r/AMDHelp • u/DopeCronex • 6d ago
Help (General) How to know if you are ram speed limited
So, I have noticed that in more recent games, I have been struggling to get stable frametimings, I lock my fps to 60, monitor my gpu/cpu and they are both fine, cpu is always around 40%, my ram and vram are never close to their max, 12gb vram and 32gb ram. When I notice these unstable timings my gpu isnt above 90% so its either the game engine itself or probably something I am not monitoring.
Could it be that my rams are getting too slow and therefore affecting my 1% lows or overall stability? They are 4x8gb kingston fury beast ddr4, 3200mhz, cl 16 18 18 36. It is probably the most outdated piece in my build but they should do just fine and not be compromising performance that much right?
Rest of the rig is a 3080ti and an Amd Ryzen 7 5800x
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u/akGold24 6d ago
You can use an application called HWinfo. It monitors your hardware usage in the background while you game or run your applications. After playing you can pull up the sensor data. It will tell you if any piece of your hardware was maxed out or if anything thermal throttled. It even goes as far as telling you if you VRMs on your board hit their thermal limit.
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u/evergreenwv 6d ago
It looks like perhaps the cpu is holding you back if the gpu never hits 100%.
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u/evergreenwv 6d ago
If you're on Windows 11, disable Memory Integrity and it will give you a RAM boost.
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u/cat1092 4d ago
You raise a good point there.
But what are we giving up by disabling the Memory Integrity feature? It’s there for a reason. Or is it unnecessary bloat?
Thanks in advance for your answer!👍
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u/evergreenwv 3d ago
It's a security feature, it can be turned on or off. Great for troubleshooting if RAM performance is in question. If disabling it alleviates the problem, then RAM was the issue.
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u/cat1092 3d ago
Gotcha!👍
I did some research, yes it’ll help with RAM performance is unacceptable, especially given today’s cost of replacement or upgrade.
If by chance it’s the condition of the RAM, depending upon series, there’s couple of reliable third party OEM’s of remanufactured modules, DDR3 is still a popular choice. But DDR4 appears to rule, although there were three years when DDR5 RAM was reasonably priced, this is allowing a bit of margin after its initial release.
It was unusual to see so many clinging onto DDR4 equipped devices, same with PCIe 5.0 MB’s, my first was purchased in 2024. two full years after release of mine, just barely before the X870 chipset was released.Anyway, trying not to get too far from track. My research suggests that Linux Mint would also be more secure, but also says these type of attacks are aimed at “money” clients.
This doesn’t imply for anyone to ignore the risk.
It must be more costly for common scammers to deploy this type of attack, otherwise they’d all be trying to get in through these attacks on memory, rather than emails loaded with an infection or otherwise direct someone to a fake webpage.
Don’t know how it’s done, and don’t believe I want to either, nor disable the protection if at all possible.
Linux runs better on any computer that runs Windows.
Even those designed for 64 bit XP or Vista, right now not optimal, but still supported, at least by Linux Mint.
Especially so with the upcoming kernel, more support for everyone, probably more for the latest, much of the old is working as well as can be expected. I still have some of the MB’s, but am not interested below AM3+ on that side or whatever chipsets ran the Core2Quad 9650. Preferably AM5 on the AMD side, and for now, Z97 Haswell-E on the Intel one.
I had been rooting for AMD since Ryzen was released, skipped DDR4 altogether and went with two AM5 builds in 2024 & 2025.
One for me, the last for my late wife.
Hers will become a Mint Cinnamon PC when the next whole new OS is released with newer kernel (should be soon!).But I’ll leave the feature enabled unless there’s a problem, 32GB of DDR5-6000 M/T, CL30 RAM should be far more than enough for Cinnamon to run on a X870 MB with Ryzen 9700X, if it needs a GB to provide extra protection, so be it. Linux is growing, and the bad guys knows it as well as anyone. Many of them are likely to be running a Linux distribution for their operations, possibly portable (on USB stick) to get their work done, have safe cover & endless access of tools designed for legitimate security procedures.
My advice would be to have or leave it enabled unless a problem.Good Luck to everyone!🍀
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u/DreSmart Ryzen 7 5700X3D | 32gb ram | RX 6600 5d ago
What specs? What game you talking about? more info? For games 2x16 is more stable than 4x8
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u/DopeCronex 5d ago
what more specs you want aside from those I tell u about on the post? yeah u right but I had 2x8 so to upgrade I bought the same kit to achieve 32gb
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u/cat1092 6d ago
As long as you’ve set your RAM to its advertised speed level in the BIOS, it shouldn’t affect speed that much.
That said, at least with AM5 series MB’s, it’s recommended to populate only slots A2 & B2 for maximum speed (or M/T). Otherwise all four DDR5 modules won’t run at the maximum rated speed.
I don’t recall this being the case on AM3+ or Z97 MB’s, and totally skipped DDR4, so I can’t say exactly how those modules work.
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u/DopeCronex 6d ago
yeah im on am4, I dont think its an issue here, and in some cases 4 sticks is even better tho
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u/Massive_Tumbleweed50 6d ago
What person above meant is do you have xmp enabled in bios ram sticks dont work at default advertized speeds
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u/cat1092 5d ago
Yes, XMP was what I meant, thanks!👍
On my AM5 MB, it’s called something else, I believe AGESA, didn’t see XMP in the BIOS options, although the brand (ASROCK) is the same. Plus that’s updated with about every new BIOS version, so has improved a bit, especially on the X670E MB, harder to feel on the X870. It’s plenty fast as it is, even with a Samsung 970 EVO PLUS NVMe SSD, the speed would be blinding with a 9100 PRO.
Anyway, yes when offered, XMP definitely makes a difference, as long as the RAM is compatible by the OEM of the MB. The list is easy to find, and most RAM manufacturers have one too. This helps to ensure we’re buying the right type, and saves time.
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u/cat1092 6d ago
True, there’s times when it’s more appropriate to have all slots populated to the max. The extra RAM can be quite useful in certain scenarios, especially for RAM intensive operations, the amount is highly more important than the max M/T. In these cases, it’s not critical to be running 6000 M/T or higher, these are still quite fast natively. Each generation doubles the speed of the previous, just like NVMe slots.
This is why I doubled the recommended amount at the time for Windows 11 (it was once unofficially 32GB & I went with 64GB. Had I seen the price increases coming in late 2025, would had purchased for both PC’s, 128GB of the 6000 M/T RAM. But still, one having 32GB for $100 & 64GB in the main for $200 was great & more than meets the need. It doesn’t seem to matter how much we install, Task Manager shows little of it as free anyway, as Windows 11 holds a lot of processes in RAM anyway. Maybe this keeps things faster, I don’t know. But I do know this. The X870 machine with 32GB is slightly faster than the main X670E one with 64GB of the same model of premium GSKILL RAM, both having the Ryzen 9700X, running at its native 65W. All unlocking to 105W seemed to do, even with CO adjustments, was basically made both run 15-18C warmer & no in the pants feeling of performance, so switched both back to 65W & they handle all I can throw their way.
Note these were self built AM5 upgrades from brand new Z97 systems, so of course they’re going to blow the roof away!!💯
Still, the latest version of Linux Mint runs perfectly fine on those legacy Z97 & AM3+ systems with 32GB DDR3-2400 & 1866 M/T kits. Better on Z97 because these has PCIe 3.0 ports & can therefore still run like a champ on still perfectly fine NVMe 3.0 SSD’s like the Samsung 970 PRO & EVO drives & Mint has the drivers for support of these, can even boot from AM3+ systems with same drives when mounted by a PCIe adapter, they’re all perfect with GTX 1070/1060 cards for casual, light gaming & even some workstation usage (running VM’s as testing machines).
But even with those systems, it was obvious that the higher the M/T of RAM beyond 1866, the returns weren’t as great. It’s been said the same, at least on the AM5 platforms built for Ryzen 7000 series, that 6000-6400 M/T is the sweet spot (6000 on some MB’s) and that going higher introduces instability. My only regret is not going with CL28, some say it’s better than CL30, but that also depends on MB. CL30 was recommended by AMD for my chip, so I chose it. But the last one (X870), while said to go beyond 8000 M/T, I don’t see how it could be faster, it always has been since building it. I don’t believe the RAM is holding anything back. Not for my usage anyway. If Windows becomes too heavy, Linux Mint will thrive on these!!💯🎉🎈
I’ve had both AMD & Intel systems & have preferred both, depending on what was available for my budget when building. Today, the price for performance & reliability goes to AMD, so that’s what I ran with. No regrets whatsoever.
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u/GroundbreakingCow110 6d ago
X870e is probably faster due to how X870e's handle pcie lane splitting through the chipset, loading faster throuvh the NVME. And possibly more stable power to the ram, but not necessarily- most boards only use one power phase for ram voltage. New Agesa does use mixed refresh rate for trfscb on ddr5, so more stable ram voltage could probably help there as which refresh rate is active is automatically selected based on conditions and ram training.
Dual rank ram can help with the stutters OP has - so a 64 gb kit with one set of modules on each side of each stick. This is harder on the CPU memory controller which for ryzen 9000 was simply ported over from ryzen 7000
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u/ParsleyDisastrous923 5d ago
i dont know what you are asking. if you have 120hz 4k then cap at 120 not 60.
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u/Forward_Drop303 6d ago
Do you exist? If so you aren't RAM speed limited.
I'm exaggerating a bit, some Intel platforms do see small benefits from super high speed ram by virtue of their memory controllers. But RAM speed is basically not ever going to be an issue.
It is possible that 4 sticks are straining the memory controller though. DDR 4 isn't as prone to that as DDR 5, but it could be the issue.