Home > News

AMD now supports memory overclocking on the fly in the latest Ryzen Master update

Overclocking your RAM just got even easier
Last Updated on December 9, 2024
ASUS X870 AMD motherboard
PC Guide is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read More
You can trust PC Guide: Our team of experts use a combination of independent consumer research, in-depth testing where appropriate - which will be flagged as such, and market analysis when recommending products, software and services. Find out how we test here.

AMD’s Ryzen Master utility gives you a ton of tools to play with if you’re interested in hardware overclocking. We generally recommend this for enthusiasts only, as squeezing out every little bit of performance requires some time and effort for relatively minimal gains for most users. In any case, an important change to the functionality of Ryzen Master is here via the recent v2.14.1.3286 update.

AMD EXPO (Extended Profiles for Overclocking) is one of the easiest ways of pushing your memory to the limits, simplifying the process down to a handful of clicks and allowing your memory to reach higher frequencies. And now, you don’t even need to restart your PC after changing your EXPO profile.

Memory can be overclocked on the fly

First off, you can read the full AMD Ryzen Master Release Notes (2.14.1.3286) here. The patch focuses on providing support for the latest Ryzen 9000 series processors and delivers 105W Eco Mode for Team Red’s newest 65W and 120W desktop processors. This is especially useful for the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X, both of which shipped with a 65W TDP, but can now get a boost up to 105W.

A couple of patch notes that caught our eye are as follows:

  • Memory can be overclocked on-the-fly (applying EXPO profile does not require a system restart)
  • Additional memory tuning parameters are introduced, providing further customization options for optimizing memory performance

So, as described, you no longer have to restart your PC if you want to change your EXPO profile for memory overclocking. System restarts are one of the biggest annoyances when it comes to overclocking. Resetting to reach the BIOS to change a single setting is bad enough, so doing it directly through Ryzen Master without a reboot is a welcome change. We recently saw Gigabyte make switching to X3D Turbo Mode less of a hassle, but you still have to restart your system.

Overclocking your RAM can have several benefits and potentially improve the performance of your PC. Although you could argue that memory is one of the areas least affected by overclocking, it does allow your RAM to provide data to your CPU more quickly, this is especially relevant for the best DDR5 RAM on the market with high memory speeds.

9700X leaning on box on table
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X processor on a table leaning against packaging, image by PC Guide

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.