Memory QVL Question

1Wolf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
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433
If you purchase a memory kit from a common manufacturer (i.e. Corsair, GSkill, Crucial, etc.) and your exact motherboard is listed on the memory manufacturer's QVL for that kit, is there any sort of guarantee that the memory kit will function at the advertised speeds and timings?

So lets say you are interested in a 32 Gig kit consisting of 2x16 Gigs at xxxx Mhz and x-y-z-q timings and that memory manufacturer shows your exact motherboard as being compatible. Is it reasonable to expect that once you activate the XMP profile that you will indeed get those advertised speeds and timings? Or are those speeds and timings advertised more of a "best case scenario" type of thing and you MIGHT get them but you might not?

I ask because as I read user reviews of certain memory kits I continue to see things like "My mobo was listed in the QCL for this 3600 kit but the best it would do is 3200". So I'm just not sure if the manufacturer is advertising what the memory WILL do (provided your mobo is listed for that memory kit) or what the memory COULD do?

Thanks!
 
My personal experience is I’ve never had an issue running advertised speeds with xmp. But nothing is 100-% guaranteed.
 
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QVL means that DDR4 modules are tested to boot at SPD speeds in 2133MHz. So no guarantees about advertised speeds.
 
I don't think that there's a universal answer for this; it depends on what the manufacturer is willing to do. For instance, the memory QVL for my Asrock X470 Taichi Ultimate does list XMP speeds, but also notes that memory OC depends on the CPU and memory. They use the word "supported" but that's not the same as "guaranteed". If you run into trouble at an XMP speed, I strongly suspect that they might be willing to work with you, but their fallback position will be "see note re memory OC".

So no, I doubt that there's a guarantee unless the QVL you're looking at actually says "guarantee".
 
Thanks! Was just sort of curious what those speeds and timings that manufacturers advertise actually meant and how much of it they stand behind. Judging by the manufacturer comments in various sites like Amazon and Newegg, it does seem that the manufacturers do seem to expect that the end user will get the XMP speeds and timings they advertise provided they have the right hardware. I was just curious what the general opinions were on this. Thanks again :)
 
Thanks! Was just sort of curious what those speeds and timings that manufacturers advertise actually meant and how much of it they stand behind. Judging by the manufacturer comments in various sites like Amazon and Newegg, it does seem that the manufacturers do seem to expect that the end user will get the XMP speeds and timings they advertise provided they have the right hardware. I was just curious what the general opinions were on this. Thanks again :)
they would be smart to stand by it. I can promise you no one bought high end low latency high speed ram to run it at less than advertised rates. And I'd be willing to bet many people return ram they have issues with. Always buy new from a reputable seller so returning it is an option.
 
This just happened to me. Bought a Gskill RGB memory kit for a Asrock Taichi X570 motherboard. It was listed as working with that motherboard on Gskill's website but it was not listed on Asrock's official QVL list. It was 3600 speed memory but I could not get it to run at XMP setting it would only boot at 2133.
 
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