Issue with XMP activation on Motherboard MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon Max WiFi (AM4)

[vaside152102d2]

Hello everybody,

Till yesterday, my set up was Motherboard MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon Max WiFi (AM4) + CPU AMD 3400G + Ram G.Skill RipjawsV 16GB(2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz and everything was running nice and sweet. RAMs were running at 3200 mhz (XMP Profile 1) without issues over the last year . The rest of my setup consists of a PSU Corsair TX-M Series TX650M 80+ Gold 650W CP-9020132-EU and two M2 disks (Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB + Kingston A2000 SSD 1.0TB M.2 NVMe) and the PC is running Windows 10 pro.
So yesterday, i replaced 3400G with AMD 5600G ... pc booted up normally and without any issues, i deleted all previous AMD drivers with Amd cleanup Utility and installed fresh drivers and utilities (Adrenalin 22.5.1 + AMD_Chipset_Drivers_3.10.22.706 + AMD-Ryzen-Master) ...then i decided to run some benchmarks so i returned back to BIOS (version 7B85v29) and activated XMP Profile 1 and after a short reboot, the mhz reported in BIOS was in deed 3200 mhz (default was 2122 mhz or sth) . Windows booted up nicely and after some browsing stuff, i decided to run UserBenchMark to see if i reached a 99% result at DESKTOP use with the 5600G ...unfo, pc just froze at video benchmarks and hard reset was required. Then i ran Heaven Benchmark 4.0 and pc froze after 8 seconds of benchmarking video ... after making sure that this issue is not temperature related, i did a CLEAR CMOS (just in case) and activated again the XMP 1 which lead to the same problem (pc freezes/reboots under stress) . With XMP off and DDRs running at stock 2122 mhz, all benchmark tests are running and complete nicely without problems. With XMP on , i am getting a DDR4 voltage at 1,352

Is it a memory/motherboard incompatibility ? if so, why it was running smoothly for over a year with AMD 3400G ? And most importantly , is there sth i can do to have XMP up and running again ? Do you think it is a software/drivers related issue ? (eg should i format pc and reinstall windows because of the CPU swap ? ) . Any ideas would be highly appreciated !

 

[citay]

It would seem to me that the memory controller (IMC) of the new CPU is weaker somehow, and the memory-related voltages like NB/SOC Voltage, or indeed the DRAM Voltage, might need a slight boost to make it stable. The BIOS version can also play a big role, make sure you've updated to the latest one: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-MAX-WIFI/support

In cases like these, there's a clear system instability when you enable XMP, which will be always there until you solve it with the help of the BIOS. So a fresh Windows install, drivers and things like that won't make any improvement.

 

[SumGuy]

There are multiple posts describing similar issues with A-XMP. The most common factor seems to be using a BIOS with AGESA v1.2.0.6C.
Hopefully they can fix it soon.

Here's a thread about it posted over in MSI AMD boards-

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/7d53v124-beta-version-bios-for-msi-x570s-edge-max-wifi-is-unable-to-boot-in-windows-due-to-memory-issues.375503/

 

[vaside152102d2]

It would seem to me that the memory controller (IMC) of the new CPU is weaker somehow, and the memory-related voltages like NB/SOC Voltage, or indeed the DRAM Voltage, might need a slight boost to make it stable. The BIOS version can also play a big role, make sure you've updated to the latest one: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-MAX-WIFI/support

In cases like these, there's a clear system instability when you enable XMP, which will be always there until you solve it with the help of the BIOS. So a fresh Windows install, drivers and things like that won't make any improvement.

Many thanks for your answer ... BIOS is already updated to the latest available version ... pc looks like it is running fine with XMP On and DDR4s @ 3200 mhz and completes all CPU-RAM-DISK stress tests of benchmarks without issues but fails at video stress tests only. One issue i noticed is that my exact memory part number (F4-3200C16D-16GVKB) is not included in MSI's compatibility list here where it is stated that '' Memory compatibility support depends on the CPU memory controller '' (maybe that explains why XMP worked fine with 3400G but not with 5600G) . I will try to test a different set of 3200mhz memory modules of a friend to see if the problem resolves ... is there any memory module that will run at 3200 mhz out of the box ? (without XMP activated) . I am also posting some photos that might help ...

 

[vaside152102d2]

There are multiple posts describing similar issues with A-XMP. The most common factor seems to be using a BIOS with AGESA v1.2.0.6C.
Hopefully they can fix it soon.

Here's a thread about it posted over in MSI AMD boards-

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/7d53v124-beta-version-bios-for-msi-x570s-edge-max-wifi-is-unable-to-boot-in-windows-due-to-memory-issues.375503/

I was thinking of downgrading BIOS version to 7B85v26 which is the minimum required for 5600G support by my MSI motherboard (this bios version has an AMD AGESA ComboAm4v2PI 1.2.0.0 whereas the BIOS i am currently using (v29) is updated to AMD ComboAm4v2PI 1.2.0.6c) ... on the other hand, i tried this with BIOS V28 (AGESA 1.2.0.5) but the XMP issue was still there ...

EDIT : Just checked online and i am seeing reports of performance issues even from AGESA 1.2.0.5 (which is included in BIOS V28) so it might make some sense to downgrade to V27 and check if my issue was resolved https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-MAX-WIFI/support#bios

 

[SumGuy]

My CPU's a 3900X, so idk if you'll have the same luck with an earlier BIOS or not. I skipped AGESA v1.2.0.5. I was previously on v1.2.0.2 which was mostly stable. I was still having occasional USB dropouts (which was supposed to be fixed in v1.2.0.2), so I figured I'd give v1.2.0.6C a try. No more USB issues so far, but now I have to run my RAM a little slower.

 

[vaside152102d2]

My CPU's a 3900X, so idk if you'll have the same luck with an earlier BIOS or not. I skipped AGESA v1.2.0.5. I was previously on v1.2.0.2 which was mostly stable. I was still having occasional USB dropouts (which was supposed to be fixed in v1.2.0.2), so I figured I'd give v1.2.0.6C a try. No more USB issues so far, but now I have to run my RAM a little slower.

I just downgraded to V27 (AGESA 1.2.0.2) , turned XMP on but pc just froze again while running Heaven Benchmark 4.0 (screenshot attached) ...so i think my issue is not AGESA related ... i will switch back to the latest V29 Bios and try to test some other memory modules to see if the issue persists... if so, then it is a mobo+cpu related issue rather that a RAM compatibility issue ...

 

[SumGuy]

Oh well. It was worth a shot, I guess.
It's starting to feel like every PC I've seen using Ryzen is just one giant beta test. So many of us are forced to endlessly tweak our systems for the entire lifecycle of the device, lol.

 

[vaside152102d2]

Oh well. It was worth a shot, I guess.
It's starting to feel like every PC I've seen using Ryzen is just one giant beta test. So many of us are forced to endlessly tweak our systems for the entire lifecycle of the device, lol.

I set voltage at 1.40 (XMP On) and it finally passed the Heaven Benchmark 4.0 once :

FPS:	36.3
Score:	914
Min FPS:	22.7
Max FPS:	76.7

with :

Render:	Direct3D11
Mode:	1920x1080 fullscreen
Preset	Custom
Quality	High
Tessellation:	Disabled

,but failed the second attempt.

Then, i disabled XMP and just set the ram manually @ 2666 mhz (all other settings at auto - voltage was set automatically at 1.35) and Heaven Benchmark 4.0 ran twice without issues (score 761 - same settings) ...so i will leave it @ 2666 mhz to see how it behaves in everyday computing (i don't play games but i do expect to watch youtube videos in Fullhd without issues and freezes) until a friend of mine brings his RAM modules (Corsair) for testing at 3200 mhz ...

 

[vaside152102d2]

One short update (fingers crossed) : after numerous tests and experiments, i was prompted by a friend to disable PowerDown setting (set to AUTO by default) in DDRAM Configuration panel in BIOS ...as soon as PowerDown = Disabled , all benchmarks (Unigine Superposition , Unigine Heaven 4.0, UserBenchMark) and all tests were successful (which was not the case before with XMP On).

So it seems that computer is running great with XMP ON , 3200 mhz , all settings to mobo defaults / AUTO apart from POWERDOWN which was disabled ... i will stress pc graphics under these settings but so far, everything looks good !