cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

z690 Apex with Samsung DDR5 Memory Issues?

Murlo26
Level 10
Hi,

I have a new build put together and the memory is giving me all sorts of issues. I have seen a few people saying that the Apex board might have some dim slot issues but not sure if that is actually an issue. I snagged up a 6000mhz CL36 G Skill kit and tried pairing with my apex board and 12900k. Everything is on a custom water loop with fairly solid temps. I am on the latest bios. I recognize the Samsung flavor of sticks are not officially supported by the Apex board yet, but am curious as to why (per the QVL). The hero board has mine listed already but the apex list seems light. I tried the XMP profile and have had very little luck. I have been able to get it to boot into windows but typically crashes on any heavy workload and sometimes even just being in windows things lock up.

I am just curious if this is something I need a bios update for and just have to wait or I should look at going after different memory. Part of why I got the apex was to finally play around with memory overclocking but not even being able to run xmp kind of sucks. Just surprised that the apex board has so little support for memory so far.

Any thoughts?

I appreciate any help and sorry if this is covered elsewhere.

PC Components:

12900k (stock for now until I get memory sorted)
z690 Apex
G Skill F5-6000U3636E16GX2-TZ5K (32gb)
EVGA 3090 Kingpin Hydrocopper
EVGA 1300W G2 PSU
Corsair 5000d
2x360mm radiators
Windows 11

Edit: I have also tried the built in profiles on the apex, like all of them and none of those seem to work even speeds down to like 5200mhz, wouldn't boot into windows on those. I also tried the XMP and bumped voltage up...no luck really.
31,046 Views
139 REPLIES 139

rjbarker wrote:
You guys are putting far too much energy into Apex QVL......has nothing to do with the Memory kits not being listed.

The Apex Board is superior to other Baords....XMP reuires to be tweaked a bit....tons of threads.

Saw one thread wehre someone with an APEX was retruning both kits of 5600 C36 Dominators as "XMP isnt working"....I have exact same kit....booted into XMP fine, but not fully stable, a few minor tweaks and it OC's fine and have it running at 6000 C36.....

Suggest going here to Shaminos OC'ing Thread and have a quick read thru Part 2 "Memory".....in that time that you post stuff about QVL stuff you could have a qiuick read and follow some of the suggestions.....get her up n running....its where I began...

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?126439-ROG-Z690-Overclocking-Guide

Remember XMP = OC
I have had other Memory going back to DDR3 that required tweaking after loading the XMP Profile....
My last GSkill DDR4 4000 Royals required a bit if tweaking on my Maximus XI - Extreme Board as well.....


I personally have never had issues with XMP profiles being 100% stable using asus products for like a decade. I completely understand what you are saying though. I was just surprised that there is really no samsung dims listed on the QVL for apex but it's all there for the hero board.

I appreciate that link, I will read though it and probably work on getting my sticks to work.

I guess it just seems like after some research that the SK hynix stuff has been more stable for people so I was tempted to get some different sk hynix stuff to make life easier.

Thanks again, I will read though it.

PS. I am still interested to hear why the apex QVL is fairly bare and way lower than a board like the APEX. I am guessing it's just because the hero is a much more mainstream board that probably sells FAR more than the apex and people that get the apex are expected to have to tweak their own stuff. But again, I have never really had issues in the past.

Murlo26 wrote:
I personally have never had issues with XMP profiles being 100% stable using asus products for like a decade. I completely understand what you are saying though. I was just surprised that there is really no samsung dims listed on the QVL for apex but it's all there for the hero board.

I appreciate that link, I will read though it and probably work on getting my sticks to work.

I guess it just seems like after some research that the SK hynix stuff has been more stable for people so I was tempted to get some different sk hynix stuff to make life easier.

Thanks again, I will read though it.

PS. I am still interested to hear why the apex QVL is fairly bare and way lower than a board like the APEX. I am guessing it's just because the hero is a much more mainstream board that probably sells FAR more than the apex and people that get the apex are expected to have to tweak their own stuff. But again, I have never really had issues in the past.


That last line makes sense.....everyone and there dog buys a Hero .......lots buy Extreme.....Apex is in its own little world I suppose.....
I did have a look at the skimpy QVL for Apex, but didnt pay much attention as the Board is so good vs the others for running Memory...particularly Daisy Chain topology (2 Slots).....which Z690 is....for example ..my older Z390 Extreme Board and Z390 chipset is built / designed around T Topology (Data transfer Memory to CPU IMC), whereby 4 DIMMS is better for XMP and OC'ing vs Daisy Chain topology Z690....2 slots is better.... if that makes sense ....Google it, lots out there 😉

On a side note the Dominator 5600 C36 uses Samsung and have proven to be solid for me anyhow....the Dominator kits "pre 5600 C36" were Micron and everything I read stated "not so good"....the latest Domintor 6200 C36 and 6400 C38 are Hynix are supposed to be better than the Samsungs, we shall see as I have a Domintor kit 6200 C36 being delivered soom 😉

rjbarker wrote:
That last line makes sense.....everyone and there dog buys a Hero .......lots buy Extreme.....Apex is in its own little world I suppose.....
I did have a look at the skimpy QVL for Apex, but didnt pay much attention as the Board is so good vs the others for running Memory...particularly Daisy Chain topology (2 Slots).....which Z690 is....for example ..my older Z390 Extreme Board and Z390 chipset is built / designed around T Topology (Data transfer Memory to CPU IMC), whereby 4 DIMMS is better for XMP and OC'ing vs Daisy Chain topology Z690....2 slots is better.... if that makes sense ....Google it, lots out there 😉

On a side note the Dominator 5600 C36 uses Samsung and have proven to be solid for me anyhow....the Dominator kits "pre 5600 C36" were Micron and everything I read stated "not so good"....the latest Domintor 6200 C36 and 6400 C38 are Hynix are supposed to be better than the Samsungs, we shall see as I have a Domintor kit 6200 C36 being delivered soom 😉


On G.Skill website the F5-6000U3636E16GX2-TZ5K is claimed to be QVL for the Apex

wing_man wrote:
On G.Skill website the F5-6000U3636E16GX2-TZ5K is claimed to be QVL for the Apex


Now that you mention this I remember seeing that after I bought the kit. Kind of a bummer that it doesn't work well then. I am still half tempted to get some sk hynix based stuff but don't really feel like dishing out another few hundred bucks over my current kit and then having to sell this kit.

Anyway, some good advice in here so thank you all.

PS. I will try some of the basic settings from some of the guides in here and see how things go. I will update my progress and hopefully be able to get these kits stable at 6000.

Murlo26 wrote:
Now that you mention this I remember seeing that after I bought the kit. Kind of a bummer that it doesn't work well then. I am still half tempted to get some sk hynix based stuff but don't really feel like dishing out another few hundred bucks over my current kit and then having to sell this kit.

Anyway, some good advice in here so thank you all.

PS. I will try some of the basic settings from some of the guides in here and see how things go. I will update my progress and hopefully be able to get these kits stable at 6000.


I have the exact same kit except mine is the RBG set. I'm running the Z690 Hero and I don't think the bios is fully flushed out yet for 2 reasons. 1 CPU-Z doesn't read the SPD info half the time and 2 it's fully missing the XMP 3 profiles.

XMP 3 is supposed to offer a 3rd factory XMP profile along with 2 more custom profles you are able to save your own settings in and rename. These are not showing/available and it only shows XMP 1 & 2. This tells me the bios/compatibility isn't fully there just yet with the new DDR 5 XMP 3 memory.

Phroste wrote:
I have the exact same kit except mine is the RBG set. I'm running the Z690 Hero and I don't think the bios is fully flushed out yet for 2 reasons. 1 CPU-Z doesn't read the SPD info half the time and 2 it's fully missing the XMP 3 profiles.

XMP 3 is supposed to offer a 3rd factory XMP profile along with 2 more custom profles you are able to save your own settings in and rename. These are not showing/available and it only shows XMP 1 & 2. This tells me the bios/compatibility isn't fully there just yet with the new DDR 5 XMP 3 memory.


I think XMP I and XMP II or just different modes in the bios as far as enabling XMP if I recall. I think I gives the motherboard more "auto" control and XMP II is full XMP timings but I could be wrong.

I know what you are saying though. XMP 3.0 spec is supposed to have a bunch of timings on there and room to store additional profiles. No idea how to do that yet.

Murlo26 wrote:
I think XMP I and XMP II or just different modes in the bios as far as enabling XMP if I recall. I think I gives the motherboard more "auto" control and XMP II is full XMP timings but I could be wrong.

I know what you are saying though. XMP 3.0 spec is supposed to have a bunch of timings on there and room to store additional profiles. No idea how to do that yet.


You are correct in regards to XMP 1 & 2; however, there is supposed to be a 3rd XMP profile/option along with 2 more custom profiles like so

"XMP 3.0 will be introduced alongside DDR5 memory modules and increases the number of available factory profiles up from two to three. You can also add two personalized ones."

Take this MSI Bios for instance, you can see the 3 XMP profiles along with the 2 custom profiles you're able to save and rename.

92087

Nothing like that is currently available in the ASUS Bios...it's just Manual/XMP1/XMP2

Phroste wrote:
You are correct in regards to XMP 1 & 2; however, there is supposed to be a 3rd XMP profile/option along with 2 more custom profiles like so

"XMP 3.0 will be introduced alongside DDR5 memory modules and increases the number of available factory profiles up from two to three. You can also add two personalized ones."

Take this MSI Bios for instance, you can see the 3 XMP profiles along with the 2 custom profiles you're able to save and rename.

92087

Nothing like that is currently available in the ASUS Bios...it's just Manual/XMP1/XMP2



Looks like MSI is way ahead of the other motherboard manufacturers. The MEG Z690 UNIFY-X has a ton of ram on its QVL.
Buildzoid said on his channel the UNIFY-X was the only bios that worked properly when he tested the two slot boards,

wing_man wrote:
Looks like MSI is way ahead of the other motherboard manufacturers. The MEG Z690 UNIFY-X has a ton of ram on its QVL.
Buildzoid said on his channel the UNIFY-X was the only bios that worked properly when he tested the two slot boards,


Ironic as I believe he was the one who got me interested in the apex and I think he even bought one for himself lol.

Murlo26 wrote:
Ironic as I believe he was the one who got me interested in the apex and I think he even bought one for himself lol.


Check out this "mobo PCB Breakdown: MSI MEG Z690 Unify X" on Actually Hardcore Overclocking.