Hmmm... Why does my memory kit say 3733MT/s when I'm only getting 2400MT/s. False advertising!!
No, just kidding. We need to go in and make some adjustments
and it's as easy as a few clicks. This is DIY in 5!
Hey everyone! I'm Trisha Hershberger and you are watching DIY in 5,
the show where we do our best to make you a DIY tech-spert in 5 minutes or less.
Today, we'll be chatting all about memory overclocking profiles
and how in just a few clicks, you can get the top speeds out of your computer's memory.
If you find the tips in today's video useful, we would be honored if you would like this video, subscribe to this channel
and ding that bell so that you don't miss out on any future tech tips.
Computer memory for PCs generally comes in two flavors.
Memory that's built to industry standard specifications, also known as JEDEC spec,
and memory that is performance tuned to exceed standard speeds, timings, and voltage, aka overclocking.
The most common, and arguably the safest way to overclock, is using overclock profiles.
XMP or Extreme Memory Profile is an Intel specification
that allows you to overclock DDR3, DDR4 and DDR5 RAM
to get the best performance possible out of your PC that has a compatible Intel processor.
This is great for multi-taskers, gamers, creators and any enthusiasts who really like to push their system to its limits,
while still keeping it stable of course.
XMP provides a super simple solution to take advantage of higher memory speeds and lower latencies,
without the knowledge of complex overclocking mechanics.
All you need is memory featuring XMP profiles, an XMP compatible motherboard and a CPU that will support memory overclocking.
Luckily, XMP has been widely adopted in the industry so your chances of finding compatible hardware are pretty dang good!
XMP profiles can be accessed within the BIOS on supported motherboards
and provide varying levels of overclocking depending on the hardware you have in your system.
Here's a brief example of what turning on XMP might look like.
While your PC is booting up, enter the BIOS by way of your PC or motherboard's instruction manual
this is typically by pressing a button on bootup like F10, F12, Del or something else.
FYI you can also enter BIOS through Windows advanced start menu recovery settings if you don't want to play the Boot up timing game.
Once in your BIOS, you'll need to navigate to XMP settings.
Depending on your motherboard, this may be right there on your main settings screen
or perhaps within an advanced settings screen pertaining to your RAM or overclocking.
To activate XMP, select your profile, save and reboot.
You're good to go. Memory and motherboard manufacturers have already tested the speed, timings and voltage
to ensure that the XMP profiles will run in a stable way
but be sure to check your specific motherboard model's qualified vendor list
or the Intel website to be sure you pick a supported part or kit for your PC.
For Kingston DDR4 and DDR3, generally profile 1 is the advertised speed
and profile 2 may be a backup, less aggressive speed just in case profile 1 is unstable.
For other manufacturers, these profiles may be inversed.
Again, these settings have all been tested, but since every hardware configuration can vary, it's good to be aware.
Turning off or adjusting XMP is as easy as repeating this same process. Pretty cool.
So what's XMP 3.0?
XMP 3.0 is the new specification from Intel for DDR5.
XMP 3.0 allows for not just two, but three different preset profiles as well as two user customizable profiles,
which you can set in the BIOS and save to the memory.
XMP 3.0 also works with Intel's Dynamic Memory Boost Technology on 12th gen and newer CPUs
which when enabled will dynamically overclock the memory in real-time to provide the performance where and when you need it.
So what if you have an AMD system?
Luckily, most AM4 motherboards offer full compatibility with memory featuring XMP profiles.
Some motherboard manufacturers also have their own way of optimizing the speed and timings of an XMP profile to run on their AM4 boards,
for example ASUS has DOCP, Gigabyte has EOCP, and MSI has A-XMP.
For AM5 motherboards, AMD introduced a whole new overclock spec called EXPO,
which is an acronym that stands for AMD EXtended Profiles for Overclocking.
Similar to Intel XMP 3.0, EXPO supports multiple factory tuned DDR5 profiles, plus a user customizable profile.
If you are looking to get into DDR5 overclocking specifically,
we'll put a link in the description of this video to an official checklist of hardware that will work with this new technology,
including many options from Kingston - huzzah!
Thanks for watching everybody. If you've got any questions this video wasn't able to answer,
feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them if we can.
Take care and I'll see you next time with more DIY in 5!