I've got a set of G.Skill F5-7200J3646F24GX2-TZ5RK 24x4 RAM from my old build, and I'm curious if it can be used with AMD motherboards. It's marked as XMP RAM, but I'm looking to upgrade to an AMD setup. Will this RAM also work as AMD EXPO? It's on the QVL for the X870E Nova WiFi motherboard. Normally, I'd buy new RAM, but prices are ridiculously high right now. I've heard about issues with ASRock boards, but I purchased this RAM a while back when it was in demand, and I missed the return window. I'm ready to use it and see if it'll work out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question!
3 Answers
The main issue here isn't really XMP vs EXPO; all AMD boards can read the XMP profiles. The potential problem is with having four RAM modules at such a high speed. Usually, DDR5 can struggle with four sticks, and AMD CPUs particularly don't handle higher speeds well. You might need to manually downclock to 6000 or 6400 for optimal performance. That way, you can keep a good ratio between the Uncore and memory speeds.
Don't worry—there's actually no specific RAM for Intel or AMD; it's more of a marketing thing. Your XMP RAM should work fine with AMD processors. If it doesn't automatically set up, you might just need to overclock it manually instead of using the XMP/EXPO preset. No big deal!
Since you're using DDR5, there's no reason to buy new RAM right now. If your RAM has a profile for 6000, go with that. If it doesn't, choose the next higher profile and then adjust it to around 6000. Keeping a 1:1 ratio for the memory controller is important, usually defaulted to UCLK 3000. Just make sure to stress test with tools like OCCT to ensure stability. Easy peasy!
So, should I really drop my frequency from around 7200 or 6800 down to 6000? I'm kinda new to all this, so those terms are a bit overwhelming! Right now, my setup runs at 6800.
Just to be clear, I should set my DRAM frequency to 6000, right?