Your motherboard's default settings are tuned for stability, not speed

Motherboard default settings prioritize stability over performance to ensure compatibility across diverse hardware combinations. XMP/EXPO RAM profiles are disabled by default because advertised speeds aren't guaranteed to work with every CPU and RAM pairing. CPU power limits (PL1/PL2 for Intel, PPT/TDC/EDC for AMD) are set conservatively to prevent heat and instability. Once a system is confirmed stable, users can enable PBO or relax power limits to sustain higher clock speeds for longer, and enable XMP/EXPO to get RAM running at advertised speeds. Default settings serve as a safe baseline and fallback, not the performance ceiling.