So after a benchmark through some other thread here some weeks ago, and it was really suggested i turned on xmp, because it made my score go into the red (and i been using no xmp for 2 years so far) but then i got something very much like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/7v6bd5/pc_turns_on_turns_off_then_boots_normally/
Shouldn't everything be enough to support it all? I also slightly read you need to overclock your CPU too?
Can someone enlighten me a bit on this, xmp off and everything is fine.

Cpu: Intel Core I7-8700K, 3.7 GHz
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB(2x8GB) 3200Mhz CL16
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Hero X Z370 (Wi-fi)

Offcourse you come for this,

3 years ago*

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XMP is an OC-profile. While it should work most of the times there is a chance that your ram just don't go fullspeed.
If the ram would not be 2yrs old I would say refund it and get a new one but...
There might also be some random support problems between the board and the ram.

What you could try to do if you have some free time and the hunger for faster ram is, that you oc the ram by yourself with little stepps. There are a lot of tutorials for this out there.

3 years ago
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Corsair have lifetime warranty, so I would have them replaced. It could fix the problem, but OC is never a guarantee even if it says it should work.

Motherboard supports 3200 O.C but CPUs base clock is DDR4-2666.

3 years ago
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I can understand the compability issue with the motherboard, though one would expect being Asus and a rather expensive one would support it.

From RAM to CPU there are really like literally more then 100 options in this bios, and i have no idea what even one of them does, i am very afraid i might kill/fry something.

I have done 2 years with xmp off, never knew it was that bad, but that benchmark really showed my numbers in red, i don't know how much the difference would be if it would function properly, is it really even worth it?

3 years ago
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Newer ryzen and intel cpus gain some speed improvements from faster ram but it all depends on timings and mhz. 2400-2666-3000-3200 can all feel the same with different timings.
I would not think about the renchmark to much.

If you are happy with your speed it's all fine. ;)

3 years ago
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Thanks, well i unpack (especially winrar is so slow) and moving files a lot, it could all be a little bit faster then i wanted, but i came from a quad core, with 8gb and geforce 430gt before this, so i am used to that and can't really complain i guess.;)

But sometimes it feels like i am doing a little bit too many tasks at a time which my pc might not like, why i wondered if overclocking RAM would help that.

3 years ago
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My opinion is, that it's not worth it. I usually under clock my rig to make it more silent.

Indeed, in a benchmark it is very clear, but in real usage I cannot tell the difference if I'm under- or overclocking. I prefer the silence over higher benchmark scores :)

3 years ago
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Yeah i prefer silence too, i am touchy when it comes to sound, why i got a be quiet case, silent fans, even a silent GPU. :)

3 years ago
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Did you overclock your CPU? Rarely a borderline unstable OC will render the RAM unstable too.

Intel CPUs aren't significantly affected by RAM speeds, at least in games. You're not missing out a lot.

You can try to manually change the frequency and timings in the BIOS instead of using the automatic XMP profile. This will let you fine-tune the speed so it's not quite as fast as the XMP setting, but it's faster than the stock. The frequency and CAS latency are the most important things that need to be changed, and the ones advertised for your RAM are 3200MHz and CAS 16. If you manually change to those (and it boots fine), then you're very close to what the XMP profile would be.

There are other timings too, but you would need to know what the exact model of your RAM is to be able to set these properly. You can experiment if you want to though, reducing timings by small amounts like 2 or 3 won't damage your RAM. In the worst case you would need to reset your CMOS which will return everything to default (your motherboard has a handy button for that, above the USB ports on the back).

If it doesn't boot at 3200 CAS16, you can try 3000 CAS16. It's not as fast, but a lower frequency will be more stable. Alternatively increase the CAS latency to 17.

You can also increase the RAM voltage marginally as well. If you only increase by <0.5V it will have a tiny effect on temperature and none on longevity, but it might make it more stable. DDR4 RAM voltage is either 1.2 or 1.35V, so check which one your RAM is using. You can find out in the BIOS or using CPU-Z. A voltage increase by itself might render the XMP profile stable.

3 years ago
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I did not overclock the cpu because i find that scary (as in killing your cpu), there isn't just one option to overclock (like auto) there are like 100 options in my bios to change things, and i got zero clue about voltage and that sort of stuff.
Also I value silence more above extra fps or speeds, but if it's possible to increase speeds such as unpacking with winrar or moving files i wouldn't mind trying it.

Thanks for the rest of the information maybe i can try increase it little by little.

3 years ago*
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Overclocking your CPU is going to have a larger effect on Winrar than faster memory, but it's not going to be a huge change. 5-10% faster depending on the degree of OC. Your CPU is specifically designed to be able to overclock though, so if you bought that instead of a regular, cheaper i7-8700, you kind of wasted money (and potential).

There are a lot of settings in the BIOS, but most of them are irrelevant to you if you only want to do a basic overclock for both CPU and RAM. You're not going to damage or kill the CPU if you only change the settings that are relevant to you by small amounts.

A basic OC is very simple. Go into the BIOS, open the "Extreme Tweaker" tab at the top, find "CPU Core Ratio" on the list and set it to "Sync all cores". Then, increase the "1-Core Ratio Limit" to 48. This will make your CPU run at a max frequency of 4.8GHz instead of the default 4.7GHz. At this point you should use a stability tool like prime95 to see if the overclock is stable (run it for >5 minutes, the CPU will get warm and probably loud, but it will definitely not damage it unless something is terribly wrong with your cooler). You can use a tool like RealTemp to monitor temperatures. Ideally you should run prime95 for an hour or two, but if the PC doesn't crash or overheat (above 80C) within 5-10 minutes then you're probably stable. If not, you can always go back and revert to default by using the CMOS clear button on your motherboard.

If it's stable at 4.8, you can try increasing the ratio to 49 and use prime95 again. Going above 49 will likely be impossible on the default voltage. Increasing the voltage by a small amount is safe, but it will increase the temperatures (and noise), especially if your cooler isn't very good. Voltage is increased by changing "CPU Core/Cache Core Voltage" to "Manual Mode", then changing the Voltage Override to something like 1.30V. This is a safe starting point. I wouldn't recommend you going above 1.35V, at this point you're entering advanced territory (other settings need to be changed to keep the CPU stable).

When in the "Extreme Tweaker" tab, on the right you can see your current RAM frequency and voltage. Take note of what the voltage is, then find the "DRAM Voltage" settin and increase it by 0.02V than your current voltage (eg. if you have 1.35 right now, increase it to 1.37). Then, enable the XMP profile and see if it boots. There are also settings specifically for DRAM frequency and DRAM timings, where you can set your RAM frequency to 3200MHz and CAS to 16 respectively, if XMP still doesn't work and you want to try doing it manually.

3 years ago
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I don't believe a i7-8700k was cheap to be honest, also anything in the 9000 range is a major power cost increase and definitely not worth it for 10% more speed on unpacking and such.

I will try the other suggestions, thanks.

3 years ago
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Make sure your Bios is up to date, I had something similar happen when changing RAM, after turning on XMP, it wouldn't boot correctly,
luckily a Bios flash to the latest version fixed it.

3 years ago
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Thanks, it is up to date.

3 years ago
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Usually your motherboard manufacturer should have a list of supported RAM (QVL),
It probably doesn't matter, but if your's is on there, it might point to faulty ram.

3 years ago
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Reset Bios to defaults. I assume you already did that.

Did you carefully read the text when enabling the XMP profile? Make sure that it doesn't also automatically apply some weird built-in overclocking profile to the CPU. My Asus Z270 would do that for some reason unless you selected 'no' in the following screen.

3 years ago*
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Isn't it better to have the latest bios?

No it doesn't change anything to the cpu, but only RAM.

3 years ago
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Default settings, not version.

3 years ago
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3 years ago
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Depends on how you define working,
If i turn off xmp, the pc boots up normally, and the pc reacts normally, but then i wont have the benefits of xmp (the question is if that's a big deal or not).

3 years ago
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You could try to set the timings by hand instead of using a XMP profile. Check this list, find your exact part no. (page 5 for DDR4 3200) and set the corresponding timings you see there.

3 years ago
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thanks.

3 years ago
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sometimes XMP profiles are broken(wrong settings). Sometimes faulty RAM works on stock, while on XMP makes crashes.

I think setting RAM timing manually(+OC) is better than XMP

For example my Ballistix Sport LT on both XMP is 3000MHZ timings 16-16-16-35, while OC'ed easily goes to 3600/16-19-16-36 at 1.35V!

3 years ago*
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the first thing would be to update your bios but it seems like you did that already.
when you enable xmp you need to turn everything memory related to auto. especially timings and voltage obviously. higher performance ram needs more voltage to run the xmp settings.

so you turn on your computer, it runs for a few seconds, turns off again, turns on and runs normally. right?
what's the ram clock after that? is it the higher xmp clock or is it back to standard clock?

if it's back to the standard speed the xmp profile seems bad and you will need to punch in the settings into the bios manually.

if it's on the higher xmp clock that extra reboot is just the memory controller retraining every single time.
i don't know about intel but asus amd boards have a fast boot option to disable memory retraining every time the system shuts down completely or loses power. enable fast boot and see what happens.

3 years ago
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It is updated, and i like to keep everything at auto, anything changing manually i find it too scary.

i am kinda getting lost with the next few sentences what you mean, yes with xmp on the computer starts 2 seconds, shuts off and then turns on normally, only on a cold boot, restarting or whatever it acts normally.

Fast boot has always been on ever since i got the pc, don't know if it's really that helpful but fast boot sounded good.

3 years ago*
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i mean if the ram runs at the xmp speed of 3200 mhz after that extra reboot or if it runs at lower speed than xmp.
you can easily check ram speed with cpu-z under windows:
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

3 years ago*
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This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

3 years ago
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