What can I do with these XMP settings?

[Kassowen]

To my understanding, the most common practice in ram timings is just to use the most efficient xmp profile coupled with Gear down mode one, which I am currently in mode 2. However I am also given other interesting options such as turn around timings, command rate support, D11BwEn(what is that? As I cannot find anything on that), etc. Has anyone mess around with these enough to come up with some interesting results? Ram is Gskill 3000mhz CL16 Dual rank 32gb kit, which I dont know if it matters, but I was on the fence with the 3200mhz kit, however the loss of 2 points of CL for 200mhz didnt seem worth it, am I right or wrong? BTW, how do I use real time memory timing? 

 

[jaybee83]

what i would suggest is to apply a custom profile and tweak every sub timing individually to get ur RAM kit as tight as possible. rule of thumb: the lower the timing, the better for performance, with the exception of tREFI which is the other way around (the higher the number the better).

 

DllBwEn you can basically ignore for now, they only become interesting once everything else is absolutely maxed out and u want to take it to the extreme.

 

i would check and see what the tightest timings are that u can reach at 3000 Mhz (starting with the XMP timings and mem voltage and then working ur way down from there), then switch it around and up the Mhz while loosening the timings. 

[Kassowen]

7 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

what i would suggest is to apply a custom profile and tweak every sub timing individually to get ur RAM kit as tight as possible. rule of thumb: the lower the timing, the better for performance, with the exception of tREFI which is the other way around (the higher the number the better).

 

DllBwEn you can basically ignore for now, they only become interesting once everything else is absolutely maxed out and u want to take it to the extreme.

 

i would check and see what the tightest timings are that u can reach at 3000 Mhz (starting with the XMP timings and mem voltage and then working ur way down from there), then switch it around and up the Mhz while loosening the timings. 

Are you aware of any particular characteristics to look for in the timings? B-dies if I recall mainly do well overclocking with extra voltage, however I wont be going past 3200mhz given the bios lock, and this is the only other person who did a similar job, however its with Hynix C-die. I suppose I could reference the timings with performance desktop b-die ram that is at 1.2v, though I am not sure if that can be applicable to sodimm.

 

 

Just as a bonus for whoever is interested, here are the timings for the imfamous ballistix, which few ever got running correctly.

 

[jaybee83]

the problem, as with any kind of overclocking endeavour, is that such reference values are only rough guidelines. ull always have to deal with the silicon lottery, especially with RAM OC. since with RAM tuning, not only the RAM itself plays a role, but also the IMC in the CPU, as well as the quality of the motherboard traces, that provide the signal pathways between the IMC and the memory modules. so in the end, ull not get around to do a lot of testing, ideally changing one timing at a time and check for stability...

btw, why stop at 3200 Mhz? are u sure there is a bios lock for that speed? since u actually have the RAM OC options available, i dont see a reason why u couldnt just "aim for the moon", so to say 😉 take it as far as possible!

[Kassowen]

On 5/8/2022 at 3:58 PM, jaybee83 said:

the problem, as with any kind of overclocking endeavour, is that such reference values are only rough guidelines. ull always have to deal with the silicon lottery, especially with RAM OC. since with RAM tuning, not only the RAM itself plays a role, but also the IMC in the CPU, as well as the quality of the motherboard traces, that provide the signal pathways between the IMC and the memory modules. so in the end, ull not get around to do a lot of testing, ideally changing one timing at a time and check for stability...

btw, why stop at 3200 Mhz? are u sure there is a bios lock for that speed? since u actually have the RAM OC options available, i dont see a reason why u couldnt just "aim for the moon", so to say 😉 take it as far as possible!

Well lets just try something simple for now. I know its bios locked to not go past 1.35v, despite the options for that, which I dont know why its there to begin with then. 

 

Simple being setting it to gear mode 1, which is what most people do as a first step. Can you recommend what to use the 5 settings below it for? Most people I hear always just say put it to gear mode 1, but nothing about the rest of these settings.

[jaybee83]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:48 AM, Kassowen said:

Well lets just try something simple for now. I know its bios locked to not go past 1.35v, despite the options for that, which I dont know why its there to begin with then. 

 

Simple being setting it to gear mode 1, which is what most people do as a first step. Can you recommend what to use the 5 settings below it for? Most people I hear always just say put it to gear mode 1, but nothing about the rest of these settings.

 

thats ok, 1.35V is plenty, especially in a laptop with barely any airflow going over the RAM modules. usually your main problem will be the motherboard traces giving out on you. in my case i maxxed out at 3466 Mhz with my 3800 modules while still being at 1.20V for the VDimm. adding more voltage didnt help at all haha.

 

The gear mode basically sets the RAM clocks in conjunction to the IMC clock so that they are synchronized 1:1. Gear 1 is for synchronized clocks, whereas Gear 2 allows for a 2:1 ratio so as to give the RAM a bit more headroom to stretch its legs, albeit at a performance penalty due to non-synchronous ratio.

 

in any case! first steps: set XMP profile and reboot, switch to custom profile, leave all timings as they are and bump the speed up a bit. properly stress test via testmem5 / ram test of your choise and repeat.

once you hit a wall in terms of speed, up the voltage and try again. if that also doesnt pan out, try lowering the primary, secondary, and tertiary timings one by one, followed by testing. i.e.: set TCl from 16 to 15, reboot, stress test. if successful, set from 15 to 14 and test again. if not successful, set back to 16, and continue with the next timing (in this case tRCD). as mentioned before, for all timings the rule of thumb is the lower the faster, except for tREFI where higher numbers are better.

remember: RAM OC takes a looooot of time and proper stress testing is super important! since errors in RAM can cause all kinds of weird behaviour like BSODs, sudden shutoffs, system freezing, data loss/corruption, etc.

 

[Kassowen]

On 5/11/2022 at 4:33 AM, jaybee83 said:

 

thats ok, 1.35V is plenty, especially in a laptop with barely any airflow going over the RAM modules. usually your main problem will be the motherboard traces giving out on you. in my case i maxxed out at 3466 Mhz with my 3800 modules while still being at 1.20V for the VDimm. adding more voltage didnt help at all haha.

 

The gear mode basically sets the RAM clocks in conjunction to the IMC clock so that they are synchronized 1:1. Gear 1 is for synchronized clocks, whereas Gear 2 allows for a 2:1 ratio so as to give the RAM a bit more headroom to stretch its legs, albeit at a performance penalty due to non-synchronous ratio.

 

in any case! first steps: set XMP profile and reboot, switch to custom profile, leave all timings as they are and bump the speed up a bit. properly stress test via testmem5 / ram test of your choise and repeat.

once you hit a wall in terms of speed, up the voltage and try again. if that also doesnt pan out, try lowering the primary, secondary, and tertiary timings one by one, followed by testing. i.e.: set TCl from 16 to 15, reboot, stress test. if successful, set from 15 to 14 and test again. if not successful, set back to 16, and continue with the next timing (in this case tRCD). as mentioned before, for all timings the rule of thumb is the lower the faster, except for tREFI where higher numbers are better.

remember: RAM OC takes a looooot of time and proper stress testing is super important! since errors in RAM can cause all kinds of weird behaviour like BSODs, sudden shutoffs, system freezing, data loss/corruption, etc.

 

 

I want to say that I am good with the XMP profile as it is, so lets go for the gear down mode of 1, or do you think leaving it at 2 is fine? What setting would you recommend for these D11 settings and command rate support? 

 

[jaybee83]

2 hours ago, Kassowen said:

 

I want to say that I am good with the XMP profile as it is, so lets go for the gear down mode of 1, or do you think leaving it at 2 is fine? What setting would you recommend for these D11 settings and command rate support? 

 

D11 settings you can ignore, those only come in when uve tuned everything else and want to squeeze out the last tiny bit of stability. tuning primary/secondary/tertiary timings is ur best bet to get more performance out of ur sticks.