AMD Ryzen 9 7900X Performance With ECC DDR5 Memory

[gary7]

I've been running my consumer grade ASRock AM4 motherboard NFS server with ECC memory for over a year now and have yet to have yet to have any errors reported by edac-util and no reliability problems. I would not even consider running an NFS server without ECC memory. Most ASRock AM4 mother boards support ECC. A quick check of their AM5 motherboards shows that ECC support is 50/50 or less with few of the low end and even some of the high(est) end motherboards not supporting it.

[unwind-protect]

In summary, I am surprised that there is a measurable difference from turning ECC on and off. Even 2-3% isn't what I expcted.

7% slower surprises me. It doesn't match my mental model of how ECC works.

Now I'm afraid that somebody does the same testing for registered vs. unbuffered RAM

[piorunz]

The data really show how pathetic it is that ECC isn't standard. The performance penalty is negligible!

Unfortunately it's not that easy. Normal non-ECC sticks have much lower latency and are faster because of that. ECC sticks have very high CL and are slower. Just inserting ECC stick with ECC disabled cost you some performance.
For me this is worth it, but for extreme gamers maybe not because they can redownload their game and so on.

[piorunz]

I have often wondered, if I should begin to use ECC RAM for my NAS/server running 24/7. However, I have not really realized any issues being due to RAM errors.

Does anyone have any experience with running ECC RAM? Do you get errors/corrections reported in your logs regularly or at all? Is it really necessary in real life?

I also experienced data corruption errors due to non-ECC DDR4 RAM. Cost me a lot of time to fix. Couple of years ago I upgraded home server with ECC RAM and never had any problems since. Also running main workstation computer with ECC nowadays. Both Ryzens, server first gen 1600X, workstation is 5800X. Boards ASUS Prime. I will continue running with ECC sticks, I don't want to downgrade to unreliable memory, it cost too much time when important data got corrupted and corruption replicates to every backup quietly.

[Old Nobody]

I have often wondered, if I should begin to use ECC RAM for my NAS/server running 24/7. However, I have not really realized any issues being due to RAM errors.

Does anyone have any experience with running ECC RAM? Do you get errors/corrections reported in your logs regularly or at all? Is it really necessary in real life?

Switched to using ECC memory some years ago, after defective RAM killed my personal data (~10 TByte, had to restore from backup).

Home server: One reported error in 2018 and two in 2019 (running 24/7 since 2018, 64 GByte DDR4)
NAS: One reported error in 2022 (running 24/7 since 2020, 16 GByte DDR4)
Desktop: No reported error (running ~16/7 since 2021, 64 GByte DDR4)

All reported errors got corrected. You have to decide on you own if it's worth the extra money.

[sharpjs]

My workstation is a Threadripper 2950X box with 128GB of ECC RAM. I had consumer RAM in it before upgrading to the ECC. I had a BSOD or panic every couple weeks with the consumer RAM. I have had zero panics since installing the ECC RAM several years ago. Granted, there are a lot of variables at play (timings, frequencies, voltages, chip binning, chip failures, etc.), so I can't be sure it's the ECC responsible for the stability. But I absolutely will prefer buying ECC RAM in future.

[unwind-protect]

I have often wondered, if I should begin to use ECC RAM for my NAS/server running 24/7. However, I have not really realized any issues being due to RAM errors.

Does anyone have any experience with running ECC RAM? Do you get errors/corrections reported in your logs regularly or at all? Is it really necessary in real life?

I had a fanless chipset chip heat up a lot. It heated the RAM above it in a vertical case. It lead to ECC messages advising me of corrected errors. I put a fan on the chip.

Without ECC it would have been real (non-corrected) errors and (worse) it would have continued for a long time.

[Yalok]

This reminds me of the days when someone was arguing with me that ECC was going to be standard on DDR5 even for desktops and laptops. Sure seems that didn't pan out.

According to DDR5 Wikipedia article, there is in fact some form of ECC by design on all DDR5 sticks, that was not present on standard DDR4.

[LinAGKar]

This reminds me of the days when someone was arguing with me that ECC was going to be standard on DDR5 even for desktops and laptops. Sure seems that didn't pan out.

It's got on-die ECC as standard, but not ECC all the way to the CPU.

[Scramblejams]

Does anyone have any experience with running ECC RAM? Do you get errors/corrections reported in your logs regularly or at all? Is it really necessary in real life?

I run a NAS/VM host at home with 128 gigs of RAM and it pops ECC errors 1-2 times per year. May not sound like much but without ECC that could hose some data right quick, possibly silently.