ram temps and icue

[zultan]

hello

I have a corsair vengeance rgb pro ram kit  2x16gb. 3200mhz  DDR4

The ram sticks work fine even though they don´t overclock easily beyond their max speed.

But I don´t mind, 3200mhz is ok for me.

I was just wondering if my ram temps are normal.   it´s my first DDR4 kit and my previous DDR3 kit was working cooler.

the ram are now set on auto (2133mhz).    my room temp is quite cool (15 C) and the side panel of my pc is removed.

The ram temp in icue is 39,5 C in idle (just writing here on the forum) and I get 50 C after a gaming session.

Is 50 C normal for DDR4 ram in gaming, especially at such a low speed??

is icue accurate in reading ram temps?

thank you 

[LeDoyen]

almost 40° at idle at 2133mhz is pretty "high".

Aren't you using white lighting on the sticks? the LEDs will heat them up quite a bit depending on what color/brightness you use.

They shouldn't run much hotter if you leave them at 3200. Usually RAM runs just slightly above case temperature, so it's possible if airflow isn't terrific that it's mostly the GPU and CPU that heat them up.

that said, 50°C isn't ideal but not concerning either. they should run fine at that temperature all day.

You can check case temperature looking at the various motherboard sensors that iCUE displays. Some are bogus (showing temps over 200°) but others should be close to each other and varying with load. If you find temperatures close to 45 -50° when gaming, then you know it is an airflow problem and not the ram sticks.

[zultan]

32 minutes ago, LeDoyen said:

almost 40° at idle at 2133mhz is pretty "high".

Aren't you using white lighting on the sticks? the LEDs will heat them up quite a bit depending on what color/brightness you use.

They shouldn't run much hotter if you leave them at 3200. Usually RAM runs just slightly above case temperature, so it's possible if airflow isn't terrific that it's mostly the GPU and CPU that heat them up.

that said, 50°C isn't ideal but not concerning either. they should run fine at that temperature all day.

You can check case temperature looking at the various motherboard sensors that iCUE displays. Some are bogus (showing temps over 200°) but others should be close to each other and varying with load. If you find temperatures close to 45 -50° when gaming, then you know it is an airflow problem and not the ram sticks.

hi. thank you for your kind reply.

I haven´t thought about led lights heating the ram.   I always use the rain effect set on dark blue color.

i have attached the temps situation.   as i told you my room is quite chilly, the case is a full tower and the side panel is removed.

I have 3 120mm fans on the front blowing in, 1 120mm on the back blowing out, and the 3 aio fans blowing out the roof.

as you see the vga is idle and quite cool too.   it´s a strix card with 3 fans. is a cool card, I never see it running hotter than

56 C at 1080p,  max detail. 

So you think the ram sticks are ok?   I know they can stand much more heat.

I was just wondering because my previous ddr3 ram were running much cooler at higher voltage and it´s the same case. 

 

[c-attack]

The Vengeance Pro modules run warmer than some others, like the RT version or the Dominators.  Presumably its some combination of heat sink design and LED functionality.  However, I don't see your RAM temp as much different than what other Vengeance Pro owners report.

 

The RAM is a constant voltage piece of hardware.  You probably can catch it in the 20's when you first cold boot, but it slowly will warm over time and once it does, it is not going to cool back down.  it's going to warm up quite a bit, even if you are sitting in idle.  If you want be very tedious in your analysis, exact fan blade design and location in relation to the RAM can affect temperatures by a noticeable margin.  Fan A with one blade design just happen to blow air directly on/from the RAM in relation to its position.  This is not really about "how good a fan it is" but rather the actual directional flow from blade hitting or missing the RAM.  The other thing is taking the door off may hurt your RAM temps slightly.  This allows the front fans to dump half their air out of the case and the top fans will take the path of least resistance and pull from open air rather than the MB restricted side.  It reduces airflow across the motherboard.  I see this all the time when testing with O11 XL and pull off the small side glass.  While it helps with coolant and liquid cooled component temperatures, the RAM temps go up because there is less air moving across them.  

 

That said, I think the things discussed above are minor details and not something most users need to worry about.  At 50C you are still just fine on RAM temperature.  Max for DDR4 is up in the 70-75C range, depending on who you are talking with.  While 60C might make me uncomfortable, it still is not likely to matter unless you are running Samsung B-die up on the edge of stability.  That does not seem to be the case here  You did not mention the IC and I can't tell from the 2133 default timings, but 2x16 is more likely to be Micron or something else not temperature sensitive.  Can you see the version number on your RAM?  3.xx?  4.xx?  5.xx?  etc.  

[zultan]

7 hours ago, c-attack said:

The Vengeance Pro modules run warmer than some others, like the RT version or the Dominators.  Presumably its some combination of heat sink design and LED functionality.  However, I don't see your RAM temp as much different than what other Vengeance Pro owners report.

 

The RAM is a constant voltage piece of hardware.  You probably can catch it in the 20's when you first cold boot, but it slowly will warm over time and once it does, it is not going to cool back down.  it's going to warm up quite a bit, even if you are sitting in idle.  If you want be very tedious in your analysis, exact fan blade design and location in relation to the RAM can affect temperatures by a noticeable margin.  Fan A with one blade design just happen to blow air directly on/from the RAM in relation to its position.  This is not really about "how good a fan it is" but rather the actual directional flow from blade hitting or missing the RAM.  The other thing is taking the door off may hurt your RAM temps slightly.  This allows the front fans to dump half their air out of the case and the top fans will take the path of least resistance and pull from open air rather than the MB restricted side.  It reduces airflow across the motherboard.  I see this all the time when testing with O11 XL and pull off the small side glass.  While it helps with coolant and liquid cooled component temperatures, the RAM temps go up because there is less air moving across them.  

 

That said, I think the things discussed above are minor details and not something most users need to worry about.  At 50C you are still just fine on RAM temperature.  Max for DDR4 is up in the 70-75C range, depending on who you are talking with.  While 60C might make me uncomfortable, it still is not likely to matter unless you are running Samsung B-die up on the edge of stability.  That does not seem to be the case here  You did not mention the IC and I can't tell from the 2133 default timings, but 2x16 is more likely to be Micron or something else not temperature sensitive.  Can you see the version number on your RAM?  3.xx?  4.xx?  5.xx?  etc.  

hi @c-attack thank you for your detailed answer.

I know that ram are much cooler at startup.  Opening icue as soon as the system allows that I see temps around 28 C.

I wouldn't say that ram are not going to cool back down.  After a gaming session they slowly go back from 50 C to around 40.

They don't get back to 28 of course.

You seem to be a real ram expert.  I thought that removing the side panel would improve the overall temps because of the cold room air.

I know 50 c is not too much heat for a ram stick.  I was just wondering because my previous ram sticks (kingston hyperx predator 2133mhz ddr3 2x8gb)

were running cooler.    many people on the net say 50 C is too much so I just wanted to be sure that everything is fine.

I have attached my ram tech specs.   Now they are sitting at 36 C in idle.   This morning 40 C.

Do you think it can depend on windows 7 or windows 11 ?    I´m using win 7  now

anyway thank you for your help

 

[Conver]

The Corsair RAM I had before the once I'm using now, I had the same problem with overheating RAM, had to water-cool them before they were useable again, not sure what caused it, the problem was there all the time with overheating. 

[c-attack]

1 hour ago, zultan said:

many people on the net say 50 C is too much so I just wanted to be sure that everything is fine.

I think this comes from the general discussion about Samsung B-die kits that really are not like the others.  They are capable of running very tight timings with tRP and tRCD values equal to the tCL CAS latency and scale very well with voltage.  The trade off is there isn't a lot of margin for error and that takes the form of temperature sensitivity.  All the other ICs like your Hynix are more resistant but can't run on the razor's edge for timings even when the temperatures are very low.  This has made the b-die the overclocker's favorite on DDR4 whereas most other users will be just fine paying $200 less for less sensitive materials.  But that doesn't mean it's not capable.  I recently ran a RT kit (Micron) up to 4800 with 1.60v.  It passed a lot of heavy testing with RAM temps in the 50s.  It's also difficult to compare temperatures from different RAM generations.  Besides clear voltage changes, there can be a lot of stuff underneath changed as well.  DDR5 is certainly looking a lot different than DDR4 and each should be analyzed with its generational companions.  

 

Everything I see about your data suggests normal operation to me.  It goes up about 10C with gaming load (mostly from ambient temp increase), cools back down after, and of course slowly gets warmer all day long when the machine is on.  I would say that makes you like the rest of us, including those using B-die (me).  Where the vengeance pro seem to loose some ground is on the heat sink.  It is several degrees warmer than a Dominator or Vegeance RT kit at the same settings and voltage.  I think this is something that was improved upon with RT DDR4 kits in the same line and I expect the DDR5 versions also have improved heat sinks. 

 

So you are a little warmer than some people at the same settings, but I don't think it is going to cost you and you should be able to run the settings you want at 3200 and not worry about this.  If you start getting IRQL blue screens, then we'll need to have another look, but you don't need to run 2133@1.20.  3200@1.35v should be a minimal increase in temperature.  

Edited December 27, 2021 by c-attack

[zultan]

9 hours ago, c-attack said:

I think this comes from the general discussion about Samsung B-die kits that really are not like the others.  They are capable of running very tight timings with tRP and tRCD values equal to the tCL CAS latency and scale very well with voltage.  The trade off is there isn't a lot of margin for error and that takes the form of temperature sensitivity.  All the other ICs like your Hynix are more resistant but can't run on the razor's edge for timings even when the temperatures are very low.  This has made the b-die the overclocker's favorite on DDR4 whereas most other users will be just fine paying $200 less for less sensitive materials.  But that doesn't mean it's not capable.  I recently ran a RT kit (Micron) up to 4800 with 1.60v.  It passed a lot of heavy testing with RAM temps in the 50s.  It's also difficult to compare temperatures from different RAM generations.  Besides clear voltage changes, there can be a lot of stuff underneath changed as well.  DDR5 is certainly looking a lot different than DDR4 and each should be analyzed with its generational companions.  

 

Everything I see about your data suggests normal operation to me.  It goes up about 10C with gaming load (mostly from ambient temp increase), cools back down after, and of course slowly gets warmer all day long when the machine is on.  I would say that makes you like the rest of us, including those using B-die (me).  Where the vengeance pro seem to loose some ground is on the heat sink.  It is several degrees warmer than a Dominator or Vegeance RT kit at the same settings and voltage.  I think this is something that was improved upon with RT DDR4 kits in the same line and I expect the DDR5 versions also have improved heat sinks. 

 

So you are a little warmer than some people at the same settings, but I don't think it is going to cost you and you should be able to run the settings you want at 3200 and not worry about this.  If you start getting IRQL blue screens, then we'll need to have another look, but you don't need to run 2133@1.20.  3200@1.35v should be a minimal increase in temperature.  

Thank you, I feel much better now. 😉

I have already tried the ram at 3200 using xmp.  they work fine.  just a little hotter.

I tried to overclock them a little just once (3300) but the pc couldn't boot.

I left the voltage on auto because I never overclocked ram since ddr2  and I was afraid to manually raise the voltage.

Ram have so many more settings than years ago that I'm not sure i would be able to manage them all.

this morning temps are 37,7 C now on windows 7.   I finish this post and reboot on windows 11.

I'd like to see if I get different temps in the other os.

Thank you again for your help and for sharing your knowledge with me.

 

[c-attack]

I don’t know if you will see much difference between OS versions, but you can’t stay on Win 7 anymore. It likely will be plenty warm after a 10-15 min OS install. 
 

The 3300 boot fail was likely from improper settings. Overclocking RAM is more difficult than other forms and requires meticulous trial and error. There is no meaningful performance gain going from 3200 to 3300, so I would leave it alone. The next solid step-up would be 3466 MHz, but I would leave things alone after doing a new OS install. RAM based crashes have the capability of skewering your OS performance and it would be too easy to confuse self-induced corruption with general deficiencies in Windows 11. Plenty of those already. 

[zultan]

2 hours ago, c-attack said:

I don’t know if you will see much difference between OS versions, but you can’t stay on Win 7 anymore. It likely will be plenty warm after a 10-15 min OS install. 
 

The 3300 boot fail was likely from improper settings. Overclocking RAM is more difficult than other forms and requires meticulous trial and error. There is no meaningful performance gain going from 3200 to 3300, so I would leave it alone. The next solid step-up would be 3466 MHz, but I would leave things alone after doing a new OS install. RAM based crashes have the capability of skewering your OS performance and it would be too easy to confuse self-induced corruption with general deficiencies in Windows 11. Plenty of those already. 

No. I have already two separate os on two separate disks.  i'm not going to upgrade.

I was just curious to see any difference in temps between the two os.

I was busy before,  still have to switch...

[zultan]

it's me again.  I wonder why ram temps are fluctuating so much.

same pc. same case. same open side. same room temps (maybe 1 C more). same power on time. same  load (web surfing & youtube).

7 C cooler is quite a lot, isn't it? 

[c-attack]

Is that on the other OS (Win 11)?  It’s possible Win 7 was keeping the RAM busy in how it was moving data, but that is getting beyond my knowledge. You’ll have to see if that holds up or is content specific. Either way, 31C is about what I would see on my Dominators after several hours of desk work and +10C over ambient is about as low as you do without direct active cooling.

[zultan]

3 hours ago, c-attack said:

Is that on the other OS (Win 11)?  It’s possible Win 7 was keeping the RAM busy in how it was moving data, but that is getting beyond my knowledge. You’ll have to see if that holds up or is content specific. Either way, 31C is about what I would see on my Dominators after several hours of desk work and +10C over ambient is about as low as you do without direct active cooling.

That screen was taken this morning after a couple of hours of power on and idle/web surfing.

Now  after 7,5 hours of mostly idle time ram temps are still at 32/33 C (HWmonitor). I think they should be warm enough.

The os is win 11 because is what I am using today.  32 idle is like my old DDR3 (no rgb)  used to be in idle at the same speed.

I started checking my ram temps for simple curiosity.  Now I think I'll take the chance of holydays free time to see how temps

are going on both OS.    I'll keep you updated if I don't bother you