I added two more sticks of RAM, bringing my system to 32GB. They have the same rated speed, voltage, and timings as my original pair, although the memory versions are different. With all four sticks installed, enabling XMP raises the memory speed to 2666MHz, but then the CPU debug light turns on and the system will not boot. I can recover by resetting the BIOS and leaving XMP disabled. I'm using a Ryzen 5 3600X with an MSI Tomahawk Max. Is there a way to make the full 2666MHz profile work reliably?
2 Answers
Four sticks put more stress on the Ryzen memory controller than two, and XMP is technically an overclock, so the rated profile is not guaranteed with every configuration. Try updating the motherboard BIOS, then test a lower memory speed if necessary. A second XMP profile may also work if your board provides one.
The different RAM versions may use different memory chips even when the labels show identical specifications. Mixing those kits across four slots can make memory training fail. A newer BIOS may improve compatibility, but if manual settings still do not work, running 2400MHz is a perfectly reasonable compromise. You could also eventually replace all four sticks with a matched two-stick kit.
That makes sense. I tried setting the memory manually, but 2666MHz still would not boot. 2400MHz is working reliably, so I’ll use that rather than replace everything right now.
Both profiles turned out to be identical, but I did get the system stable at 2400MHz. Since I only use a 1080p 60Hz display, I’ll probably stick with that for now.