RAM:Why is my memory not hitting its rated frequency?

There are many factors for why a memory kit is not hitting its rated frequency. Typically, you want to check the following:

• Are the memory modules inserted in the correct slots of your motherboard?
• Is XMP/EXPO enabled?
• Are your BIOS, chipset, and other drivers fully up to date?
• Is the memory stated as supported by the chipset on our website? (See the picture below for an example; the memory kit used is the VENGEANCE RGB RT 32GB DDR4)
  
  

The last bullet point is something you want to closely examine. While individual chipsets serve as reference for individual kits, this does not mean the kit will run on every motherboard that has that chipset.

The quality of the motherboard plays a large factor in whether the memory can hit its rated speed. A budget motherboard is less likely to hit the rated frequency of high-speed kits compared to a high-end motherboard with the same chipset. 

Once you have checked all four bullet points above, the next step is to check if there are physical issues. Try reseating the memory and CPU to see if it helps. If a cooler is too tight on a CPU, it can cause issues with booting and memory running as intended; loosening the cooler slightly usually solves this issue.

For further tests, you want to test each module individually and give the results to a tech support agent via a help ticket. When referencing this article to Tech Support, please provide Corsair Reporter logs and Memtest86+ results when submitting the ticket.