Odd X370 Ryzen Memory Support

So I was reading the spec page for the ASRock X370 Gaming K4 and I came across this memory configuration table. Can someone shed some light as to how I should be interpreting this? Does this mean that populating all slots leads to lower RAM speeds (underclocking?)

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty%20X370%20Gaming%20K4/#Specification

As "work in progress".

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Right now yes, there was a big whoohaa about this before release, there are patches coming to address memory concerns, which likely means this stuff.

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This is AMD's first gen DDR4 controller, so its not too good with higher clocked DDR4 just as was the case with Haswell-E at launch. Updates will be trickling out to address some issues and improve the state of things. Right now though, 2133Mhz and 2400Mhz should be your go to if you plan to populate all 4 slots. 3000Mhz and below is recommendable for 2 dimms populated.

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Yes.
Just like on x99 or literally any other platform... more memory sticks = lower frequency

Well, not really on x99 or z270 to anywhere the same degree. Intel's had multiple generations too make their DDR4 controller capable of supporting 4000Mhz+ dimms. Like this is AMD's first so its to be expected, but lets not conflate current x99 memory support with ryzen memory support because x99 memory is frankly far above, as is to be expected.

x99 in the beginning was AWFUL for memory speed. BIOS updates helped a ton though. That was mostly what i was referring to.
Also x79 but to a significantly lesser extent.

One of these things is not like the other.

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this (X370) is a brand new chipset at launch why would x99 now be of any use to compare it to?

Because X99 now is literally the platform AMD has been running around banging their chest comparing too? When you say:

There isn't any preface that your talking about OLD X99, so you'd assume current. And quite frankly, X99 NOW doesn't have problems. The Broadwell-E memory controller is matured, its not an issue lmfao.

i also was going to say this:
you never see overclocking records for speed on fully populated motherboards (memory slots wise) for a reason... 2 sticks for dual channel
4 sticks for quad channel
as those give you the best speed. Even now, dual channel memory controllers can't hold 4 sticks at the same speeds as they will 2.
Same goes for quad channel memory controllers.... except they can't hold 8 sticks instead of 4 at high speeds unless you have a ridicolously overbuilt board like the Rampage V Edition 10 and even then it still won't hold the same speeds with 8 sticks vs 4.

So this isn't surprising to me at all.It has slower memory when running all 4 sticks populated on x370 big whoop, that's somethig that's been happening since forever with memory on chipsets.

Yes its understood that having two dimms per channel is harder on the controller. The point is that the memory controller in its current state is kinda sad considering there are people saying their boards won't post with 2 dimms at even 2933Mhz or 4 dimms at anything above 2400Mhz. Like even launch x99 you could get up around 3000mhz with some tweaking, even with all channels operating with two dimms installed.

You also have to consider when comparing to launch x99, that the memory kits themselves were much, much harder to deal with when x99 was launching. First wave DDR4 was wayyyy more tempermental than the modern kits that are going around, even if they're hynix kits. Lets also mention that the boards reviewers are using have way better memory vrms than the majority of other boards.

I mean look at the X370 Hero 6. Its got a 2 phase vrm dedicated to just the DDR4. That's insane overkill for dual channel. Like it can provide multiple times the power required for 4 dimms at high speeds. Its not unreasonable to suggest that the current state of affairs on lower tier boards, that don't have these overbuilt vrms, may have even more problems.

-its literally two days old
-theres been 2 days for the public to test things and send in tickets etc and for bios features/fixes to be worked on
-this is the first DDR4 chipset AMD has made ever
-there is no bugs (yet. hopefully not any but it's only been two days) that are truly breaking shit
-boost states are the only other bugs in windows yet

with all that in mind, rather slow memory speeds at launch is something i dont even need to care about. It gives at most 1% difference in speed between the slowest and fastest DDR4 there is in 98% of everyday tasks anyway so why does it matter?
yes, i would like my 3000 mhz kit to run at the rated speed but i can just put timings lower at 2400 and same performance.

Except the no post with higher speed memory kits that are literally the same price as the slower kits. That's literally the only reason this matters. If you go and buy a 3200Mhz kit, set it in the bios, and reboot; your system probably won't post. Idk if any boards are doing auto XMP (whatever its being rebranded as to be used on amd boards), but if any boards auto set to higher than 2400mhz that could be really annoying and problematic for new builders riding recommending to build ryzen.

It also was suggested that low speed dual channel put Ryzen behind in some productivity synthetics when compared to X99 systems, but frankly thats minor in comparison to problems with ryzen boards not even posting.

THATS BECAUSE INTEL WILL NOT LICENSE XMP TO ANYONE
...
.......
and all those kits have XMP profiles. soo. setting the XMP DOES NOT WORK. At least not yet. It might get better? Maybe?

I know Asus has a thing on their boards to read the XMP profile and set it up for you, and they have it renamed as something else in the bios. Idk if any other vendors are doing that, but it wouldn't be surprising since many will follow suit with what Asus does.

its just
A-XMP lol
and it's broke as fuck since intel is a dick so atm ... it's really not a good idea to use.
example
my 3000 Mhz Corsair LPX is like
hahaha NOPE when i set it to the XMP on my Titanium X370 and wont even boot.
But if I set it to 2933 w/ the right timings & volts it works.
so. yeah.

Well this wasn't quite the in depth discussion I expected, but it confirms what I suspected. Having done reverse engineering on DDR3 SPD I will certainly be investigating this in depth once my K4 and 1700X arrives (i have 4 8Gb DIMMS to test with it). Should be interesting to see what is up.
Going to be doing some DDR4 SPD hacking again with this.

I will post testing results here and on a new thread in about a week If I have all my parts.

Stay tuned!

My DDR3 SPD hacking project

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Not really sure why there's a big hullabaloo about the RAM speeds on Ryzen. It's not like RAM speed affects anything to a noticeable degree in 95% of real world applications anyway.

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