3200Mhz ram appearing as 2133Mhz

[Chris2002]

Hey, so some days ago i went to best buy to buy some ram, i bought 2x8gb 3200Mhz (vengeance). I switched from the previous 2x4gb 3200Mhz to the new 2 sticks 8gb and when i go into task manager it says they are only at 2133Mhz. The hp BIOS has no overclock tab for RAM, wow...

[old_geekster]

@Chris2002 , welcome to the Community.

The problem that you are experiencing is caused by the fact that HP in not adding Extreme Memory Profiles (XMP) to their BIOS/UEFI.  They use the standard JEDEC's.  The standard speed of all memory modules is 2133 MHz.  Therefore, you will not be able to overclock your new memory to 3200 MHz.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[Chris2002]

guess i will just have to buy a new motherboard... thanks hp

[Photoray002]

I will add an update to that info. Turns out, HP does use XMP as I was finally told by an HP insider recently.  BUT, technically in order to do that, you have to buy HP's ram to get it recognized in the bios (and even then, sometimes that didn't work either). Problem is, HP's ram is not available. If you are lucky enough to find ram that can run at 3200 JEDEC, good luck.

Some people reported that they were able to get around this (if using an Intel based CPU) by installing Intel's XTU (AMD supposedly by using AMD's software). But as I did some digging, its not as cut and dry as some out there have said. There was an older version you had to install as Intel took away that ability in the newer versions. I think it was version 6.5.2.40 via 3rd party sites now.  I have not tried it myself, just passing on what I have read from others.  You can search on here for overclocking ram in the forum and you might find more info from others.

Bottom line, if you want to do enthusiast type tweaks to a gaming rig, you are better off building it from scratch with name brand parts. Although it stinks you cant just get a video card so easily. Just my 2 cents.

[old_geekster]

@Chris2002,

I agree with everything that @Photoray002  said.  However, I will add one caveat!  If you are going to use Intel's XTU to overclock your memory be extremely cautious.  I used it to overclock my CPU on an HP Omen and fried the motherboard.  I wasn't doing anything extreme at all.  None of the HP Techs could find any reason for it happening.  Something in the app made the motherboard unhappy.

[Chris2002]

1. yep, good thing im skeptical and i was doing some research on ryzen master to overclock it but i found out it could brick motherboards, i will just save up for a new mobo.

[old_geekster]

@Chris2002 

I didn't realize that your computer is running a Ryzen processor.  You are correct!  You would have to use Ryzen Master.  The same concerns are very real any time you are using an app to overclock the CPU or Memory.

Here is a HP Knowledge Base article that will explain what to consider if you want to add a new motherboard to your HP case.  The article discusses moving your motherboard to a new case, but the same considerations are relevant when adding a new motherboard.