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Corsair’s 64GB DDR3-2133 memory kit on the Rampage IV Black Edition

Raja
Level 13
Another article spurred by challenge – how tricky is it to setup a 64GB memory kit on the Rampage IV Black Edition? Well, if you make the right purchasing choices and have a CPU with a good memory controller, it’s fairly simple.

The right purchasing choice comment refers to purchasing a single memory kit rather than combining multiple memory kits to make a higher density. I contacted a friend over at Corsair and told him I’d like to test one of their 64GB kits. Long story short, I ended up receiving Corsair’s 64GB CMD64GX3M8A2133C9 rated at DDR3-2133 with 9-11-11-31 2N timings. That’s faster than I urge most users to go on these platforms, as the processor memory controllers can require manual voltage or memory timing adjustments to run such densities in this frequency range.

My personal 4960X CPU sample is not known for being the best CPU for overclocking memory. Having toyed with a 16GB memory kit in the past, I found it needed upwards of 1.30 VCCSA to get to the desktop at speeds over DDR3-2400. With that in mind, the prospect of obtaining stability with a 64GB kit at reasonable voltages seemed to be a good challenge.



The kit:

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Eight of these babies for 64GB…


I should add at this point that the purpose of this article is not to determine who needs 64GB of memory and who doesn’t. Most of us have no need for anything over 16GB on the enthusiast platforms. Unless of course we’re manipulating large files or have a pressing need for a huge RAMDisk. The latter is the type of thing that hardware enthusiasts tend to do – whether it’s a requirement or not. In fact, being enthusiasts we just do things a certain way because we can.

Anyway, I was expecting a nice challenge with this memory kit with my CPU being an “average” sample. The goal was to see if I could plug the kit in, set XMP in UEFI and if that would be enough for the kit to be stable.


Sure enough, it was:

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Hmm too easy for my liking. Well, not really. I am actually impressed, as it means there will be fewer complaints here on the forums that things are not working as they should be.


I decided to dabble with overclocking the kit as a result. Not expecting much here mind, given the kit is rated at 1.65V at its specified timings. First port of call was to see if DDR3-2400 was on the cards in any way. Sadly not, timing and voltage changes did not help get the elusive DDR3-2400 stable.

Naturally, we tried CR1 first, but that results in no-POST with memory of this density, so I settled for tightening up the second tier timings as much as possible at DDR3-2133. The third tier is already at minimum spacing, so focusing on the second tier makes sense.

I tightened the following secondary timings to near minimum value (quite impressive considering this is 64GB of memory):
tRRD pulled in to 5 clocks, with tFAW tightened to 20 clocks to ensure no delays between the 4th and 5th Activate to the same bank, tRTP tightened down to 5 clocks (more on that part later). We’ll run with what we have here initially.

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I also applied an overclock to the CPU here of 4.5GHz just to be a bit more stringent.


Stable? Sure is:

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64GB memory bandwidth…



As we’re tightening tRTP to 5, we may as well go back to tRAS in the primaries and tighten that up to take advantage of the reduced wait period between a burst and Precharge command. Recall, that the minimum value for tRAS is the sum of tRCD+CAS+tRTP. tRTP’s minimum value is 4 clocks. We’ve set 5, so we can try setting 25 for tRAS (9+11+5=25).



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2 hours of Realbench with 64GB - more than enough..


Prime95 will pass a few ours here too, so we can call that a wrap…



What if you’ve got a worse memory controller than mine and the system isn't stable at XMP and Auto voltages? In that case I’d suggest manually setting VCCSA to 1.20V to check if that fixes the instability (Auto default at 2133 is usually 1.15V). If it doesn't then make changes as outlined in our memory guide here.
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20 REPLIES 20

Arne_Saknussemm
Level 40
" In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." H.W.L.

Cheers Raja 🙂

Raja
Level 13
Thx Arne. 🙂

extreme
Level 7
hi, can you try to do the test @2400 as you did nicely @2133 ..as you mention its a challenge. so take this challenge one step further.
will love to see how this kit will perform with Aida at that speed... thanks

Raja
Level 13
Please read the article again, you will see I already talked about DDR3-2400.

Thanks!
Raja

Hi Raja,


Any way you can put a similar thread together for Trident F3-2400C10Q-32GTX ram?


I have a 64 Gig kit of Dominator ram but I'm contemplating trying out the Trident ram.


Not sure if you have, or can get the Trident, but would be nice to see the numbers with this board.


Thanks

Raja
Level 13
I don't have that kit here unfortunately - I can ask for it, but I'm not sure I'll get it.

Well, you can't win a lottery if you don't buy a ticket. 🙂

Hope you succeed.

Thanks

Raja
Level 13
Ahh, but it it a prize I see as a lottery win? Value is relative 😄

You should stick with the kit you have - there is no real world gain to be had that would justify getting rid of one kit ike yours for another. Save your cash for a worthwhile upgrade.

Well, I'll definitely give it some thought. Thanks.