FOUR RAM Cards in AMD Build Worries

[Hello Paul]

I'm slightly concerned about the proliferation of BSODs when using 4x RAM units with AMD processors in relation to this thread:

SURVEY for AMD Ryzen users with FOUR RAM Cards

This is not any kind of official PCS survey, it's really just for my own interest - and a little theory I'm trying to get a handle on. If you have a PCS AMD Ryzen build (any model) with FOUR RAM cards installed (any capacity, any speed, any make/model) would you kindly add a post with your CPU...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I'm looking to buy 128GB RAM for my (currently being tested by PCS) system, and am slightly worried I'm getting myself an unreliable system. I want zero BSODs, just like my current 6-year-old system.

I've been mulling over which RAM to get - the BSODs reported above are making me move away from the PCS-supplied Corsair Vengeance RAM. PCS only supply large RAM modules (32GB per unit) at 3000MHz or 3200MHz (can't remember right now) which is why I've chosen to get my own RAM - probably 3600MHz. I've been looking at various manufacturers, such as G.Skill and Kingston. I'm no RAM expert, but was wondering about the following options - if anyone's got any opinions/experience, I'd be delighted to hear them before I pull the trigger on ~£800 of RAM! From what I can see from this chart, the Kingston seems to have the edge, if that 18-22-22 timing is what I think it is. Weird that it only has 3 numbers, not 4 like the others. I'm assuming I want my CAS latency to be as low as possible - it seems anything under 18 is stratospherically expensive.

...or there's Patriot from Overclockers, which is cheaper, and has "CAS 18-20-20-38 Timings":

 

[Martinr36]

The problem seems to be with 4 3600MHz sticks, 4 3200MHz sticks seem to be fine

 

[Hello Paul]

The problem seems to be with 4 3600MHz sticks, 4 3200MHz sticks seem to be fine

Thanks for your reply.
...So I might be wasting my money going with 3600MHz and should stick with 3200MHz? Wouldn't that slow my system a bit? I'm looking to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it, without sacrificing reliability.

 

[Martinr36]

Thanks for your reply.
...So I might be wasting my money going with 3600MHz and should stick with 3200MHz? Wouldn't that slow my system a bit? I'm looking to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it, without sacrificing reliability.

you should be fine with the 3200

 

[scarpa1]

Thanks for your reply.
...So I might be wasting my money going with 3600MHz and should stick with 3200MHz? Wouldn't that slow my system a bit? I'm looking to squeeze every last bit of performance out of it, without sacrificing reliability.

I have 4x 36000 MHz 8gb ram on a strix X570 MB.

Had a few small issues to begin with but currently its running fine at 3600mhz, been fine for the past 3 months.

 

[SpyderTracks]

It’s not the RAM that’s the issue, it’s a bug on the DOCP configuration on some motherboards. You should be able to adjust the DOCP and avoid any instability if you were to face it.

In fact, IIRC, you can accommodate ECC DIMMS on X570 actually, it’s expensive but well worth it if it’s a production level machine.

ECC RAM for the 2nd/3rd gen Ryzen

Hi! I don't know if it's been discussed earlier, but a few days ago I found a X570 motherboard which has an option to install 4x32gb RAM sticks. After digging into motherboard's specs on the manufacture's site (Gigabyte) I found out that the 2nd and the 3rd gen Ryzen processors support un-buffere...

linustechtips.com

 

[Hello Paul]

So assuming I went for 3600MHz and tweaked the DOCP (which I'd have to learn all about!), does anyone have any recommendations? I've managed with my current, rock-stable PC (honestly can't remember the last time I had a BSOD - must be years ago) without ECC RAM (although I previously used Mac Pro "cheesegraters" which do apparently have ECC RAM), so don't think I really need that, assuming it'd limit my choices and add extra expense - I'm already forking out a serious bunch of £££ on this build!

The cheapest I've found is Patriot: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/patr...dual-channel-kit-pvs464g360c8k-my-109-pa.html
It has:

• 3600MHz RAM Speed
• CAS 18-20-20-38 Timings

...which on paper seems quite good compared to some other more expensive RAM...from my limited knowledge on the subject. Although the 3200MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM is C16 (16-20-20-38)...would that in practice be faster than 3600MHz 18-20-20-38 RAM?

Any opinions/experience/thoughts, anyone, please? Or am I just getting carried away here nitpicking details that really won't make any difference and I should go for whatever seems cheapest and probably won't melt under load? 😂

 

[ubuysa]

The issue for me with buying your own RAM is that if you were unfortunate enough to have this 'four 3600MHz RAM sticks' issue you wouldn't be able to send the whole thing back to PCS, and tell them to fix it

 

[SpyderTracks]

So assuming I went for 3600MHz and tweaked the DOCP (which I'd have to learn all about!), does anyone have any recommendations? I've managed with my current, rock-stable PC (honestly can't remember the last time I had a BSOD - must be years ago) without ECC RAM (although I previously used Mac Pro "cheesegraters" which do apparently have ECC RAM), so don't think I really need that, assuming it'd limit my choices and add extra expense - I'm already forking out a serious bunch of £££ on this build!

The cheapest I've found is Patriot: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/patr...dual-channel-kit-pvs464g360c8k-my-109-pa.html
It has:

• 3600MHz RAM Speed
• CAS 18-20-20-38 Timings

...which on paper seems quite good compared to some other more expensive RAM...from my limited knowledge on the subject. Although the 3200MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM is C16 (16-20-20-38)...would that in practice be faster than 3600MHz 18-20-20-38 RAM?

Any opinions/experience/thoughts, anyone, please? Or am I just getting carried away here nitpicking details that really won't make any difference and I should go for whatever seems cheapest and probably won't melt under load? 😂

Patriot do very good RAM, I’d definitely recommend them.

Im not 100% sure on the timing differences but would think the 18-20-20-36 would be better as it’s only the first timing that changes.

We can talk you through adjusting the DOCP if you need help with it, it’s really easy, it’s just a setting in the BIOS.

 

[Hello Paul]

I've gone ahead and ordered 128GB (4x 32GB) of the Patriot RAM:
Patriot Viper Steel 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS464G360C8K)
Let's hope the RAM and my PC arrives next week and I can get it all up and running OK, and might be back here for DOCP-related help.

(I've been spending a few chunks of today waiting for my old system to render some stuff in Cinema 4D, wishing I had a second system to use!)

 

[SpyderTracks]

I've gone ahead and ordered 128GB (4x 32GB) of the Patriot RAM:
Patriot Viper Steel 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS464G360C8K)
Let's hope the RAM and my PC arrives next week and I can get it all up and running OK, and might be back here for DOCP-related help.

(I've been spending a few chunks of today waiting for my old system to render some stuff in Cinema 4D, wishing I had a second system to use!)

Where did you order the RAM from?

 

[Hello Paul]

Where did you order the RAM from?

Overclockers UK.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Overclockers UK.

Cool.

 

[ChrisCooney]

Just a heads up - I was having crashing issues and I set my RAM frequency to 3533 (with an AMD Ryzen 5900x, 4x8gb) and it’s been fine ever since. So you might not need to drop all the way down to 3200.

 

[Ash_]

Ram timings... most important one really is the first one, as that is CAS latency. The last number... 36 for example, i believe is how many pieces of data it has to keep open, to make its choice - or something along those lines.

Not sure there is really much difference in quality, between manufacturers. Which ever is on offer is the way i’d go 🤣

I did post on here the other day, where Patriot 4400mhz CL19 was on sale, which for a workstation would be absolutely insane i’d imagine.

 

[Scott]

C16 3200 is the same as C18 3600.

You need to wait 16 clock cycles to do something
You can do 3200 things in a second

3200 / 16 = 200 things per second


If you need to wait 18 clock cycles to do something
But you can do 3600 things per second

3600 / 18 = Yup... you've guessed it.... 200 things

Of course this is massively over-simplified but it should be good enough for most people to get to grips with.

 

[Scott]

As an a-side....... I like Corsair and have always gotten on well with their kit..... but looking past that, where RAM is concerned, I would be opting for TeamGroup personally.

 

[AgentCooper]

C16 3200 is the same as C18 3600.

You need to wait 16 clock cycles to do something
You can do 3200 things in a second

3200 / 16 = 200 things per second


If you need to wait 18 clock cycles to do something
But you can do 3600 things per second

3600 / 18 = Yup... you've guessed it.... 200 things

Of course this is massively over-simplified but it should be good enough for most people to get to grips with.

Bookmark added! An area I need to brush up more so that simple explanation is a very helpful start. Thanks, old bean

 

[Ash_]

Bookmark added! An area I need to brush up more so that simple explanation is a very helpful start. Thanks, old bean

Then move onto the timings! 🤣
Ram has to essentially go along and up/down to find the data - rather than jumping straight to it and then keep a specific amount of data open, whilst it makes its decision. Again though.... an oversimplification.

 

[Hello Paul]

Patriot do very good RAM, I’d definitely recommend them.

Im not 100% sure on the timing differences but would think the 18-20-20-36 would be better as it’s only the first timing that changes.

We can talk you through adjusting the DOCP if you need help with it, it’s really easy, it’s just a setting in the BIOS.

My new PC arrived yesterday and is AWESOME! And that's even with the RAM running at just 2666MHz, so today I'll do some research about tweaking that DOCP - from a quick search it looks fairly straightforward, but I may be back here asking for more advice!

Interestingly, an After Effects project I've been working on for the past couple of weeks on my old PC without issue, caused the new PC to crash while using hardware (GPU) rendering. Switching to CPU rendering solved the issue, but I didn't buy an RTX3090 to not use its full potential!