Confused about overclocking my RAM

BNWilliams007 · Dec 4, 2016

Hello, I'm new at overclocking in general and have just completed overclocking my CPU and GPU so I am now working on trying to overclock my RAM memory but I'm unsure if I'm overclocking it correctly. I went into my motherboard's bios and enabled the XMP memory profiles which should have set my my Corsair Vengeance memory to 3200 Mhz but none of the RAM stats in my computer seem to be affected for the most part. According to CPU-Z, my DRAM Frequency is only at 1600 MHz instead of the labeled 3200 MHz. I ran a memtest with SuperPi and it seems to run fine though without crashing.

Here are my PC components if it helps: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/BNWilliams007/saved/Yg2CmG

Thank you for your time.

Tradesman1 · Dec 4, 2016

Your at 3200

CPU-Z shows the true freq, - here 1600. The DRAM is DDR (DOUBLE data rate) so take 1600 x 2 = effective data rate of 3200

Your good to go !

BNWilliams007 · Dec 4, 2016

Thank you for your response, unfortunately, I decided to put my computer into sleep mode in order to do something else and when I came back my computer booted into a Windows crash claiming that my overclock failed. I was able to go into the bios and undo my RAM overclock while keeping my GPU and CPU overclock and the computer booted just fine. I'm confused as to why this happened though because my PC booted with my RAM OC earlier today and ran the SuperPi memtest just fine. Does this mean I have to bump my RAM clock down a little despite the RAM being labeled as 3200 MHz?

Tradesman1 · Dec 4, 2016

Coming out of sleep mode can involve a number of things, with this, I'd try setting the the DRAM voltage to 1.35, which is spec for the sticks - might look to a BIOS upgrade, it may not be updated for this particular sets XMP profile. Can also try the DRAM at 1.4 (perfectly safe) as an adittional measure on the sleep problem

BNWilliams007 · Dec 4, 2016

I looked at the Asus website and my drivers are up to date. My voltage is currently at 1.35v adaptive mode. When I was testing my CPU overclocks, 1.4v added too much heat to my CPU so I think I'll stick to 1.35v. I went back into my bios though and undid the XMP profile and manually put my RAM at 3200 MHz and so far I was able to boot to my desktop with no issues so hopefully it will work now.

Tradesman1 · Dec 4, 2016

DRAM voltage - not CPU voltage

BNWilliams007 · Dec 4, 2016

Oh ok, where can I usually find DRAM voltage in the bios and how can I monitor my RAM temperatures after adjusting the voltage? would anything under 85°C be considered safe?

Edit: Also, how would I distinguish between DRAM and CPU RAM in the bios, are they labeled?

Tradesman1 · Dec 4, 2016

DRAM voltage willl be in the DRAM area or a seperate voltage in the voltage areas - PU DRAM is often a designator for the MC (memory controller) voltage

BNWilliams007 · Dec 4, 2016

Ok, I'll try setting my XMP profile back up and adding more voltage now and see how that goes.

Tradesman1 · Dec 4, 2016

Let me know, will be out till the AM

BNWilliams007 · Dec 4, 2016

I went into my bios and it turns out that my DRAM was set to auto and pumping out 1.488v already under both the manual mode and the XMP profile, so I decided to keep my manual 3200 MHz OC since it hasn't crashed on me yet. Is there any benefit to using an XMP profile over a manual overclock? I know that the XMP profile changed a few other settings that I didn't really understand so maybe that's what led to my crashes?

Ok goodnight I hope you'll have time to respond back to me tomorrow and thanks again for all of your feedback tonight.

Tradesman1 · Dec 5, 2016

What exactly is showing 1.488 - that's too high for DRAM voltage think you are looking at something else - what does it show in CPU-Z

BNWilliams007 · Dec 5, 2016

According to CPU-Z there are 4 columns of voltages being displayed. JEDEC #6-8 show 1.20v and XMP-3200 shows 1.350v, again I have my RAM manually set to 3200 MHz at the moment.

I'm pretty sure last night I saw the DRAM voltage set to auto at 1.488v I can check again right now.

Tradesman1 · Dec 5, 2016

Yes and 3200 calls for 1.35

BNWilliams007 · Dec 5, 2016

I looked at my bios and it stills stats that my RAM sticks are taking 1.488v:

http://imgur.com/vof8GsF

Tradesman1 · Dec 5, 2016

BIOS may well have a glitch, set it manually to 1.35 (if higher needed 1.4 max)

BNWilliams007 · Dec 5, 2016

Ok I just now set it manually to 1.35v, I'll run some memtests on it later to see if it's stable. Thank you.

Edit: Ok I just tested it with SuperPi and it seems stable. If I wanted to overclock my RAM further to say 3300MHz and above, I assume I would use the same method as overclocking a CPU? AKA, increase clock speed until it crashes, then increase voltage? How would I monitor my RAM temps though and what would be considered as a safe temp for RAM? Anything below 86°C?

Tradesman1 · Dec 5, 2016

Basically you will also probably have to increase the timings to balance the additional speed requested, if going up one step don't take the timings more than 1 higher or you may get the speed but the lower timings will actually drag down the performance, and max DRAM voltage of 1.4

BNWilliams007 · Dec 5, 2016

Oh ok, I'll probably have to do some extra research about this then or just keep it at 3200 MHz, thank you though for all your help yesterday and today.

Tradesman1 · Dec 5, 2016

No worries

Have fun !

Confused about overclocking my RAM

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Reputable

Legenda in Aeternum

Share this page