XMP vs OC Relearning
XMP vs OC Relearning
I'm not very experienced with DRAM overclocking. Usually I just turn on XMP or adjust frequency and timing by guesswork. Recently, I've been experimenting with CPU and DRAM overclocks because my partner is away for a few days. Right now I'm only checking my overclocks using 3DMark Time Spy, Cinebench R20, and AIDA64 stability tests. My G.Skill kits have XMP enabled, and I've manually increased the RAM speed. The motherboard (Z390 Aorus Master) managed to relearn itself and started with: DDR4-3200 16-15-15-37 2T at 1.35V. I'm aware that using all four DIMM slots (8GB each) will put more stress on the memory controller than using just two. Synthetic tests might help, but I'm not sure if they'll translate to better performance in real situations like gaming. Considering the increased latency, would it make sense to try DDR4-3200? On G.Skill's site they offer kits with 3200 timings, such as 14-14-14-34 and 16-18-18-38. I haven't tried going beyond 3200 yet... just these early findings so far.
Both options are similar in performance, so it depends on stability. Choose the one that feels more reliable.
I attempted to run DDR4-3200 with a mix of 14/15 primary timings, but it didn’t work. I also tried adjusting primary and advanced timings using Ryzen calculator tips plus Thaiphoon’s recommendations for DDR4-3200 and DDR4-3400, yet still faced issues. Some motherboards kept the DRAM ratio low (e.g., 3200 set but booting around 2933 or 2800), making overclocking more frustrating than tuning a CPU or GPU.