Memory Better DDR4 frequency on an AMD build

BaK

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Bronze Supporter
May 17, 2016
930
931
Hi Guys,

First AMD build here, going with a Ryzen 5 3400G on a Gigabyte B450I AEORUS.
Looking at what RAM to add, the motherboard is supposed to run up to 3600MHz memory modules in overclocked mode.

So I was about to buy some 2x 16GB Patriot Viper4 3200MHZ / CL16 modules (~$110) when I saw the following offer:
2x 32GB CORSAIR Vengeance RGB PRO Black 3600MHz / CL18 for less than $170
Not that I need that much memory, but I pulled the trigger on the Corsair because of the low price. (Will have to deal with the RGB but that's another story)

I was a little worried with compatibility as there is no 32GB module present on the Gigabyte QVL https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Memory/mb_manual_b450-i-aorus-pro-wifi_picasso.pdf sheet, and I don't even find that specific RAM on the Corsair website...

I am anyhow able to boot with both RAM sticks plugged in which is already a nice thing!
But looking at the memory settings in the UEFI BIOS, here is what I get:
- Memory multiplier = 21.33 (auto)
- Frequency = 2133MHz
- Voltage 1.20V
- CAS latency = 15 (auto)
- tRCDRD = 15 (auto)
- tRCDWR = 15 (auto)
- tRP = 15 (auto)
- tRAS = 36 (auto)

So I then tried to switch to the XMP profile, which changes the settings as of:

- Memory multiplier = 36 (auto)
- Frequency = 3600MHz
- Voltage 1.35V
- CAS latency = 18 (auto)
- tRCDRD = 22 (auto)
- tRCDWR = 22 (auto)
- tRP = 22 (auto)
- tRAS = 42 (auto)

But unfortunately the motherboard does not boot properly after that change, monitor screen stays black. Finally after several auto 'reboot', I am getting back to the BIOS but the memory settings have been reverted to 2133Mhz as above.

I am not going to play that much with that build and I am primarily looking for stability, but I also would like to get a little more out of that RAM as 2133MHz is much lower than the 3600MHz they are supposed to reach.

So I guess I will now have to crank up the memory speed manually, along with playing with latency and voltage right?
UEFI BIOS is also showing lots of other advanced memory timings, should I take care of these too?

All in all, is there a good guide out there that I can follow to see what stable memory frequency my system can achieve?
 

n.tesla

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jul 19, 2020
116
42
You'll want to run Thaiphoon burner to ID your ICs then use Ryzen DRAM calculator for a starting point. I don't know if the APU memory controllers are weaker/stronger than CPU counterparts but there are countless guides and resources out there for fine tuning RAM. The performance of the graphics component of the APU will be directly correlated to RAM speeds since it uses system RAM so it's worth getting into if you want to eek out maximum graphics horsepower.
 
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BaK

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Bronze Supporter
May 17, 2016
930
931
Thanks guys for your answers, I will investigate both!
Easy way first trying to find a sweet spot manually and then look at it more precisely with the proposed tools. This is going to be a Linux build but I will set a quick Windows up if I don't find the corresponding 'nux softwares/commands.
That will probably be a part of the build log soon to come!