Sunday question: JEDEC, XMP profile or rather real overclocking?

Whether it is DDR4 or DDR5, the main memory, the so-called RAM, can be operated and overclocked in different ways. Which option do you prefer? Whether the memory in your own system performs to the standards specified by JEDEC, “human” overclocking, or “real” OC RAM largely depends on the use case.

In particular, the numerous requests for help in the RAM subforum suggest that many readers are unknowingly operating their RAM with the additionally stored JEDEC profile for DDR4-2133 instead of loading the XMP profile and thus the specs and the information announced by the manufacturer.

The respective XMP profile, which can be used for both Intel Core i series and AMD Ryzen processors and APUs, can be activated directly through the BIOS/UEFI of any computer system.

Community member “Ned Flanders” pointed out this fact and thus gave impetus to this Sunday’s question.

JEDEC, XMP or RAM OC?

While it is usually sufficient, especially for casual gamers who use their PC for other purposes, to load an XMP profile that is suitable for the platform and not too homeopathic, or even consider only JEDEC standards, experienced gamers and overclockers rely on instead of fully manually exploring clock rates and timings and ultimately getting even more FPS and frame times out of memory.

JEDEC standards, XMP profile or OC RAM, how do ComputerBase readers operate the main memory in their systems?

Meanwhile, world record attempts with DDR5 memory are already at more than 10,000 MT/s arrived, MSI and Kingston recently arrived with the help of liquid nitrogen, the so-called Liquid Nitrogen (LN2), with 5001.8 MHz the new record for DDR5-10004 CL72-126-126-126.

Just a few days ago, Gigabyte responded with an even more impressive DDR5-10044 CL46-58-58-46.

The fastest DDR4 memory module to date ran at 3600 MHz or DDR4-7200 and a CAS memory latency of 58 clock cycles. DDR4 hits a tough clock wall at 7200 MT/s in many cases and only the best overclockers can achieve even higher memory frequencies.

DDR4-2133 to DDR5-7200

Most gamers are much more human in everyday life, regardless of whether they use lighter or stronger RAM OC based on JEDEC standards and CPU specs using XMP profile or manual settings. But what clock memory or standard are the members of the community using?

Users who don’t know what specs they’re running their RAM on can use the ZenTimings or HWiNFO system tools, for example, to read information like memory clock and timings.

BIOS, tool or manual work?

Users who run RAM-OC generally do so for a variety of reasons. In addition to sometimes higher results in various synthetic benchmarks and not insignificant performance advantages in memory-intensive applications, gamers also benefit from RAM-OC.

Overclocking main memory can increase the number of frames per second, especially at the CPU limit, and especially increase the minimum FPS in games.

When it comes to OC RAM, there are also plenty of ways to get there. While one user relies on the OC and system tools as well as Auto-OC in the BIOS, the other explores the memory clock, timings, and primary, secondary, and tertiary resistors entirely by hand.

What do the members of the ComputerBase forum community think?

Participation is expressly desired

The editors would be very happy to receive well-founded and detailed reasons for their decisions in the comments on the current question on Sunday.

Readers who have not yet participated in the last questions on Sunday can do so. Exciting discussions are still taking place on the ComputerBase forum, especially regarding the latest polls.

The questions of the last fifteen Sundays

Do you have ideas for an interesting Sunday question? Editors are always happy to receive suggestions and submissions.

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