In a latest interview with Forbes AMD’s James Prior indicated Ryzen’s incapacity to constantly nail excessive reminiscence speeds with totally different RAM kits was right down to the motherboard makers. Our producer supply says that is unfair.
Memory points apart, Ryzen remains to be a fantastic platform. Don’t imagine us? Check out our information to the best processors.
“It’s really only the B350 chipset motherboards that we’re seeing this hit and miss memory support,” mentioned Prior. “This is right down to the design of the board and the way a lot time the producer has invested into that board in sustaining assist for top reminiscence speeds.
“We are discovering most B350 boards can hit 2,933MHz with none points and a few can do three,200MHz. It’s that final little little bit of particular magic sauce – the variety of layers within the board and the way a lot hint copper they put into it and the time they put money into the BIOS.”
Now, for a begin, it’s actually not simply the B350 chipset boards which undergo from ‘hit and miss memory support.’ I’ve been testing an entire bunch of X370 and B350 motherboards and so they all wrestle to get any greater than 2,667MHz utilizing our Ryzen 7 1800X CPU pattern and a regular Crucial package rated as much as three,200MHz.
I spoke to a dependable supply inside one of many major motherboard firms final evening who wished to stay nameless, however confirmed the compatibility points aren’t restricted to only the B350 chipset. They additionally mentioned blaming the producers for patchy reminiscence assist wasn’t actually honest.
“Blaming the motherboard manufacturers was perhaps a little unfair, especially as they are providing platforms for the AMD CPUs,” mentioned our contact. “It also seems strange that all motherboard manufacturers seem to be having some level of compatibility issue with certain memory speeds, wouldn’t this perhaps indicate that the fault or issue was something outside of their immediate control?”
They defined the primary motherboard firms now use on the very least six layers of their circuit boards, even on their price range choices, and that every one the parts are actually of the identical very excessive normal throughout the (ahem) board. Using high-quality parts on a motherboard means fewer breakages and fewer RMAs, which finally makes extra sense for a producer than cheaping out on a couple of elements.
We did communicate to a different producer although who does use 4 later PCBs for his or her lower-end B350 boards. They mentioned, “the underside line is that with extra layers the reminiscence format is best. The B350 often is a 4 layer board, and the excessive finish are six layers. Some reminiscence will work on an X370 six layer board, however not on a B350 4 layer board.”
So Prior might have some extent. Still, the problem stays that the reminiscence compatibility issues aren’t merely restricted to these board builders who use 4 layer PCBs. There can be an additional concern almost about utilizing two reminiscence slots or all 4 on a board; if you happen to fill out your motherboard’s reminiscence slots you’re much less probably to have the ability to entry the upper speeds.
But, to be honest, AMD aren’t simply placing the blame on the motherboard producers, they’re additionally blaming the XMP2 ‘non-standard’ too.
“We’ve got this proprietary non-standard, standard out there,” mentioned Prior on AMD’s latest Twitch Q&A. “It’s XMP2, which is very catchily named to mean: doesn’t work with anything else.”
The query about reminiscence compatibility kicks off at 34minutes 52secs.
The excessive reminiscence profile (XMP) is a simple means for RAM makers to qualify their kits to work with Intel processors and has been broadly adopted due to Intel’s historic dominance out there. The profiles are then decoded by the motherboards to supply overclocked voltage, frequency, and reminiscence timings to work with the platform.
This although is a proprietary setup which AMD is having to work round to make sure those self same reminiscence kits play good with Ryzen. “It’s not impossible,” mentioned Prior, “you’ve just got to decode it.”
“We’re putting a lot of work in memory, guys,” AMD’s Don Waligroski added on Twitch. “There are teams of people working to make memory better, it’s working and it’ll go further, so don’t worry. We’re on it. We came a long way fast and we’re going to go a long way more.”
And AMD are undoubtedly placing within the work. There is a new Ryzen microcode fix, most likely coming across the finish of May, which must iron out extra of the reminiscence points. This AGESA 1.zero.zero.6 replace ought to assist out on the compatibility entrance.
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