I want to upgrade ROG Strix G18 (2023) RAM to 5600mhz in BIOS

[NecipReis]

I want Asus officials to support this issue. I want to upgrade ROG Strix G18 (2023) RAM to 5600 mhz. Please do a bios update for it. Other brands allow up to 6000 MHz.

[sonertari]

Hi @LastingOption can you please confirm again if you are running your G15 with 96GB at 4800 please?

[a3x05]

Hi, sorry, didn't notice that. Keen to know that too. If the chips are SK Hynix the modules should run at 5200Mtu since the 13th I9 supports that without XMP. As a side note, his laptop has a 12th gen CPU. 

[sonertari]

No problem @a3x05. And as you say, his is 12th gen i9, and I'll order a 13th gen i9, which makes me even more hopeful.

Btw, I think the reply by @Yokehoo to @LastingOption here sounds like @Yokehoo also assumes that @LastingOption is successfully running 96GB at 4800 on his G15. I hope that both I and @Yokehoo are right.

[Yokehoo]

Dear @sonertari,

I did some research in some specs, which not means that these informations are all correct. As I don't know the "newer" models G814 I only can guess what this means ( cause myself using a G834 model ).

First let's have a look at the standard Intel website where the CPU is discribed as "max supported memory 128GB". Sounds great, but we have to figure out, how this could be reached. Therefore we have our detailed Intel spec chart ( https://cdrdv2-public.intel.com/743844/743844-005.pdf ) which is dated to Feb 23. In this chart we can find some closer informations for the HX CPUs and their used non-ECC DDR5 SO-DIMM modules. On page 99 Table 26 we find following informations: 

As we can see in this documentation, theoretical the CPU "should" support 48GB modules double ranked and therefore the maximum speed is set to 5200MT/s ( as seen in here ). 

Now as we know the official Intel specs, we have a base to talk ( or in my site to guess ) about the supported speeds and RAM limitations from ASUS side. As the G834 was promoted to maximum support 64GB of RAM, the newer G814 models where only discribed as maximum supported memory of 32GB ( found no further or other informations till now ) which makes me a bit confused and let me guess that there's a limitation from ASUS site. As we know the mainboard is a 2 slot design it could end up in supporting maximum 64GB while a 4 slot design ( like MSI i guess it was ) can support the maximum of 128GB in 4 modules ( surely of course in lower speeds ). Theoretically ( from my understanding and reading the charts ) 2x 48GB modules can work in 2 banks in a summary of 96GB with 5200MT/s BUT this has to be enabled and supported in the UEFI and by the board. 

Sadly we'll never be informed what kind of "optimized system performance" is brought to us in every single UEFI version, so I guess it will end up in a selftest if the modules are recognized / read and supported correctly from the UEFI and how they will perform ( if so ). If you're a lucky guy and have good contact to a local dealer or store which can help you out you should test this kind of configuration before buying a kit of them. To be honest, I don't believe that this will work without any issues ( as I'm still sceptical in these curious new module sizes ) and there must be a reason why the G814 are listed as 32GB max RAM support.

So I sadly can't give you a right answer to your question. Sorry for that.

[sonertari]

Thanks for the detailed reply @Yokehoo.

I know that there are at least 2x online stores who sell G814 models with 64GB RAM, in fact both have exactly the same model number as in my question: first here and second there. (Please search for G814JI on both urls and pages.)

So, I think that we can assuredly say that G814 can handle 64GB RAM just fine, am I right?

Also, I have checked the SHA256 checksums for v318 BIOS updates, for G814 and G834, and they are of course different. However, this does not mean anything, because the checksums are different for G834JY and G834JZ as well. (All v318 BIOS binaries may have the same functionality, no matter what the checksums are, we never know.)

To be honest, I don't trust the documentation from ASUS, especially when they say that the max RAM size is 32GB. Because, here is the story: I type these lines on a 7+ years old ASUS laptop, which originally had just 16GB RAM. I insistently asked the ASUS support 3 times in 4 years if I could upgrade its RAM to 32GB. And they repeatedly replied that no I could not because its max RAM was 16GB, and this was clearly mentioned in their documentation. Four years after I purchased it, I finally made up my mind to upgrade the RAM to 32GB no matter what happens. Guess what, I have been running this laptop with 32GB ever since, for the past 3+ years, without any issues whatsoever. (Thank you ASUS support and documentation.)

Now, my goal is to have 96GB RAM on a G814, for which the ASUS documentation reads that the max RAM for it is 32GB. But there are at least 2x online stores selling the exact same model with 64GB RAM. (Thanks again ASUS.)

This of course does not mean that 96GB is possible, but since 96GB seems to work on G15, I am hopeful.

But I'm afraid I have to risk $US375 and buy those 2x 48GB RAM sticks to try again myself, just as I did with my old laptop 3+ years ago. (No store here will try that for me.)

Any further ideas or suggestions please?

[Yokehoo]

Dear @sonertari,

o.k. that's some kind of different / new information to me. As long as I don't speak or can read turkish language I just can guess the numbers 😉 Over here you can also buy laptops with "upgraded" RAM options which means, they get the original laptop and upgrade the RAM manually on their own ( just in specs of the manufacturer ). So I can't tell you if this is legit BUT if they sell the laptops that way, they should work and can handle it. 👍 That's the reason why my shop didn't agree the upgrade to 64GB 5600MT/s RAM ( cause ASUS had a limitation to 4800MT/s in their early UEFI versions ). So I have to buy the RAM seperatly by myself on my own risk but had always in mind - maybe faster will be supported soon and when I upgrade now with lower speeds, I have to upgrade twice... That doesn't made any sense to me so I ordered directly the 5600 kit ( nevertheless if it's running in 4800 or support later 5200 or in the future 5600 with XMP ).

No matter how, the official website is still talking about 32GB max ( https://rog.asus.com/tr/laptops/rog-strix/rog-strix-g18-2023-series/ ) which is ( in my eyes ) a marketing or supporter strategy cause we know from the G834 that the CPU can handle 64GB ( while the layout of the mainboard looks quite the same ). Which brings us to the different checksums for the UEFIs you figured out between the G834JY ( nVIDIA 4090 ), the G834JZ ( nVIDIA 4080 ) and the G814JI ( nVIDIA 4070 ). The UEFI of a laptops are a bit more complex and bigger then the UEFIs in Desktop models, cause they implement the added BIOS information for graphiccards, too. As they are soldered to the same board and wheren't changeable ( like slot cards in desktop models ) it won't make any sense to get a seperate BIOS chip only for the graphics. This ends up in slightly different changes to the UEFI versions between JZ and JY or 834 and 814 and causes the different checksums 😉

But back to topic. As ASUS is talking about max supporting 32GB RAM and we all know the i9-13980HX can handle 64GB RAM in our G834 models ( including their own specs in the Intel documentation ), I guess it will support 64GB of RAM. At this point I'm in to you. But when it comes to the newer 48GB modules I can't tell you what will happen. The only thing that might help is to search the internet for the combination of 2x 48GB modules running on a i9-19380HX CPU within a 2 slot design. If anyone ( in best case more people ) get this combination to run ( without any modded UEFI versions ), the chance could be great that the same combination will also run on the G814 or G834 models.

From desktop site I mean that there are existing some different Intel ME versions but I don't know if they have any effect in our laptops, too. I guess there are some special ME versions for laptops cause the layout and hardware is slightly different to desktops, but as we're blessed with a lot of detailed informations to our systems ( irony off ) we'll never know which actual version is used and what kind of changes are made. For desktops I think they implement continously the support for newer, faster and bigger RAM modules. If they do so for laptops ? I don't know.

Last part. When it comes to the discussion between me and LastOption I never knew if he gets his planned 96GB kit running on his 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU in the G15. 😞 At this early point we where discussing about the supported speed of single and double ranked RAM modules and the difference between the 12th Gen ( 4800 ) and 13th Gen ( 5600 ) CPU supported DDR5-RAM speeds. To be honest, I didn't recognize the summary of 2x 48GB modules at this moment and as we're not talking about the possibilty to run such modules in this system while we are just talking about the expected speeds ( and possible XMP profiles ), I assumed that this modules where running in his mashine but not at the expected speed. Maybe my fault that could be misunderstood in further discussions like in here. Shame on me. I'm sorry for that.

[sonertari]

Thanks again @Yokehoo for your detailed reply.

I agree with you. And it's not just you, I also think that @LastingOption is running 96GB on his G15, albeit at 4800MT/s, and this is based on his own words.

Btw, I have further updates. The seller of the second link I mentioned above has just answered my questions. I asked how is it possible that they put 64GB RAM in G814JI-N6140, even though ASUS says that its max RAM is 32GB. The seller says that ASUS actually means that the max 32GB in their specs is just for single slot, making it possible to install 64GB on 2x slots. So, he insists that there is no mistake in their ad, and they really install 64GB RAM on G814JI-N6140.

So, I asked another question. Since 64GB RAM is possible on G814JI-N6140, can they upgrade the RAM to 96GB too? The seller said that that's not possible in Turkey, not at the moment. I also asked why, is it the availability of 48GB RAM sticks in Turkey or BIOS not supporting such RAM sticks or 96GB RAM in total? He said it's all of those reasons, based on his earlier explanation (only 32GB per slot), hence there is no point of waiting for the availability of 48GB RAM sticks in Turkey. (Btw, I've always been planning to order the Crucial CT48G56C46S5 RAM sticks from Germany.)

I have another update. The other seller (of the first link I mentioned) has answered my question too. He says that BIOS update for 96GB support is not here yet, so only 64GB is possible with G814JI-N6140 models.

In summary, I now have two confirmations that 64GB RAM is really possible on G814JI-N6140.

As a side note, I'm not convinced about the explanation by the first seller on why 96GB is not possible in Turkey. Because, ASUS specs for Strix Scar series for both G15 and G18 read max 64GB is supported, meaning the total can be 128GB (assuming 64GB per slot is correct, as the seller claims). But you can buy Scar series of ASUS laptops in Turkey, hence 48GB RAM sticks could be sold in Turkey (but not yet), and could be installed on Scar series. So the seller's reasoning on availability does not seem to add up, imo. But that's a minor issue.

Furthermore, @LastingOption clearly mentions that he has a Strix Scar 15 (2022) G533ZX-XS96, not G512 series. Note that G533 specs read max 64GB, whereas G512 specs read 32GB. This is very similar to the differences in specs for G834 and G814, max 64GB and 32GB respectively. So, I conclude from this that we can install 96GB RAM on Scar series, but not on non-Scar series of Strix models. In fact, I think that Scar owners will be able to upgrade to 128GB hopefully, once 64GB RAM sticks will be available in the future.

A BIOS update may add 96GB support to non-Scar series as well, but we don't know when or if ever ASUS will do that.

In conclusion, to be on the safe side, I think that I unfortunately have to purchase a G18 Scar series laptop if I want to have 96GB RAM now. This is sad, because I don't need RTX4090, which adds more than US$1000 to the price.

[Yokehoo]

Hi @sonertari,

I just found this link here https://www.phs-memory.com/computer-memory-48gb-ddr5-asus-rog-strix-g814ji-n6140-ram-so-dimm-sp49300... where the shop is talking about the unofficial support of 96GB of this model. As they sell their RAM with 100% compatibility, money back guarantee and 5 years of warranty I think this should work. As I have no experiences with this shop or their modules by myself I can't tell you which kind of RAM this is. So I also have no clue what kind of chips and timings they're using for their modules. Looks to me that they have their own brand cause there are no words from known manufacturers in the description and we don't know if they're using SK Hynix, Micron or Samsung chips.

But at least if these modules are working on this laptop, there's a big chance that other brands of 48GB modules where also supported and run on this machine 😉

Hopefully this may help you.

[a3x05]

@sonertari and @Yokehoo 

I can confirm that my G614JI runs 64GB at 5200Mt/s just fine. Dual rank Kingston modules with Hynix chips. The 814JI should be the same machine in theory. I'm a bit confused why 96GB (if they work which seems plausible from what the seller, Yokehoo posted, claims) should only run at 4800Mt/s. To my knowledge dual rank modules should always run at 5200Mt/s.

Btw, unlocking the BIOS is an option, but I don't quite know how risky it is. With a unlocked BIOS XMP could be enabled and speed exceeding 6000Mt/s should be possible. Good luck! 

[Yokehoo]

Dear @a3x05,

I'm just an enduser ( as many of us here ) and we try to help each other with some tipps, tricks and hints but we don't have to mix or mesh up some informations given to us. As we read the doc from Intel they're talking about 48GB module support. Some sites before ( in the same documentation ) we figured out that RAM slots can be used in different styles ( 2 or 4 slot design ). While using 2 slots design ( which we've in here ) the speed can get up to 5600MT/s for single sided ( single ranked ) modules meanwhile the double ranked modules where maxed out to 5200MT/s. So in theory 2 double ranked modules with 48GB should end up in 96GB total memory with 5200MT/s ( if the modules support this speed ).

The user LastOption was talking about his G15 which is 12th gen Alder Lake CPU and this CPU only supports 4800MT/s in maximum from Intel site ( while using 2 slot design ) and they're talking about the maximum support for 32GB modules in this doc for 12th gen Alder Lake CPU.

When we're now looking to our 13th gen Raptor Lake CPU the Intel doc is listing 5600MT/s in maximum for single ranked and 5200MT/s for double ranked modules ( in 2 slot design ) and is also supporting newer 24GB and 48GB modules. Which ends up in the conclusion that a total amount of 96GB should be possible from hardware site with the maximum speed of 5200MT/s while the modules are double ranked and the mainboard is using a 2 slot design. As these infos where given by the original documentation of Intel, I just want to figure out if someone has done this before to help @sonertari out with his question and as I found the PHS memory website where they sell such modules and they describe them as "overraming" and "proven / tested to run" I was confirmed to my guess that this combination theoretical should work. BUT as I never tested it by my own, I can't approve or confirm this combination to work by my own and can't make any screenshots from that. Therefore it's still 3rd party knowledge for me and I have to trust in the words from PHS memory. As I can't find any detailed informations on their website about the used modules for this upgrade to run, I can't make a guess which kind of modules should also run from other known manufacturers or brands. At least we can say: the possibility to run such modules in this combination is given and have been pretested by ( only ) this one store so far. Maybe if we do a bit more research we possibly can find some other users or more informations to confirm that this combination will work. From my site, I'm happy with my 64GB kit in my G834 running at 5200MT/s. 

XMP would be nice to test some stronger timings or faster speeds like 5600MT/s on double ranked modules but as long as it's not officaly supported or unlocked by ASUS we can't figure out. Years before I could get some experiences by using some BIOS modding tools and I think today it's still possible to unlock or unhide some options but within the complexity of modern UEFI I don't want to try this out. The risk to damage the whole system by setting a wrong bit is to high and the BIOS chips are soldered to the mainboard and can't be changed any more simply like the socked ROMs on older mainboards. Therefore you have to ask an expert in this but this guy should be a trustful person and should know what he does to the settings. In this case I won't ask any random people of the internet to modify my BIOS, too. It's to risky to get false BIOS, false settings, false modifications or maybe some virus stuff in there or what else is meanwhile possible in 2023. 

Therefore I have to wait and hope that ASUS will bring up XMP option some day.