ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2023) RAM upgrade to 5600 DDR5

[F0t0n]

I just bought 64Gb Kingston Fury Impact DDR5 5600 CL40 (2×32Gb) model KF556S40IBK2-64 https://www.kingston.com/en/memory/search?partid=KF556S40IBK2-64.
I mounted it to my strix scar 18 and... it does not turn on, does not even enter bios. Only the keyboards lights up... I suspected that the ram might not work at 5600, but I thought it would just work at 4800 and I would have a 64Gb 4800. My bios updated to last v 305.
Now I put back my 32Gb... And the new ram just put it on the shelf... Waste of money.
It is great laptop, and i9 13980hx supports 5600 RAM. It is sad that it not work with scar 18.
We can only hope that Asus will someday add support for 5600 ram in future bios updates.
Any suggestions, why this RAM do not work even on 4800 with scar 18? I think it should work...

[Ahmed92]

I just got a BIOS update (v312) for my SCAR 16 with 4090. It updated, but in MyAsus it still says v309. Anyhow, my memory got boosted to 5200MHz speed. Hopefully in the future it will be boosed to 5600MHz, as it should be.

[Bill_O]

thanks for that! How much ram do you have?

[Ahmed92]

64GB

[Sedna66]

hello. Can you post what exactly DDR5 RAM you are using?

thanks

[Ahmed92]

Hello,

Kingston Fury Impact 64GB (2x32GB) 5600MT/s DDR5 CL40 Laptop Memory Kit of 2 | Lower Power Comsumption | Intel XMP 3.0 | Plug N Play | KF556S40IBK2-64

This is the product name on Amazon

[Trebor58]

I had this same problem on two gen 13 MSI brand laptops and the Strix Scar 16 (2023) that I ultimately purchased.  When I investigated this issue for the first MSI laptop I was directed to the Intel website (I cannot find the link right now) what I found out is there is an Intel chipset limitation for this generation in that if you have 64gb of ram installed the ram will be limited to 5200MHz.  If you have 32gb or less of ram it will run at 5600MHz if your memory has that capability.  I have 64gb of Crucial ram in my Strix Scar 16 (2023) running at 5200MHz now.  Prior to bios v312 the ram would only run at 4800MHz.

[Trebor58]

Here is the link to the document:  https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/products/platforms/details/raptor-lake-s/13th-generat... 

The information is in section 6 starting about page 126. It takes a while to figure out just what Intel is saying.

[Yokehoo]

 Let's keep it simple and short from an slightly older version of this document 😉 I marked all the interesting parts for us here. In summary it says: i9-13980HX is supporting DDR5-5600 MT/s on single sided modules ( most 8GB and 16GB modules which means 16GB or 32GB kits ), while double sided RAMs are only supporting 5200MT/s ( like the 32GB modules which means 64GB kits ).

On an other thread to the same discussion of DDR5-5600 MT/s on the SCAR 18 we figured out, that the 64GB Kingston Fury kit 5600 with SK Hynix chips are now supported in BIOS version 312 and running at 5200 MT/s ( as the 32GB modules are double sided ) while one user reports problems with the original 32GB 5600 MT/s Samsung modules ( means 64GB kit ). They're still not working proper at this moment and seemed to be still running in 4800MT/s.

The smaler ( single sided ) modules like 8GB and 16GB ( means 16GB or 32GB kits ) should run at 5600MT/s don't matter which chips are used. This feature came with the latest BIOS version 312.

So if your 64GB kit is now runing at 5200MT/s, it works correctly in Intel specs 👍

[Trebor58]

Thanks for the response.  I did a lot of looking since February expecting to find a lot more comments about the ram speed situation.  This thread was the first one that I found so I thought I would chip in.

I went through this back in February after I had purchased a MSI Titan GT77HX 13VI-028US (which has 4 ram slots) and asked MSI support why the laptop ram was not performing at the speed that was being advertised at the time (5600MHz).  MSI is now advertising the ram speed for that laptop as 3600MHz.  MSI support response to me was to send me a link to the Intel document which says the laptop is in spec, which fortunately I could understand.  Chalk it up to MSI marketing and engineering not being on the same page and MSI support just sending me a link lol. 

After I purchased the Strix Scar 16 (2023) I upgraded the ram to 64gb and knowing the situation I purchased 5200Mhz ram and patiently waited for the bios update (312) that would run the ram at 5200Mhz.  So I am good to go.

[Yokehoo]

We're all waiting for a support of the higher RAM speeds from the beginning, cause it's a little bit misunderstandable when Intel is talking about a support for 5600MT/s and 128GB in the same sentence 😉

We're all suprised and confused why the laptops are only working in 4800MT/s while Intel is talking of a support up to 5600MT/s and 128GB 🤔 So the hint came with the documentation of the Intels internal specs. After all the discussions from the community ASUS did some work on their BIOS and finaly we get our performance 👍 

When we take a closer look to the screen ( taken from the Intel doc ) MSI is also right. Intel describes the possibility of a 4 RAM slot support for the HX CPUs but with lower speeds ( as you can see in the right lane of the screen ). This results in the maximum support of 4x double sided 32GB modules in summary the maximum of 128GB but only with 3600MT/s meanwhile 4x single sided 16GB modules will end up in 4000MT/s in the maximum of 64GB. In my small understanding of this explicit electrical components it depends on the lanes and how they're bound to the CPUs RAM controler.

Slightly confusing to endusers when they only look into the shortend specs which suggest a maximum speed of 5600MT/s and a max support of 128GB. This leads to the assumption, the CPU will always support and run the RAM in 5600MT/s with a maximum of 128GB in any case, but that isn't the fact.

To be honest, that was my first thought too when I ordered this laptop 😁 After my purchase I immediatly upgraded the RAM to a 64GB 5600 kit and was wondering why this mashine is only running at 4800MT/s. After a few contacts to ASUS support and some discussions here in the forum we figured out the "real" specs for this CPU in the Intel doc and after a few BIOS updates ( delivery status of mine was 302 ) they did it with the new version 312 👍 As the ASUS support told me before they won't support overclocking, I was not expecting the XMP Profile possibility so far ( even if it would be a nice feature in the future ), but the speed came up to Intels listed and supported 5200MT/s für my modules...

Therefore I have to say ( at this point ) I'm a much happier user now than the last 4 month 😊