PetrolHead
Posts: 68 +36
Intels memory controller goes all the way to 4000 mhz and beyond
I'm not saying it hasn't got potential, just that anything beyond 2666 MHz is technically an overclock even on Intel's hardware. I'm not sure if Intel is overly cautious with their specs or if memory manufacturers have just had so many years to tune their modules to suit Intel's hardware, but it does seem low compared to what sort of memory speeds you can obtain using XMP profiles (which are predefined and tested overclocking profiles). The best I've seen from Ryzen (in reviews and forum posts) is 3466 MHz, which is not that great in comparison, but considering that Ryzen represent a new architecture, I wouldn't consider it a bad start.
.Disclaimer.quoted from the read.
Please note none of the cpu's were overclocked.but we do plan to do an overclocked version of this test soon.
Be ready with the comments.
Also from the article:
"all the chips were tested using DDR4-3200 CL14 memory"
This leaves two alternatives: either the memory wasn't used at its rated speed, and we don't know what speed was used (shame on Steve if this is the case), or that both systems ran with a memory overclock (which it is even if that's the rated speed for the RAM modules).
Interestingly, while comparing what sort of memory overclocks the Asrock X370 Taichi and Z370 Taichi support, I came across a table depicting how the maximum memory frequency depends on the amount of modules. The values are:
1 module (single rank or dual rank): 2667 MHz
2 modules (single rank): 2667 MHz
2 modules (dual rank): 2400-2667 MHz
4 modules (single rank): 2133-2400 MHz
4 modules (dual rank or a mix of dual and single rank): 1866-2133 Mhz
I'm not quite sure if these limitations are because of ASRock's motherboard design or if only the memory controller is to blame, but based on the trend of previous AMD CPUs, I'd blame the memory controller. In any case, the amount of modules does seem to affect even the maximum stock clocks on Ryzen as well. I doubt Ryzen 2 will bring improvements on this front, but future versions of AGESA and maybe even new AMD specific RAM (such as G.Skill's Flare X and Fortis) will hopefully improve the situation.