Too many MHz? The issue is clear.
Too many MHz? The issue is clear.
Hey everyone, I'm trying to activate XMP on my PC for the first time, but it's not working. Here are my details: My specs are: RAM - Patriot Viper Steel 4400MHz, CPU - Ryzen 5 3600X, GPU - Gainward GTX 1070, PSU - Seasonic Focus Plus (also called Focus PX), Platinum 550W. When I tried XMP, I selected two profiles—one at 4400MHz and another at 4000MHz. I chose the 4400MHz version and restarted. After that, it beeped three times, shut down, came back on, beeped three more times, shut down again, powered up, then booted into Windows. At first I thought I did it right, but checking Task Manager and CPU-Z showed it was still stuck at 2133MHz. Looking up the RAM specs, I found out they only support up to 4000MHz. Then I tried enabling the second profile for 4000MHz, but the same thing happened. Now I’m wondering if my RAM frequency is too high for XMP, even with the second profile. Or maybe there’s another issue I’m missing. Thanks in advance for your help! Best, Josh
No? 3800 performs just okay. 4000 shifts to 2:1, but it relies on the board's layout. Since the board has only four layers, it isn't ideal for memory overclocking. Typically, anything above 3600 or 3800 isn't worth the effort anymore for Zen 2 anyway. So you're not losing much.
There are two issues to address: you won't achieve 4400MHz on that motherboard with a 3600X, as the processor's base clock can't reach that speed, causing extra delays and reduced performance. Adjust the BIOS settings, place both RAM sticks in slots 2 and 4, activate XMP, and consider lowering the clock to 3800MHz with a 1900MHz base frequency. If that fails, try 3733MHz with 1866MHz base frequency, then 3600MHz with 1800MHz base. After these steps, focus on fine-tuning the main timing parameters, as the XMP support for a Viper Steel 4400MHz board is likely limited to CL18 or CL19, which may not be ideal for 3600MHz.
Sorry for the delayed reply, I've been away from home lately. Should I consider selling my 4400 and getting a 3600 instead? Honestly, I'm not familiar with overclocking or the requirements involved. I assumed enabling XMP would handle it automatically, but I just updated my BIOS recently—so it's currently set to F20 (which seems to be the latest version). So far, I haven't found an option to manually enable XMP and adjust the frequency myself instead of using the two preloaded profiles.
I think I should check that out. Thanks for the update. Honestly, I picked up a 4400 MHz model because it was on sale and just added about $15 to the price of the 3800. I assumed it would give me more power without realizing XMP support existed. Now I’m pretty disappointed.