Road to XMP stability - DDR5 4x16 (GSkill 6000CL36) on Z690 Formula

[Peazmack]

Looking to share some input as well as try to get some from other, more experienced people in the field of OCing and coping with Z690/DDR XMP issues. So I went ahead of me, and bought 2 kits of GSkill DDR5 2x6 @6000MHz CL36. Of course, like for majority of us I reckon, it does not boot in either of the XMP settings. Now before I give up and switch back to using only 2 sticks instead of 4 which seem to cause more issues, looking for some input on the below. Im using latest bios available as of now for my motherboard (Z690 Formula with 12900K).

Closest to the XMP that I got is 5400 CL36 with VDD and VDDQ left alone at 1.3, System Agent left on auto (1.25 it seems) and Memory Controller on 1.23. That seems to be rock solid, had over 2.5 hours spent in Karhu's RAM Test without any errors the other night. VDD and VDDQ did not really impact the stability here, unless it went over 1.35, then I started getting errors. 1.23 for memory controller was the lowest I could go while being free of errors.

Attempted to go for 5600 CL36 tonight, but hardly any progress. Closest to Stability was VDD and VDDQ at 1.31 (I doubt it made any difference here), System Agent still on Auto and Memory Controller on around 1.29. I could boot no problem, but had constantly first ram error found within first 30 minutes of RAM Test, which I consider a fail. Any advice how to move it forward? Shall I push the Memory Controller above 1.3 threshold and look for stability there? Any other setting I'm missing here?
Additionally, should I settle for 4x16 5400 CL36 quad or switch to 2x16 dual with XMP 6000 CL36? Which would be more beneficial (I know it's rather marginally better) for gaming?

[AwenMilano]

join the boat,
i have z690 hero board, with newest bios 1003
i7 12700kf
asus ryujin ii 360
g.skill 6000 cl36 16x2
msi rtx 3080ti suprim x
nvme wd black sn850 2tb
hdd wd black 4tb
hdd seagate baracuda 8tb
cooler master cosmos c700m
psu msi 850w gold

since buy at dec 21 this build always problematic.
at first i have g.skill f5-6000u3636e16gx2 tz5rk
if xmp off all running fine, but if xmp 1 or 2 on will experince game crashing under 10 min randomly
trying use hyperpi and soo much error come out. and i return that ram to seller.
they offering me to change taht ram to f5-6000j3636f16gx2 tz5rk with i add some extra cash to them because a diffrend price.
ia ccept it, after few days ram came and i try use it
xmp off is stable no crash
xmp1 on is slightly unstable hyperpi can pass 2 times in 8 times testing, memorytest86 pass mem.controler in 1.298v auto
play game will random crash but take more time than before, its about before 1 hour, sometimes can reach 1 hour.
xmp2 on is very unstable, because mem.controler only give it 1.101v. play game crash in under 3min. memtest86 error under 2min

and i try to xmp1 on and i increase mem.controller to 1.37500. it will read 1.368v at the system. beside that all default.
day 1 with this setting play game is fine. try use hyperpi is pass too.
but at day 3 it was crash again. this is frustating me soo hard. anyone can help?
or can this issue fix by next bios release?

[Silent_Scone]

AwenMilano wrote:
join the boat,
i have z690 hero board, with newest bios 1003
i7 12700kf
asus ryujin ii 360
g.skill 6000 cl36 16x2
msi rtx 3080ti suprim x
nvme wd black sn850 2tb
hdd wd black 4tb
hdd seagate baracuda 8tb
cooler master cosmos c700m
psu msi 850w gold

since buy at dec 21 this build always problematic.
at first i have g.skill f5-6000u3636e16gx2 tz5rk
if xmp off all running fine, but if xmp 1 or 2 on will experince game crashing under 10 min randomly
trying use hyperpi and soo much error come out. and i return that ram to seller.
they offering me to change taht ram to f5-6000j3636f16gx2 tz5rk with i add some extra cash to them because a diffrend price.
ia ccept it, after few days ram came and i try use it
xmp off is stable no crash
xmp1 on is slightly unstable hyperpi can pass 2 times in 8 times testing, memorytest86 pass mem.controler in 1.298v auto
play game will random crash but take more time than before, its about before 1 hour, sometimes can reach 1 hour.
xmp2 on is very unstable, because mem.controler only give it 1.101v. play game crash in under 3min. memtest86 error under 2min

and i try to xmp1 on and i increase mem.controller to 1.37500. it will read 1.368v at the system. beside that all default.
day 1 with this setting play game is fine. try use hyperpi is pass too.
but at day 3 it was crash again. this is frustating me soo hard. anyone can help?
or can this issue fix by next bios release?

Set VDD and VDDQ to 1.375, retest

[AwenMilano]

Silent Scone@ROG wrote:
Set VDD and VDDQ to 1.375, retest

thx, for the advise. i will try it and update later about the result

[ProJewks]

so, I’ve ordered another set of trident z5 6000 c40 but these are J’s instead of U’s. I’m hoping they aren’t Samsung… I’m hoping they run stable. I tried last night with the ones I have at 6000, 5600, and even 5000MHz at VDD/VDDQ/VDDTX/MC at 1.35 and SA at 1.25. No luck. As soon as I launch a game computer freezes and I have to restart. Again everything is stock except for 12900k v cache at -50mV offset for temperature purposes.

[AwenMilano]

Silent Scone@ROG wrote:
Set VDD and VDDQ to 1.375, retest

test with vdd and vddq to 1.375 no luck for me, still feel unstable. play games will random crash.
and at last i test each ram individually. restore bios to default and enable xmp I (let the voltage auto)
when play games when only use 1 stick and xmp I on, it was run well. testing game about 1 hour no crash. it was happen with both of ram
testing hyper pi, 1 stick always pass without error. the other stick is sometimes can pass, sometimes get 2 or 4 error " not exact in round"
then after few experiment with 2 stick, i put 2 of the stick again.
but idk why at armoury crate a ram cannot sync anymore with aura sync. it just gone. and ram light up as rainbow only now.
try gaming about 8 days without problem. since yesterday when i open apex legend system get bsod with error message "page fault in nonpaged area"
what failed: win32kfull.sys.
nah after this i run windows memory diagnostic, i run 2 times standart and extended, it run until finish without error
use tm5 also 8 times test, 7 times pass and 1 time get 1 error
now aida 64 extreme, run system stability test at 4min get bsod with error message classpnp.sys
run again aida system test after boot again, it run until 31:55 min and get error message `Warning: Hardware Failure detected! test stoped`
play game still get random crash, its about sometimes 20 min, sometimes can up 1 hour.

this really confussing me as a commom people, idk what happen now, its a ram fault? or a mobo?
or its win10 education not stable with my system?
thinking about bough a 1000w psu now for test and try win 11 maybe can help?

[Silent_Scone]

AwenMilano wrote:
test with vdd and vddq to 1.375 no luck for me, still feel unstable. play games will random crash.
and at last i test each ram individually. restore bios to default and enable xmp I (let the voltage auto)
when play games when only use 1 stick and xmp I on, it was run well. testing game about 1 hour no crash. it was happen with both of ram
testing hyper pi, 1 stick always pass without error. the other stick is sometimes can pass, sometimes get 2 or 4 error " not exact in round"
then after few experiment with 2 stick, i put 2 of the stick again.
but idk why at armoury crate a ram cannot sync anymore with aura sync. it just gone. and ram light up as rainbow only now.
try gaming about 8 days without problem. since yesterday when i open apex legend system get bsod with error message "page fault in nonpaged area"
what failed: win32kfull.sys.
nah after this i run windows memory diagnostic, i run 2 times standart and extended, it run until finish without error
use tm5 also 8 times test, 7 times pass and 1 time get 1 error
now aida 64 extreme, run system stability test at 4min get bsod with error message classpnp.sys
run again aida system test after boot again, it run until 31:55 min and get error message `Warning: Hardware Failure detected! test stoped`
play game still get random crash, its about sometimes 20 min, sometimes can up 1 hour.

this really confussing me as a commom people, idk what happen now, its a ram fault? or a mobo?
or its win10 education not stable with my system?
thinking about bough a 1000w psu now for test and try win 11 maybe can help?

9 times out of 10 the issue is a tuning one. It's normal for stability to be achieved easier with only 1 module. You can try slowly increasing the module voltage as you have already done, or look to tuning the CPU rails. Memory Controller VDD and CPU System Agent Voltage.

Depending on the board, try both Tweak Mode 1 and 2 and XMP 1 and 2.

[Elmegaard]

I am new to OC and build my first PC in years ( my last PC was a Q6700 to show you how long it s been). Did a rookie mistake of buying to kits of Gskill 6000 cl40 to have 64 gb. It runs perfectly stable but at 4000 mhz. I tried XMP ( 1 and 2 ) and had system crashes and BSOD. Reset cmos and update bios to 1003 and now it is stable again at 4000mhz. I was thinking to update the bios to 1304 and tried to raise the frequency. Should I leave it at 4000 or should I attempt 48000 or 5200 ? Any advice?

[Undertoker]

Elmegaard wrote:
I am new to OC and build my first PC in years ( my last PC was a Q6700 to show you how long it s been). Did a rookie mistake of buying to kits of Gskill 6000 cl40 to have 64 gb. It runs perfectly stable but at 4000 mhz. I tried XMP ( 1 and 2 ) and had system crashes and BSOD. Reset cmos and update bios to 1003 and now it is stable again at 4000mhz. I was thinking to update the bios to 1304 and tried to raise the frequency. Should I leave it at 4000 or should I attempt 48000 or 5200 ? Any advice?

*

I would update to 1403 and try bumping it up a small increment at a time, doing a benchmarking and stress test between each nudge up.
But ultimately your mixing two kits, perhaps sell both one at a time and buy a 64Gb kit

[Chainbold]

Peazmack wrote:

Additionally, should I settle for 4x16 5400 CL36 quad or switch to 2x16 dual with XMP 6000 CL36? Which would be more beneficial (I know it's rather marginally better) for gaming?

If you get 4 x 16 GB running at 5400 CL36, without any doubt, I would prefer this over 2 x 16 GB 6000 CL36.

I think, 4 x 16 GB DDR5 running at 5400 CL36 is actually pretty good, considering that DDR5 has just been launched, and is far from "mature".

[Peazmack]

Thanks for the feedback Chainbold, I'm leaning towards that option as well, although I do assume, that if I go with 2x16, I'd be able to squeeze at least 6200 out of it with same cl36 timings, shouldn't be too much of an issue. Additionally, I might jump over to a higher grade DDR5 further down the line as soon as the situation of availability and maturity will clear out a bit. So easier to replace 2x16 than 4x16, especially that those GSkills won't be top anymore (well, they aren't now even). Finding a buyer for my other set of 2x16 will be easier now too.

With that said, I had a hard time going above 5400 4x16 CL36. That is without going beyond 1.31 Mem controller. I'm a newbie, not sure if going more is actually safe there. Dropped the timing to CL38 but still no luck. Boots no problem but throws errors in Karhu Ram Test still.
What I'm doing as I write this though, is that I've placed two sticks which are closest with serial number to each other into A2and B2 slots (the recommended ones for dual action) and threw XMP1 on those. Booted no problem and right now going over 14 minutes in Ram Test without errors. I'll stick around to reach 30 mins, if no errors pop, will try to OC them to 6200-6400. So conclusion, on 811 bios I can boot 2x16 XMP no problem and seem stable without further tweaking. While 4x16 allows for max 5400 CL36. Will see how far OC I can squeeze out on 2x16 and then will do some last attempts at 5600 with CL40 on 4x16.

As a side note, I have just noticed that all my 4 sticks are actually right next to each other with the serials - ending with -45, -46 -47 and -48 which I believe isn't that common when we talk about buying 2 separate sets of 2x16 sticks 😄 Either blind luck or seller actually made me a favor.