What's the point of Ryzen DRAM calculator? (2024)

Really I don't get what's the use of this app for a mere mortal?
Apparently it's an essential tool for DRAM OCing on Ryzen. But what does it actually do?
I downloaded it, and all I can see that I'd have to fill in a bunch of information I don't have the slightest idea about.
I thought the app would detect the installed RAM, CPU, and MB combo and suggest me a recommended setting based on a database.

So how is this even useful? How should I know any of the info that needs to be filled in?
Ok, I know my cpu type, but how do I find out the memory type? or DRAM PCB Revision, or memory rank?

There's a program called Thaiphoon Burner which can be used to read and save the RAM specs to an HTML file which can then be loaded by Ryzen DRAM Calculator to auto-populate the needed info for your RAM. The free version of Thaiphoon Burner will allow you get the specs you need and export them to the HTML file.

The usefulness of Ryzen DRAM Calculator can be hit and miss. Some people have great success with it while others can't get any use out of it at all. In my case I have a Samsung B-Die kit, a lower binned B-Die, and none of the recommendations will even boot for me. That could be because of the RAM or my motherboard or my CPU. I have never had an issue with the XMP settings, though. As soon as I put the system together I loaded the XMP profile and everything worked and was stable.

Dan_D said:

I've used it to take some modules pretty high. I've gotten my 32GB kit (4x8GB) DDR4 3866MHz modules to just over 4,000MHz. It's B-Die, so that tracks.

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See Also

Ryzen 5000 RAM Guide: Find The Best RAM For Your Zen 3 CPUFree 'Project Hydra' Overclocking Tool for Ryzen 5000 Now Available for DownloadDRAM Calculator for Ryzen by 1usmus v1.7.0 ReleasedRyzen DRAM Calculator by 1usmus

Have you had better success with 4x8GB vs 2x16 GB?

AntiQuark said:

Have you had better success with 4x8GB vs 2x16 GB?

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I'm curious as well. When I first started on the Ryzen architecture I bought 2x16GB modules and couldn't get them past 2666MHz, mostly because they were dual ranked modules. Switched to 4x8GB modules and had no problem hitting my 3200GHz. I was able to use the calculator get them to 3466GHz, but they weren't overly stable. Had to back it down again to 3200.

Space_Ranger said:

I'm curious as well. When I first started on the Ryzen architecture I bought 2x16GB modules and couldn't get them past 2666MHz, mostly because they were dual ranked modules. Switched to 4x8GB modules and had no problem hitting my 3200GHz. I was able to use the calculator get them to 3466GHz, but they weren't overly stable. Had to back it down again to 3200.

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I've got 2x16 2666 dual rank modules, and getting them to 3000Mhz was easy. But I never even tried taking them higher yet. That's why I was looking at this app, maybe it could help reduce the trial and error a bit.

Don't type in a bunch of information, download something like thaiphoon and let it read your module information, then export that into the DRAM Calculator and let it calculate the values. The usefullness is in giving you some baseline numbers/values to start with and not having to start from scratch and guess everything.

So Thaiphoon would read your memory module, then you click Report, scroll down and click Show Delays in nanoseconds.

Then you do a Complete HTML export, which can be imported into the DRAM calculator and it fills in almost all of the required fields besides things like which processor you are using and stuff (and possibly other info it can't find).

You can then Calculate SAFE which should work most of the time, or Calculate FAST which may or may not work (neither is 100% but SAFE is more likely to work). If it works great, you can tweak from there and at least you have a good starting point. If it doesn't work you may have to dial back slightly but at least you have a starting point. It's not perfect as it can't know for sure how good your chips are at overclocking, it just gives it's best guess to get you started to where people have been able to get without as much trial/error.

Since I upgraded to 64GB and 4 sticks that probably further limits OC options.

I did the export from taiphoon but importing it didn't fill in any of the fields.

AntiQuark said:

Have you had better success with 4x8GB vs 2x16 GB?

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Hell no. 2x DIMMs is generally better. But, it hasn't made a huge difference for me on the Intel side. On the AMD side, I try not to use four modules when I can avoid it.

MadMummy76 said:

Since I upgraded to 64GB and 4 sticks that probably further limits OC options.

I did the export from taiphoon but importing it didn't fill in any of the fields.

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Did you click the "Show delay in ns" link before doing the complete export? If not it will not load. Anyways, it's not required, just a tool that can help some folks out.

The relevant featureset of DRAM Calculator is that it provides more-or-less "workable" settings for a given RAM kit.
It also includes a pirated memory test which you can run in safe mode to check stability.

The most common issue with it is that it gives you far too low DRAM voltages, e.g. 1.37v instead of 1.45v which would still be perfectly fine.

the memory overclocking process itself goes somewhat like this;

Identifying what sort of chips reside on your memory sticks is generally the hardest part, which is why you get "easy" recommendations like this

if you want to suffer in single-rank memory land you can also scour videos like this;

and others

Dan_D said:

Hell no. 2x DIMMs is generally better. But, it hasn't made a huge difference for me on the Intel side. On the AMD side, I try not to use four modules when I can avoid it.

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Per your recommendations about that, I went with 2 sticks when I put together my 3700x rig. Motherboard gave 2 profiles and the 2nd worked flawlessly. From there on a turnkey system. Thanks!

With my, Intel builds I've always tried to match sticks and channels. Seemed like they were always peppier that way. AMD Ryzen is a little bit different.

SukiEgan said:

Hi... I'm running a 3600X on ASRock Steel Legend X570 with Hyper X Fury Black 32GB (twofold sided pass on) 16GBx2 2666MHz with Samsung b-kick the bucket chips. I couldn't get any of the recommended numbers from the mini-computer to work, in any event on both essential and optional timings. It recommended I utilize 16-17-17-17-36 for v2 with the safe preset at 1.42 rec volts. I couldn't actually get those numbers stable and Windows would crash oftentimes, nonetheless, I had the option to keep the cl16 and go 21-21-21-41 with no misfortune in execution and drop the voltage down to 1.35v (as yet testing lower voltages for dependability).

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For me, stability > speed. I'll take a stable machine that might be a fraction slower over a machine that crashes 2-3 times a week.

I too had to settle on my RAM settings, as I was not able to successfully get a full 3200 out of my home rig. I wound up having to drop it to 3133 and the system has been rock solid since.

Never found the program to be accurate. Using timings calculated gave slower performance or would not work or even boot up.

For my Hynix M dims it didn't have anything over 3466 and even the 3466 settings did not work when tried. I was able to get them up to 3733 with over 800%, no error MemPro testing. Currently at 3600mhz since it ended up being slightly faster due to tighter timings.

With B-Die modules, my timings resulted in significant faster speeds and about the same latency as the calculator, that is if the calculator settings actually worked.

I don't think it has been updated recently, it can give you an idea where to start. Just look at the mobo auto timings and the calculator's and work the major timings first and then one at a time with a hell a lot of testing for the minor timings - One At A Time OAAT.