DDR5-7200 Memory - Why the lack of motherboard support out of the box?

[garetjax27]

Is it me, or does there seem to be a disparity with the availability of motherboards natively supporting DDR5-7200 speeds? I see a glut of DDR5-6400 supported motherboards, but what's the deal with -7200? Isn't -7200 a natively supported speed with current generation mobos, chipsets and CPUs?

And if a mobo isn't officially rated for -7200 speeds out of the box, how does one get it to? Is there a huge performance difference between -6400 and -7200 other than tighter (better) timings with the slower -6400 speed?

 

[Dan_D]

Speeds in excess of DDR5 6400MHz are all technically achieved through overclocking. Motherboards that "support" such speeds are simply boards that have had modules tested on them at such speeds. Technically, most boards should be able to do that under the right circumstances but its not a supported speed by Intel or AMD.

JEDEC speeds are increased over time as platforms are released with official support for those speeds. DDR5 used to officially. top out around 5600MHz if I recall correctly.

 

[dasa]

Memory speeds over 6400 can bring decent gains to CPU performance for Intel in some programs but it will make no difference to others which fit within the CPU cache.
AMD however may see a drop in performance especially in latency sensitive tasks when going over 6000\6400.

Also keep in mind you can only run two sticks of DDR5 at high speeds as current memory controllers struggle with stability when running 4 sticks of DDR5 RAM.

 

[garetjax27]

Speeds in excess of DDR5 6400MHz are all technically achieved through overclocking. Motherboards that "support" such speeds are simply boards that have had modules tested on them at such speeds. Technically, most boards should be able to do that under the right circumstances but its not a supported speed by Intel or AMD.

Excellent, thank you very much for this! =D

Also keep in mind you can only run two sticks of DDR5 at high speeds as current memory controllers struggle with stability when running 4 sticks of DDR5 RAM.

This is really good to know, as it prevented me from making a very costly mistake, lol. Thank you for the knowledge drop!

 

[Sycraft]

Excellent, thank you very much for this! =D

This is really good to know, as it prevented me from making a very costly mistake, lol. Thank you for the knowledge drop!

Also I'd add three things:

1) Don't worry too much about high speed RAM. Generally the speed them manufacturer chooses is chosen for a reason and the CPU doesn't really need more. People will search for edge cases, but I'd bet you a dollar when you look at what you run, it makes little if any difference. Particularly if what you run are games.

2) The more you push memory speeds, the more minor details matter, so if you go for high speed memory I'd buy it from your motherboard's QVL list. Those are RAM stocks they've tested at those speeds and found them to work. I've seen cases where memory not on the list doesn't work, despite it being from a good vendor and everything looking compatible. While not being on the list doesn't mean it WON'T work, being on the list means it almost certainly will and is a way to save yourself headaches.

3) Along the lines of 4 sticks not working, you also discover that as you go up in speed you often have to drop to smaller module sizes. You may discover that you can't use 32GB modules at high speeds, only 16GB modules. My board shows that on their QVL list. AT 7200, they only list 16GB modules. You have to drop down to 6000 before 32GB modules appear on the list, which is why I chose 6000 since I wanted 64GB of RAM. It continues on down like that, at 5600 you can get 48GB modules but one 2x, and at 5200 you can finally have 4x 32GB or 48GB modules.

 

[funkydmunky]

Is it me, or does there seem to be a disparity with the availability of motherboards natively supporting DDR5-7200 speeds? I see a glut of DDR5-6400 supported motherboards, but what's the deal with -7200? Isn't -7200 a natively supported speed with current generation mobos, chipsets and CPUs?

And if a mobo isn't officially rated for -7200 speeds out of the box, how does one get it to? Is there a huge performance difference between -6400 and -7200 other than tighter (better) timings with the slower -6400 speed?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vROfICq5yE

Check out that video. It explains a lot of why things are marketed and the realities of obtaining high speeds on RAM.
PS- give that guy a like he does some really good honest work.

 

[dasa]

1) Don't worry too much about high speed RAM. Generally the speed them manufacturer chooses is chosen for a reason and the CPU doesn't really need more. People will search for edge cases, but I'd bet you a dollar when you look at what you run, it makes little if any difference. Particularly if what you run are games.

If you play one of the few games that drops below 60FPS due to a CPU bottleneck even with the fastest CPU and sees decent gains from high RAM speeds then it can make a bigger difference than upgrading from 12900K to 14900K.
But there is a lot of programs that see little to no difference and for the most part gaming is GPU bottlnecked.

 

[daglesj]

The £mega bucks gaming rig I had in with the faulty 13900KS CPU was runnng 96GB of 7200 ram but I couldn't get 4 sticks to run at that with XMP1/2 or anything. I knew 4 sticks of that was pushing it ...but I wasnt the one that specced and built the damn thing! Latest BIOS updated etc. If I slotted it down to 6400 it all worked perfectly.

Maybe in 6 months or a year it might work better. I remember the days of trying to run DDR4 3200 was a bit of a gamble...

I really don't see a problem running RAM at 6400 giving you 200FPS when running at 7200 would give you 208FPS. Big Whoop! As I said, run a bit slower now and in 6 months try again with a new BIOS.