"For AMD" RAM on Intel system

ze_cook

Disciple
Be careful with these "for amd" or "for intel" ram sticks. I bought 2x 8gb ddr3 "for amd" stick from banggood(were cheaper than "for all" ram), naively thinking ram is ram and should work on any platform. Did not work on my i5 4440 system, worked perfectly on amd am1 platform.

If you deep dive into intel processor datasheets they mention what kind of dram chips they support, and their configuration on a dram stick. I didn't dive deep into it at that time, however.
 
Be careful with these "for amd" or "for intel" ram sticks. I bought 2x 8gb ddr3 "for amd" stick from banggood(were cheaper than "for all" ram), naively thinking ram is ram and should work on any platform. Did not work on my i5 4440 system, worked perfectly on amd am1 platform.

If you deep dive into intel processor datasheets they mention what kind of dram chips they support, and their configuration on a dram stick. I didn't dive deep into it at that time, however.
I bought 4 single 16GB 3600Hz CL18 "For AMD" sticks for my 12400, since a 4-pack or even pair were not available. Shopkeeper was adamant that it would not work since 12400 only does 3200Hz. Ignored him, went home, installed and sure enough it would not POST if I enabled XMP for 3600Hz. Would only work at stock 3200Hz.

Went back to the shop for a replacement, he was smug about being right. I showed him one of the sticks was from a different batch and that was not playing well with the others. They would OC perfectly if the offending stick were removed.
Edit: Got it replaced with one from the same batch as other 3 and they all ran fine @ 3600Hz thereafter.

TLDR: RAM is RAM. GPU is GPU. They are designed to certain standards that ensure universal operation. The only limitation is certain motherboards don't play well with certain RAM models. Refer to the QVL (Qualified Vendor List) on the mobo's support website for a full list of modules that are tested and confirmed to be working. Others may work too, just that it isn't confirmed (like in my case)
 
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I bought 4 single 16GB 3600Hz CL18 "For AMD" sticks for my 12400, since a 4-pack or even pair were not available. Shopkeeper was adamant that it would not work since 12400 only does 3200Hz. Ignored him, went home, installed and sure enough it would not POST if I enabled XMP for 3600Hz. Would only work at stock 3200Hz.

Went back to the shop for a replacement, he was smug about being right. I showed him one of the sticks was from a different batch and that was not playing well with the others. They would OC perfectly if the offending stick were removed.

TLDR: RAM is RAM. GPU is GPU. They are designed to certain standards that ensure universal operation. The only limitation is certain motherboards don't play well with certain RAM models. Refer to the Qulified Vendor List on the mobo's support website for a full list of modules that are tested and confirmed to be working. Others may work too, just that it isn't confirmed (like in my case)

12400 have locked vccsa voltages which doesnt let it run frequencies greater than 3600 in gear 1 mode but still most of them run fine.. there was also a bug with my asus mobo.. where it wouldnt take the 3600 rams timings and fail to post.. you need to change 1 setting in the bios and set it equvilant to your cas latency.. i dont remember the exact name of the timing which needs to be changed.. but in my case my mobo was setting it to 14.. when i set it to 16 which is equvilant to latency 3600 cl16.. it booted fine and even ocied to 4000cl16 with a 13700K..

But most people have been able to run 3600mhz gear 1 even with locked skus.

It just depends on the motherboard.
 
I bought 4 single 16GB 3600Hz CL18 "For AMD" sticks for my 12400, since a 4-pack or even pair were not available. Shopkeeper was adamant that it would not work since 12400 only does 3200Hz. Ignored him, went home, installed and sure enough it would not POST if I enabled XMP for 3600Hz. Would only work at stock 3200Hz.

Went back to the shop for a replacement, he was smug about being right. I showed him one of the sticks was from a different batch and that was not playing well with the others. They would OC perfectly if the offending stick were removed.
Edit: Got it replaced with one from the same batch as other 3 and they all ran fine @ 3600Hz thereafter.

TLDR: RAM is RAM. GPU is GPU. They are designed to certain standards that ensure universal operation. The only limitation is certain motherboards don't play well with certain RAM models. Refer to the QVL (Qualified Vendor List) on the mobo's support website for a full list of modules that are tested and confirmed to be working. Others may work too, just that it isn't confirmed (like in my case)
If the sticks are on your motherboard qvl, they will most likely work at rated overclock speeds.

Not sure if it's fine now in DDR4/5 era, but during DDR2/3 days there were sufficient differences in memory controllers between AMD and Intel, that would render the system being unable to post with the offending ram sticks. Amd typically were more "compatible" with out of spec stuff, like extra column address bits, x4 density chips.

Checked my AMD only ram again, it's an 1Rx4 module, one rank 16 x4 wide chips, which is not supported on Haswell consumer platforms, supporting only 1Rx8 and 2Rx8 chips. x4 chips were never in spec for consumer platforms and were used by server dimms, which I assume the Chinese sellers managed to salvage and repackage into consumer "for amd" sticks.

tldr: Ram is ram, unless it's suspiciously cheap and sold by no name sellers, with additional conditions added. Sorry for the OT reply.
 
I think I failed to state the problem in my case properly: the 4 single packed sticks were not matched so they were not OCing properly. After replacing one stick which was from a different batch, all 4 OC'd properly.

Basically, this is the reason you should only buy matched pairs or 4-packs. They are already tested to work together nicely. I had no option so had to buy four singles instead, but I was prepared to troubleshoot and replace.
 
I think I failed to state the problem in my case properly: the 4 single packed sticks were not matched so they were not OCing properly. After replacing one stick which was from a different batch, all 4 OC'd properly.

Basically, this is the reason you should only buy matched pairs or 4-packs. They are already tested to work together nicely. I had no option so had to buy four singles instead, but I was prepared to troubleshoot and replace.
But they weren't no name generic Chinese rebranded ram sticks which ant esports is selling, right? :)
 
Yeah that's the real issue, they might be using dram configuration that somehow works on intel platforms but not on AMD. The cheap price is making me suspect that these are rebuilt from salvaged ddr4 sticks, and who knows whats on them.
 
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