Dear Team,
The most likely culprit is memory instability related to the XMP profile, followed by potential motherboard BIOS or CPU voltage regulation issues under the dynamic loads of gaming. Stress tests like AIDA64, MemTest86, and 3DMark create consistent, predictable loads, which your system is stable under. Gaming, however, produces highly variable and unpredictable loads that can expose subtle instabilities in memory timings, voltage, or power delivery that these tests miss.
our G.Skill Trident Z5 6400MHz CL32 RAM is very fast, and while it passed MemTest86, running at its full XMP speed on a Z690 platform can be a source of instability. The memory controller on the 12th Gen CPUs can be sensitive to high-frequency RAM.
What to do:
- Disable XMP and Test: Go into your BIOS and disable the XMP profile. This will run your RAM at its base JEDEC speed (likely 4800MHz). Play your games and see if the blue screens disappear. If they do, XMP is the cause.
- Manually Tune RAM or Use a Lower XMP Profile: If disabling XMP solves the problem, you can try re-enabling XMP but manually lowering the frequency to 6000MHz or 5600MHz as a start. You may also need to slightly increase the DRAM voltage (e.g., from 1.35V to 1.37V) or the CPU VCCSA/System Agent voltage, but do so with caution and in small increments. Look for a stable middle ground between performance and stability.
Best Regards,