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RAM Won't Run At Advertised Frequency

DarkestHour

Banned
Having both DIMMs in the same channel is not optimal for performance. Try installing in B2 and A2 as the manual suggests. If it still doesn't work, that RAM is no good with dual-channel on your board.
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
E3GQ4mi.jpg

Once again, thanks for you advice! However, I have a question: Since I had to move the DIMMs to the 2nd and 4th slots, does this mean that if I buy two more DIMMS that I won't be able to run all four DIMMs at 3600MHz?
 

Mithos

Member
Once again, thanks for you advice! However, I have a question: Since I had to move the DIMMs to the 2nd and 4th slots, does this mean that if I buy two more DIMMS that I won't be able to run all four DIMMs at 3600MHz?

I can not be 100% sure, but having 4x 32GB you use all four slots and in theory it should work.
 
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DarkestHour

Banned
Once again, thanks for you advice! However, I have a question: Since I had to move the DIMMs to the 2nd and 4th slots, does this mean that if I buy two more DIMMS that I won't be able to run all four DIMMs at 3600MHz?

Ok , so you didn't move them to slots 3 and 4 like you said earlier?
 

BluRayHiDef

Banned
I can not be 100% sure, but having 4x 16GB you use all four slots and in theory it should work.

What about 4 x 32GBs? I currently have 2 x 32GBs. Also, why can't the board run two sticks of RAM at their advertised frequency via slots 1 & 3?
 

RaySoft

Member
I have the following RAM kit installed in my PC: G.Skil TridentZ RGB 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR4-3600. As you can see, its advertised speed is 3600MHz. However, it runs at only 2666MHz in my PC. I inquired about this issue on Reddit and was told that the cause may be that the RAM isn't listed in my motherboard's QVL (Qualified Vendor List), which you can see here: QVL for Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) (click on the second link, which is the QVL for Ryzen 3000 Series Desktop Processors).

Prior to learning this, I tried to overclock the RAM to its advertised speed and failed; I manually set the frequency to 3600MHz, set the voltage to 1.4v, and set everything else to auto, but my PC would not boot.

After learning this, I tried to overclock the RAM again, but this time I used AMD's DRAM Calculator to guide me; I input all of the values produced by DRAM Calculator, but - once again - my PC would not boot.

What do you think that I can do to get this RAM to run at 3600MHz?

By the way, the following are my PC's full specifications:

01. Ryzen 9 3950X

02. Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WI-FI)

03. G. Skill Trident Z RGB 64GBs (2 x 32GBs) DDR4 RAM

04. PNY XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X RGB RTX 3090

05. Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SATA SSD (Windows OS)

06. Sabrent "Rocket" PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe 2TB SSD (games)

07. Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB HDD

08. Western Digital Blue 4TB & 6TB HDDs

09. Corsair TX850M 850 Watt 80+ Gold PSU

10. Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG
Have you updated your BIOS to the latest version? Have you installed them in the right slots?
If you cant choose the right profile for your RAM in BIOS, somethings wrong. Check the two things I mentioned above.
 
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IoCaster

Gold Member
You should be good to go with 4 sticks. Also, if you check your mobo manual it should have noted that you had to use specific slots to get 2 sticks to run at advertised speed.
 
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01011001

Banned
wait! I just noticed you said you moved them to slot 3 and 4? that could be an issue!
boards usually use spaced out layouts for dual channel! if you have them in 3 and 4 that could actually mean that they are not running dual channel and you lose performance.

if you use 2 sticks usually they need to be in slot 1+3 or 2+4 (A1+B1 or A2+B2)
 
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mitchman

Gold Member
UNBELIEVABLE! Switching the RAM to slots 3 and 4 made it work! I can't believe that something that simple was the cause of the issue.
2nd and 4th I hope :) You want that dual channel. Reading the manual doesn't hurt, it should be in there.
 
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BluRayHiDef

Banned
Ok , so you didn't move them to slots 3 and 4 like you said earlier?
wait! I just noticed you said you moved them to slot 3 and 4? that could be an issue!
boards usually use spaced out layouts for dual channel! if you have them in 3 and 4 that could actually mean that they are not running dual channel and you lose performance.

if you use 2 sticks usually they need to be in slot 1+3 or 2+4 (A1+B1 or A2+B2)

Typo. The problem was solved by moving the DIMMs to slots 2 & 4.
 

Mithos

Member
There are a lot of TYPOS in this thread being edited after someone have already begun typing an answer with that TYPO left in..

I'm SURE the 3 and 4 slot was a TYPO and BluRayHiDef BluRayHiDef meant to type 2 and 4...

I also meant to type 4x 32GB, and BluRayHiDef got in between before I had time to change my TYPO.
 
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PhoenixTank

Member
What about 4 x 32GBs? I currently have 2 x 32GBs. Also, why can't the board run two sticks of RAM at their advertised frequency via slots 1 & 3?
4X16GB owner here. Sold as a kit. You're probably going to have a bad time with 4 sticks of 32GB. Extra strain on the memory controller.
I see one matched kit of 4x32GB @ 3600 on the QVL with all 4 DIMMs in use.
If you can try buying another set of two and return with no fee/fuss, then great but otherwise do not expect happy times.
 
By the way, since I had to move the DIMMs to the 2nd and 4th slots, does this mean that if I buy two more DIMMS that I won't be able to run all four DIMMs at 3600MHz?

That's a really good question. I've had a similar problem in the past, with the same 'fix', but never added more ram to test. I'll be running 4 sticks of ram in my new computer (won't be finished until later next week) and I'll be pissed if I can't run all four sticks at the advertised speed.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
UNBELIEVABLE! Switching the RAM to slots 2 and 4 made it work! I can't believe that something that simple was the cause of the issue.

After switching the modules, I booted the computer, went into the BIOS and saw that the RAM was still running at 2666MHz. I then selected the DOCP option, which automatically set 3600MHz as the target frequency. Finally, I set my CPU's core voltage to AUTO since I had it undervolted to 1v; I did this because I wanted to remove all anomalies/ irregularities in the BIOS settings before attempting to boot into Windows (I also did this on my other, failed attempts). So, now that it's up and running, I'm going to undervolt my CPU again to see if the PC boots, because my CPU runs cool when it's undervolted.

54qy1uA.jpg

EDIT:

It boots even with my CPU undervolted to 1v. Great!

Thanks a lot for the help, guys. I can't believe that the source of the problem was so simple.

By the way, since I had to move the DIMMs to the 2nd and 4th slots, does this mean that if I buy two more DIMMS that I won't be able to run all four DIMMs at 3600MHz?

giphy.gif


My buddy had a very similar issue, same fix too. And check your mobo guide book, I have all 4 dimm slots filled with ram and get them at full speed. Your install guide should be able to tell you exactly what each channel does what, but chances are that you need that initial channel running first and the other lanes are fine to add more after. Granted I'm only running 32gb of ram @3200 I believe.
 
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