Z77 Pro4-M has no "Load XMP Settings" in UEFI

[DaveL]

I am considering memory sticks that run at 2400 speed. When looking at the BIOS/UEFI of my Pro4-M motherboard, which has the most recent flash update, there is no option to "Load XMP Settings" in the DRAM tweaker area. There IS a place to set the speed manually but the list of options only goes up to 2133. So I'm wondering how to set memory sticks in BIOS to 2400. (The motherboard is listed on the AsRock site as accepting 2400+ memory sticks.)

I do have another AsRock board and that board does have the "Load XMP Settings" option in the BIOS.

[parsec]

First, the manual for the Z77 Pro-M board shows the Load XMP Settings as an option. But I have noticed the following on my Z77 EX 4 board. If the memory installed does not have any XMP data, that option will not be displayed. The memory I use does not have XMP data, so no XMP option. The memory I used previously with this board had XMP data, and that option was displayed when it was installed.

Memory settings can depend on the memory installed, and for some reason the memory you are using in the Pro 4-M board is not showing you anything beyond 2133.

[DaveL]

Oh, thanks a lot, parsec! Good to know!

The memory I have right now in the AsRock board is G. Skill 1333 and there is no XMP profile option showing in the BIOS. Only, I believe, an "AUTO" option - and a person could run into trouble here if the memory has more than one profile.

I do have another AsRock board with G. Skill 1600 and that BIOS does offer a load-XMP option, along with allowing the selection of a particular XMP profile. (That 1600 only has one profile option listed which, I believe, is listed as "Profile 1".)

[DaveL]

Just a tip for anyone ...

I had been planning on going up to 2400 speed DRAM but have since heard that this is not advisable - or maybe not even possible - with a Sandy Bridge CPU. I did run across one person who said they've never even seen a Sandy Bridge running with memory at 2400. My Z77 Pro4-M board is tested by AsRock to run at 2400, 2666, and 2800 but I'm assuming this in only with Ivy Bridge.

[DaveL]

A followup here ...

Received in the 2133 memory sticks. XMP profiles DID show up in BIOS. Two profiles showed up and they appeared to be identical: only 2133 settings. With everything (including XMP profile) set to "Auto", the sticks booted up at 1333 9-9-9-24, 1.5V. Changed the XMP profile to 2133, keeping everything else Auto, and the sticks booted up as advertised at 2133 9-11-11-31. One thing to note: even though the selected XMP profile listed "1.60V", the sticks booted up still at 2133, 1.5V. I changed the DRAM voltage manually to 1.60 and all was well. They did boot up fine at 2133, latency 9, DRAM voltage 1.515 but I decided to change the voltage to the factory recommended 1.60V thinking they may be more stable at the higher voltage.


I'm just happy these high-performance sticks went in without issue. These were G. Skill Ripjaws X, F3-2133C9D-16GXH. Ran Memtest-86 on them and they checked out fine. Benchmarked [MaxxMem2] them against the previous 1333 9-9-9 sticks with my stock CPU [Sandy Bridge i5, 3.3] and read speed went from 16,200 MB/s to 20,500. Stock CPU write went from 16,300 with the 1333 sticks to 17,100 with the 2133 sticks. Stock CPU latencies went from 67 ns [1333] to 54 [2133]. Overclocked CPU read went from 17,200 to 24,000. Write with OC'd CPU went from 20,500 to 23,600. Latency with OC'd CPU went from 62 with the 1333 sticks to 49 with the 2133s.

Hope the above may help someone else out in the future. Giving back to the community here.

[- wardog -]

A followup here ...

........

Hope the above may help someone else out in the future. Giving back to the community here.

Not enough of this goes on here. And it should.

Thank you for taking the time and posting that info. And p/n's too.