Razer 17 Pro RAM upgrade - HyperX Impact 3200mhz XMP DOES WORK - Don't buy CRUCIAL!

Folks, I've been scratching my head, headbutting walls and keyboard-stamping at Crucial via Twitter because they advertise their 3200 Ballistix ram as "100% compatible" with the Razer 17 Pro and yet since installing it, my machine was hanging and also refused to use the XMP profile. Their ram is clearly not XMP certified (despite their claims of 100% compatibility) and I recommend that you all avoid it.

IN SUMMARY - DO NOT BUY CRUCIAL RAM FOR YOUR RAZER MACHINE

I swapped their horrible customer service and SO-DIMMS for Kingston HyperX Impact 3200mhz, installed it this morning and IMMEDIATELY the machine is running the chips at 3200mhz, the XMP profile even automatically selected itself in BIOS so I didn't need to change a thing.

IN SUMMARY: HYPERX IMPACT CL20 3200MHZ WORKS PERFECTLY IN THE RAZER 17 PRO 2020 in XMP MODE (default profile)

Just to help others, this is the one that I bought: https://amzn.to/33DI9ag



The machine doesn't hang, boots perfectly and I now have 64Gb in my machine!! Just to add as well, there weren't multiple reboot cycles after installing, it just worked immediately.

There are a number of threads on this forum relating to upgrades and it isn't at all clear which have a successful result, and that's why I have posted this as a new topic, to hopefully help those desperately searching for the right RAM updates for their Razer 17 Pro (2020).

Just to also add, I benchmarked the machine stock (16Gb factory RAM), with the Crucial ram and also with the HyperX, here are the results:

• STOCK 16GB: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/33889751
• CRUCIAL 3200MHZ 64GB: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/33631968
• HYPERX 3200MHZ 64GB: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/33892903

But in summary, this benchmark shows the Crucial ram to be running at far lesser performance than the HyperX.

 

NOTE A WEEK LATER< THE MACHINE HAS STARTED TO CRASH IN-GAME...very disappointed...

 

How has it been since then? I am looking to upgrade mine as well and keep getting conflicting results.

 

Sent it back and now waiting for Razer to confirm which RAM chips are compatible with their laptops...

 

Has there been an update?

I contacted Razor support to no avail. At first, they said all 2933MHz 64GB (2x32) DDR4 160 Pin sticks will work. Then I pointed them to this and the below threads and support said they couldn't help, nor give any other advice. Rather disappointing.

https://insider.razer.com/index.php...l-this-work-on-my-razer-blade-pro-2020.65112/

https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/razer-17-pro-2020-ram-upgrade-options.64991/

https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/razer-blade-pro-17-2020-ram-issue.59373/

 

Razer never did respond to confirm which chips their own machines support, therefore I've gone ahead and ordered my THIRD set of DIMMS, this time the HyperX 2933mhz. I'll get them installed today and try and push some hard gaming tonight to see how stable they are. I'll also do a system test to see how they rate compared to the others.

 

Lol, don't celebrate just yet, the 3200 HyperX crashed non-stop, so I've got the 2933mhz now and will get it installed and tested tonight, will update shortly!

 

HyperX 2933 now installed and will test right now with some heavy Battlefield 5 gameplay!! I've also updated my original post to add the benchmark results for the 2933 ram, as you can see it's nowhere near as impressive as the 3200 unfortunately, but its better than the stock 16Gb ram, and the Crucial.

Here's the full benchmark result too:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/35283402

 

So, after just 10 minutes of Battlefield 5, it crashed, not to a blue screen but entire system hang. This laptop is sh*t and I literally hate it. I'm kicking myself for not going for the Dell XPS 17 or Alienware.

I've now selected the slowe 2666mhz XMP profile and will try again...

 

That is disappointing. What bios version are you using? Have you updated to 1.0.6?

 

Yes, running the latest Bios - just been playing BF5 with the slower XMP profile (2666) and it seems stable so far. Disapopinting as I could have just bought the slower RAM, but we'll see how it goes!

 

So far so good, played an entire game at 2666mhz and it's not crashed once!!

 

So, to consolidate the threads info

In General
https://insider.razer.com/index.php...does-work-dont-buy-crucial.63951/#post-650519

In Systems
https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/razer-17-pro-2020-ram-upgrade-options.64991/

https://insider.razer.com/index.php...l-this-work-on-my-razer-blade-pro-2020.65112/

In Support
https://insider.razer.com/index.php?threads/razer-blade-pro-17-2020-ram-issue.59373/

Common patterns

• 32GB RAM 2933Mhz seems to be more stable regardless of the provider at 2933
• 64GB RAM 2933Mhz at 2666Mhz XMP profile seems to be stable with HyperX
• No RAM at 3200Mhz seems to be stable, but nor is this advertised by Razor. Razor only states up to 64GB at 2933Mhz, however, no one [on this forum, or reddit] seems to have been able to prove this under testing
• Specs
  • 2933 MHz
  • 1.2v
  • CL/CAS unknown? 17?
  • Up to 32 GB
    • If 64GB go down to 2666Mhz

HyperX Impact 64GB 3200MHz DDR4 CL20 SODIMM (Kit of 2) Laptop Memory HX432S20IBK2/64

• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084929MWL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
• Doesnt work

HyperX Impact 64GB 2933MHz DDR4 CL17 SODIMM (Kit of 2) Laptop Memory HX429S17IBK2/64

• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0848NL2BQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
• Works if 1 stick (32GB) at 2933, or 2 sticks (64GB) set to a 2666 XMP profile
• Does not work for 2 sticks (64GB) at 2933
  • See support threads on this forum above
• Seems to be the most popular ram to buy

CORSAIR Vengeance 64GB (2 x 32GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2933 (PC4 23400) Laptop Memory Model CMSX64GX4M2A2933C19

• https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/N82E16820236680?&quicklink=true
• Not confirmed

CORSAIR Vengeance 64GB (2 x 32GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Laptop Memory Model CMSX64GX4M2A2666C18

• https://www.newegg.com/corsair-64gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/N82E16820236589?&quicklink=true
• Not confirmed

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Laptop Memory Model F4-3200C22D-64GRS

• https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-64gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/N82E16820374025?&quicklink=true
• Not confirmed but unlikely

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Laptop Memory Model F4-2666C18D-64GRS

• https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-64gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/N82E16820232948?&quicklink=true
• Not confirmed

Crucial Ballistix 64GB (2 x 32GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Laptop Memory Model BL2K32G32C16S4B

• https://www.newegg.com/ballistix-64gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/N82E16820164170?Description=crucial ddr4 3200&cm_re=crucial_ddr4 3200-_-20-164-170-_-Product&quicklink=true
• Doesnt work

 

It seems you have a bad unit, or Battlefield is causing the issues. Never had a single crash on my HyperX 32GB 2933 Mhz.

 

The issue seems to be HyperX 64GB 2933 not at 32GB. I ordered some 64GB sticks to test next week to confirm this.

 

I bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0848NL2BQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2x32GB HyperX 2933/CL17 DDR4 RAM at 2933

• With no bios changes did not work
• With XMP profile 1 did not work
• With XMP profile 2 (which lowers 2933 to 2666) did work and has been stable for nearly a week

What is "did not work" for me was the inability to run at 2933 and:

• pass Windows 10 Memory Test, it failed to reboot into windows
• run 6 x Docker containers (each with 2GB of RAM)
• run WSL instances (ubuntu, 16GB memory per instance)

When I did the above tests I saw the Blue screens of death either immediately or within 10 minutes.

My personal opinion

There is no proof the 4k Pro can run 64GB of RAM at 2933, and significant evidence across many threads that 2666 does work with XMP Profile 2.

My suggestion

Is for Razer to admit this publicly and change their marketing to only running 64GB at 2666 or at least let us know how to achieve 2933.

My next steps

I might not be Razers target market, nevertheless, my experience with this Razer laptop made me decided to purchase ~50 Dells and continue with MacBook Pros for Software Engineers at my company. They also run in 2666, but at least this is honest and public. Razer's marketing and poor support around 64GB @ 2933 removed my trust in them.

 

I agree, Razer has been sloppy on addressing this and it's about time that they spoke up and showed some pride in their own hardware.

 

Has anyone succeeded at using 64GB at speeds higher than 2666?

Do these look worth trying:

https://www.amazon.com/Mushkin-Esse...tage-MES4S320NF32GX2/dp/B08BYJXS5F/ref=sr_1_1

https://www.amazon.com/Mushkin-Esse...tage-MES4S293MF32GX2/dp/B08BYHY55X/ref=sr_1_3

(They're only CL22 and CL21 though)

 

Any news? what's stable? I am trying to upgrade to 32gb ram (16x2). should I go for 2933?