I'll know to try setting things manually, though I've not done that before. Currently, things seem pretty stable. But then, I just enabled it.

If you've enabled XMP (and assuming all is well) you don't need to do any manual tweaks unless you want to run the RAM higher then it's rated settings. In that case you'd simply disable XMP and tweak for higher settings.

BTW, I've been using XMP forever, including the system listed in System one of my specs and never had stability issues where "XMP" is concerned. And I've built many a system using XMP

Good luck.

PerpetualCycle · Sep 19, 2021

Anything over 2400 MHz on ddr4 is technically overclocking your RAM. XMP is sanctioned overclocking :)

Dru2 · Sep 19, 2021

geneo said:
Anything over 2400 MHz on ddr4 is technically overclocking your RAM. XMP is sanctioned overclocking :)

Yep, "technically" it is. Though the key is sanctioned vs. unsanctioned. One is guaranteed (XMP) the other - overclocking a CPU isn't :)

BunnyJ · Sep 19, 2021

Great discussion.. I learned a lot from this

Ghot · Sep 19, 2021

jvickers said:
Thanks for letting me know. If things become unstable, I'll know to try setting things manually, though I've not done that before. Currently, things seem pretty stable. But then, I just enabled it.

If it was unstable because you used XMP setting in BIOS, you would already know about it. :)

It would do things like not boot, or give you a black screen, or break Windows. You would definitely know.
You can save your BIOS setting to a profile, IN your BIOS. You and everyone for that matter, should use that tool.

On that MSI motherboard...it's called OC Profile in the BIOS. There are six slots to save various BIOS settings in.

PerpetualCycle · Sep 19, 2021

Dru2 said:
Yep, "technically" it is. Though the key is sanctioned vs. unsanctioned. One is guaranteed (XMP) the other - overclocking a CPU isn't :)

But like said, it isn't really guaranteed but they have tested the XMP and probably sample test kits., more likely though they bin the chips for quality they have are confident a high percentage will not have issues. I am sure they will do an RMA if it doesn't work on Motherbboards/computers they say they support.

EDIT: And unstabled memory has nasty consequences: crashes, corrupt disk files, etc. because everything (Except some DMA) goes through memory. Unstable CPU overclock you mostly just crash

PerpetualCycle · Sep 19, 2021

Ghot said:
If it was unstable because you used XMP setting in BIOS, you would already know about it. :)

It would do things like not boot, or give you a black screen, or break Windows. You would definitely know.
You can save your BIOS setting to a profile, IN your BIOS. You and everyone for that matter, should use that tool.

On that MSI motherboard...it's called OC Profile in the BIOS. There are six slots to save various BIOS settings in.

Not necessarily true in principle, but pretty much so with XMP I expect. I have run unstable ram (overclocked by me) for some time before I found out it wasn't quite stable, but nothing to indicate it and no consequences that I could find, except it failed a extreme memory torture test - I had updated the BIOS and forgot to let the memory retrain instead of using the settings I had used int the previous BIOS.

Dru2 · Sep 19, 2021

geneo said:
But like said, it isn't really guaranteed but they have tested the XMP and probably sample test kits., more likely though they bin the chips for quality they have are confident a high percentage will not have issues. I am sure they will do an RMA if it doesn't work on Motherbboards/computers they say they support.

EDIT: And unstabled memory has nasty consequences: crashes, corrupt disk files, etc. because everything (Except some DMA) goes through memory. Unstable CPU overclock you mostly just crash

I'm not going to argue but to clarify - XMP certified RAM IS guaranteed (aka warranted) to run at it's rated XMP speeds. If the RAM fails within the warranty period due to XMP or other QC issues it can be RMA'd or returned. I'm quite sure you know this so....

For everyone else don't believe me look it up :)

And yes, anything can cause system instabilities if issues arise.

PerpetualCycle · Sep 19, 2021

Dru2 said:
I'm not going to argue but to clarify - XMP certified RAM IS guaranteed (aka warranted) to run at it's rated XMP speeds. If the RAM fails within the warranty period due to XMP or other QC issues it can be RMA'd or returned. I'm quite sure you know this so....

For everyone else don't believe me look it up :)

And yes, anything can cause system instabilities if issues arise.

I think we are not on the same page, probably my fault. By guaranteed to work I meant there is a chance it might not on your system, though very low. I wasn't talking about warranty. I know of isolated cases of it failing for some people, but they have been a failure of specific RAM on specific systems is a fashion @Ghot has mentioned so ppl caught it.

In any case, I always run memory tests on a new system, or if I add new RAM or upgrade RAM, or change RAM settings or update BIOS (I forrgot this as mentioned).

Dru2 · Sep 19, 2021

While anything is possible, I can't argue every what if in the universe. All I can say is generally speaking XMP poses no problems.

Yes, things happen, but I look at consistency. Here's XMP consistently works for the vast majority.

Peace

Ghot · Sep 19, 2021

Some RAM works fine if set manually, but won't work if set using the XMP or DOCP switch in the BIOS.
There's nothing wrong with the RAM itself, it just doesn't work when set with the switches.

My computer for example has the DOCP switch in the BIOS. If I try to auto set the RAM with that switch it won't work.
But when I set it manually, it works fine. And the RAM in question IS compatible with the motherboard.

The point here is, IF the RAM doesn't function well when set with the XMP or DOCP switch, just set it manually.

Here's the post for when I had to deal with this. In my BIOS the XMP switch is called DOCP, but same difference.
ASUS motherboard RAM timings problem - Windows 10 Help Forums

If you look at the CPU-Z screen shots, you can see the recommended XMP (DOCP) settings.
In my case there was a setting NOT in the XMP list that had to be set to keep things stable.

The setting I circled was left at auto with the DOCP switch ON. Things weren't stable like that.
I had to set it to 14, and things ran fine...

These are the manually set timings I had to use to get things stable.
Frequency was manually set to 3200Mhz, and DRAM voltage was set to 1.350v ...just like the manufacturer's specs.

Usually, you just turn on XMP or DOCP and things work fine. Sometimes though, you need to tweak things a bit.

PerpetualCycle · Sep 19, 2021

Ghot said:
Some RAM works fine if set manually, but won't work if set using the XMP or DOCP switch in the BIOS.
There's nothing wrong with the RAM itself, it just doesn't work when set with the switches.

My computer for example has the DOCP switch in the BIOS. If I try to auto set the RAM with that switch it won't work.
But when I set it manually, it works fine. And the RAM in question IS compatible with the motherboard.

The point here is, IF the RAM doesn't function well when set with the XMP or DOCP switch, just set it manually.

Here's the post for when I had to deal with this. In my BIOS the XMP switch is called DOCP, but same difference.
ASUS motherboard RAM timings problem - Windows 10 Help Forums

If you look at the CPU-Z screen shots, you can see the recommended XMP (DOCP) settings.
In my case there was a setting NOT in the XMP list that had to be set to keep things stable.

The setting I circled was left at auto with the DOCP switch ON. Things weren't stable like that.
I had to set it to 14, and things ran fine...

View attachment 8263

These are the manually set timings I had to use to get things stable.
Frequency was manually set to 3200Mhz, and DRAM voltage was set to 1.350v ...just like the manufacturer's specs.

View attachment 8264

Usually, you just turn on XMP or DOCP and things just work fine. Sometimes though, you need to tweak things a bit.

It is a little more complicated. To be able to set it manually to the XMP speed, you need to know the values of a number of timing variables to set. You need to know where to find these. They are not all published by the memory manufacturer. These may have changed. In addition, you need to make sure the memory retrains at boot.

For example:

BIOS revisions can make changes in the way memory is trained and what values actually work.

EDIT: A further comment for clarification. On my motherboard (Intel, Asus), you can "bypass" memory training (enabling MRC fastboot). If you have this set, and you change a memory timing, it will not retrain the memory - which is bad because the timings are inter-dependent. I do not know if there is an analog for AMD, hence my comment you need to make sure that memory is getting retrained.

Ghot · Sep 19, 2021

geneo said:
It is a little more complicated. To be able to set it manually to the XMP speed, you need to know the values of a number of timing variables to set. You need to know where to find these. They are not all published by the memory manufacturer. These may have changed. In addition, you need to make sure the memory retrains at boot.

For example:

BIOS revisions can make changes in the way memory is trained and what values actually work.

Yeah ya do....

PerpetualCycle · Sep 19, 2021

Ghot said:
Yeah ya do....

View attachment 8266

That does not give you enough, compare. You need tFAW, trrd_S. trrd_L at the minimum besides the primary timings.

Ghot · Sep 19, 2021

geneo said:
That does not give you enough, compare. You need tFAW, trrd_S. trrd_L at the minimum besides the primary timings.

On my pic they just left off the T's.
rrds, rrdl and faw, are in there. :)

PerpetualCycle · Sep 20, 2021

Ghot said:
On my pic they just left off the T's.
rrds, rrdl and faw, are in there. :)

Yes, I know, but not for XMP.

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