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What is XMP? How memory XMP technology works?

Author:JUHOR Time:2022-10-10 Hits:

What is XMP? What is the working principle of memory XMP technology?


What is XMP?


The full name of X.M.P is Extreme Memory Profile. The English translation can be understood as a technology that facilitates memory overclocking. It is a technology introduced by Intel in 2007. At present, the XMP2.0 version is widely used in DDR4 memory, which is formulated by Intel and responsible for certification. The principle is very simple. Each XMP authentication memory will have a specific area to store the memory's overclock data, generally XMP1 and XMP2, which can be understood as the memory's preset configuration file.

Working principle of XMP


As we all know, memory modules can work above their default frequency. The preset frequency of the memory is not high, which is for the stability of the product. Gamers can increase their frequency to improve performance.


Due to the demand of players, memory manufacturers have produced various game memories for this purpose. The game memory has a strong overclocking ability, and the frequency can be much higher than its default frequency. In addition to writing the default frequency setting in SPD, the game memory also writes an overclock setting to SPD. As long as you enable the overclock setting in SPD, the memory can be automatically overclocked to the preset frequency.


In order to unify the overclocking value standard in the industry and prevent memory manufacturers from randomly setting higher memory frequency values to write to SPD, Intel has proposed the XMP certification standard. The memory certified by XMP will record the speed setting of the memory in memory addresses 176~254. Up to two sets of set values can be saved. If the manufacturers need to obtain XMP certification, they must send the memory and the settings to Intel for testing, and they will be certified after passing the test.


After XPM certification, SPDs with higher frequency settings are written into their SPDs in addition to the preset SPD values of ordinary frequency values. This higher frequency setting can be enabled after matching with the motherboard that supports XMP, thus improving the performance of memory overclocking.


To put it simply, for the memory that has passed the Intel XMP certification, there are two or more frequency setting files in the SPD. As long as these preset XMP files are enabled in the motherboard, the memory module can be automatically overclocked to 1600 or higher (depending on the file settings).


XMP has basically the same effect as manual overclocking, so it can be regarded as the automatic overclocking technology of memory.


XMP information can also be manually modified to obtain SPD information


Generally, the XMP function depends on the memory frequency. To be precise, as long as the memory frequency exceeds the frequency supported by the CPU memory controller, the XMP function needs to be enabled.


For example, an intel 9gen core processor uses DDR4 3000 as the memory frequency. The memory controller of the processor supports the maximum DDR4 frequency of 2666Mhz. If the XMP mode is disabled, the memory frequency of the 3000 Mhz memory automatically decreases to 2666Mhz. We don't get the full performance of high frequency memory. If we want memory to run at 3000Mhz, we need XMP enabled.


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