The importance of the XMP/DOCP profile:
The importance of the XMP profile :
We can’t tell you enough, but the parameters of your memory kit are not automatically set after you’ve installed it. If this is the case for your processor, it’s not the case for your memory kit, and you’ll have to go through the BIOS!
You can then configure it manually, choosing the right frequency, timings and voltage for your kit. For ease of use, we recommend that you activate XMP (Intel) or DOCP (AMD) mode to set the parameters automatically.
Without this, your performance will be impacted in all areas, and you’ll end up with a kit that doesn’t exceed the CL40 frequency of 4800 MHz. The aim of this article is to show you the (poor) performance of a kit without settings.
Recovering and flashing the BIOS :
The first step is to always have an up-to-date BIOS. Manufacturers are constantly patching BIOS, and in order to get the best performance, regular updates are necessary. Go to the ROG website, and in particular the page dedicated to our Crosshair X670E Gene, to retrieve the BIOS.
This will download the latest BIOS and retrieve the BIOS file. Copy it onto a USB stick and insert it into a USB port. Then go to your motherboard’s BIOS to flash it. All manufacturers offer a flash tool integrated into the BIOS. In the case of our Crosshair X670E Gene, go to the “Tool” tab and then “ASUS EZ Flash 3 Utility”. Select your USB key, choose the BIOS you downloaded and launch the flash. The motherboard may reboot several times – this is perfectly normal.
Now that our BIOS is up to date, we can start testing.
Activate your XMP profile:
As we said, you’ll need to manually activate your XMP profile. It’s a very easy thing to do, but of the utmost importance. Go back to our BIOS, and in particular to the “Extreme Tweaker” tab, then to “AI Overclock Tuner”. Note that brands use the reference XMP for Intel configurations and DOCP/EXPO for AMD motherboards. Choose the EXPO 1 profile.
As you can see, once the EXPO profile is activated, the parameters are automatically detected. The frequency is indeed 6000 MT/s and the timings 30-38-38-96 for our G.SKill Trident Z5 NEO kit.
Overclock your memory kit:
The advantage of a card like the Crosshair X670E Gene is that it has built-in profiles within its BIOS. For our overclocking tests, we opted for another kit and chose the Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34. Indeed, the choice of kit is important, and here it boasts excellent overclocking potential thanks to its Hynix A-die memory chips.
We’ll be testing several profiles to see how the scores evolve, and thus the gains brought about by the frequency and timings of the memory kit. We’ll be using the Hynix 8000 MT/s profile present in the BIOS, although this will be slightly modified.
You’ll also see on the next page that it’s still possible to improve performance by adjusting the FCLK frequency, but we recommend that you leave it as the default. Now that we’ve had a look at the BIOS and its parameters, it’s time for some comparative tests!
