How rigidly do you stick to RAM compatibility lists?

spiritcrusher

Quick question - I received a dodgy stick of RAM (PC won't even boot when it's inserted, just sticks on DRAM light) and Amazon have agreed to refund it, so I'm going to use this chance to upgdrade from 16gb to 32. But any 3600 RAM from most brands I can find seem to not be supported on either the MOBO list (B550m pro vdh wifi) or the Ryzen 3700x list. The actual RAM itself says it's "optimized" for AMD but still...
It's strange as say if you look at Corsair (I'm looking at their vengeance LPX as that's what I previously had and it seems decent value + well reviewed), all their 16gb 3600 stuff seems to be supported but not the 32gb.
Am I just opening opening myself up to further RAM sticks failing by not sticking rigidly to their compatibility lists?

frozenfrozen

Google the combination and see if someone else is already using it without issue.

You can look as well to see what actual components are on the ram, the same memory chips could be on ram which is on the QVL.

K.O.Kiki

Honestly I've never looked at QVL lists (for personal rigs), just speed & latency & listening to buildzoid; hence why I just recommend Crucial Ballistix kits (since they're usually Micron E-die which is good enough - mine's running 3800 CL16, up from stock 3600 CL16).

kingtiger

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

just recommend Crucial Ballistix kits (since they're usually Micron E-die which is good enough - mine's running 3800 CL16, up from stock 3600 CL16).

What voltage and timings did you use to achieve 3800?

GHOST MGG

I will always check the motherboards QVL first.
QVL is only a rough guide,it really is just a list of Ram and timings that have been physically tested on that exact board.
It is very feasible that most DDR4 should work on the board,you just wont be able to use DOCP/EOCP or XMP if intel
Tweaking the timings on the ram manually is the way to go here,and with minute voltage changes etc it should be a fairly painless process to finD the stable sweetspot

GHOST MGG

kingtiger wrote: »

What voltage and timings did you use to achieve 3800?

it will differ with each motherboard bios and the quality of the Ram
K.O.KIKI said he likes crucial ballistix ram which is owned by micron and in my experience i prefer to also use ram manufactured by micron myself.
The JEDEC on micron manufactured ram is usually better optimised and their is enough head room left on microns EEPROM to be able to go above the rated timings of the ram.

K.O.Kiki

kingtiger wrote: »

What voltage and timings did you use to achieve 3800?

These are the sticks (4x 8Gb): https://eu.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/bl2k8g36c16u4r

I used Ryzen DRAM Calculator for the timings.
Main timings: 16-19-16-36-60-1 (tCAS-tRC-tRP-tRAS-tCS-tCR)

Voltages:
DRAM 1.38V
SOC 1.05V
VDDG CCD 1.00V
VDDG IOD 1.00V
cLDO VDDP 0.95V

kingtiger

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

These are the sticks (4x 8Gb): https://eu.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/bl2k8g36c16u4r

I used Ryzen DRAM Calculator for the timings.
Main timings: 16-19-16-36-60-1 (tCAS-tRC-tRP-tRAS-tCS-tCR)

Voltages:
DRAM 1.38V
SOC 1.05V
VDDG CCD 1.00V
VDDG IOD 1.00V
cLDO VDDP 0.95V

Thanks, bought the same ram a couple of days ago and waiting for delivery, nice to have a reference point when I install them in my x570

IAmTheReign

I built my first AMD machine earlier this year, always used Intel chips before. When I was researching I did read a few reviews that said AMD CPUs can be fussier than Intel chips when it comes to RAM compatibility. No idea how true that is myself but I did make sure to stick to something off the approved list

Homelander

I have built about 20 Ryzen based machines and bought whatever RAM, never had any issues. Might be more of an issue at the higher levels with very high speeds and other factors like timings, but for bog standard 3200mhz builds never any issues nor would I expect any.

Samuel T. Cogley

Only ever had an issue on ASRock boards. I usually try and stick to the QVL unless it's obvious the one the have listed is the black heat spreader and I've bought the red for example.

TheValeyard

I've always stuck to the recommendations for Ram for my motherboards.


I learned this the hard way back in my youth adding Ram into an auld Gateway P5-166 and boom, machine died.

I've also blown a machine from over clocking.

So yeah, I stick to the rulebook for Ram. Too much, I fear could go wrong.

Overheal

I use g.skill ripjaws and it's seemingly very compliant despite not being on my QVL.

K.O.Kiki

kingtiger wrote: »

Thanks, bought the same ram a couple of days ago and waiting for delivery, nice to have a reference point when I install them in my x570

Watch this video:

And have Ryzen DRAM calculator open in another machine while you fiddle with BIOS.

Make sure you know where your CMOS-clear jumper is, you will probably need it.

IIRC I had to use tRFC: 570 (not 554) & CAD_BUS ClckDrv: 40 (not 60) to get it to boot
I also don't have Gear Down mode selected anywhere.

ED E

For anything ECC I'd check, and for anything with a large fleet where a headache is a thousand headaches.


For home use I'd normally say use whatever but now specifically with Ryzen APUs I'd probably stick to the QVL as DRAM has a huge impact there.

Fionn

I was going to just get the best price, but after reading up a bit and seeing they're going to be paired with a 5000 Ryzen, i didn't want any incompatibilities down the road. after downloading the motherboard QVL and AMD's QVL list and after a lot of cross referencing looking at various sites/prices/specs nearly drove myself insane!

Eventually found a set of 64 Gb that will do nicely.

spiritcrusher

Thanks for all advice. I had myself driven nearly insane too cross referencing all the QVLs for my msi b550m and Ryzen 3700x, and picked something that a the closest match to something on the list with the speed I wanted. Didn't want to risk anything seeing as one stick seemed to just die on me last time - with one particular stick inserted (either by itself or paired with another) it wouldn't even load the bios, just stopped on dram led. The other stick worked fine. The whole system is barely 2 months old...
Anyway, I changed from 16gb corsair to 32gb g.skill trident Z 3600 and tightened the timings with dram calculator so hopefully there'll be no issues this time...