Embodiments herein describe a memory system that includes a DRAM module with a plurality of individual DRAM chips. In one embodiment, the DRAM chips are per DRAM addressable (PDA) so that each DRAM chip can use a respective reference voltage (VREF) value to decode received data signals (e.g., DQ or CA signals). During runtime, the VREF value can drift away from its optimal value set when the memory system is initialized. To address possible drift in VREF value, the present embodiments perform VREF calibration dynamically. To do so, the memory system monitors a predefined criteria to determine when to perform VREF calibration. To calibrate VREF value, the memory system may write transmit data and then read out the test data to determine the width of a signal eye using different VREF values. The memory system selects the VREF value that results in the widest signal eye.