I'm putting together a system with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and already have a 32GB (2×16GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 CL36 kit, model F5-6000J3636F16GX2-TZ5RS. It uses an Intel XMP profile, but the exact kit isn't listed on MSI's memory QVL for the MAG B850 Tomahawk MAX. Should I still feel comfortable using this motherboard, or would it be wiser to choose a board such as the ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Plus that officially lists the kit? I'm also concerned about reports of some ASUS boards damaging 9800X3D processors and would like to know whether either of these boards is affected. Has anyone used this memory with a 9800X3D, and did they run into stability or setup problems?
4 Answers
If the price difference is small, choosing the board with the exact memory kit on its QVL can provide extra peace of mind, but it isn’t normally necessary. I’d make the decision based more on BIOS quality, power delivery, connectivity, and warranty than on the QVL alone.
DDR5-6000 isn’t an especially extreme speed for a modern AM5 system, so I wouldn’t reject the MSI motherboard solely because this exact part number is missing from the QVL. You may need to enable the board’s memory overclocking profile, and if it isn’t completely stable, try a slightly lower speed or looser timings.
I wouldn’t treat the QVL as a complete compatibility list. Manufacturers test a limited selection of kits, so many perfectly normal DDR5 modules won’t appear there. This 6000 MT/s kit is fairly conventional and should have a good chance of working on the MSI board.
The QVL is useful when you want a kit that has been specifically validated, but not being listed doesn’t mean the RAM is incompatible. The main difference is that this Trident Z5 kit is tuned around Intel XMP, while G.Skill’s AMD-oriented Trident Z5 Neo line is generally the easier choice for Ryzen systems. That said, the XMP kit should still work, possibly with some manual BIOS settings if needed.
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