AMD Gigabyte MD with specific Corsair ram query

Duderooni

Duderooni

Duderooni

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15 May 2011
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159
I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this RAM (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8 - Corsair 1600mhz CAS8 DDR3 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-295-CS) is compatible with this motherboard (Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H).

I have been searching all over the web to no avail, and to be honest I'm now even more confused. Some places say its exclusively for Intel boards, other places say its fine. Some places say you'd have to run it at lower clock speeds and slower latencys, which sort of defeats the object of why I'm interested in this product.. :(
 
sk82jack said:
Yes it is.

Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H
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Thanks, much appreciated. I just wanted to get a second opinion because like I said, a few places have it down as almost 'Intel exclusive' in terms of compatibility.. I didn't believe that but wanted to be sure there wouldn't be any issues! Thanks again!

TheEnosFam said:
Ram is fine. If I may, what will you be using this PC for?
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Sure! I'm using it mainly as a gaming machine and just general use. I'm not doing work, rendering or anything like that. Well a bit of video editing but nothing serious. I guess my next question is what is the benifit of the lower CAS timings, and will it make a difference. I'm a bit touchy on the subject, many years ago I remember asking about CAS latency on DDR1 ram and people saying about how it doesnt matter, well I definitely remember that I upgraded from CAS 3 and games went from stuttering messes to silky smooth...

I've recently gone from XP 32bit to 7 64bit ultimate, and Dirt 2 has gone from silky smooth with everything on, to a juddering mess. I've forced DX9 mode and its still nowhere near as smooth as before. It like judders at strange random moments. Annoying as hell. I think its down to one of two things, I need more memory now I've upgraded to a new OS.. OR my new modem (a USB one..) is causing an issue... I need ram anyway so thought I'd bite the bullet there first. Thanks for any help, all input is appreciated!
 
Yea, the vengeance ram wil run fine in that board, but I would strongly suggest going for this RAM instead. In terms of latency - with modern RAM (DDR3) the difference between CL7 and CL9 (1600MHz) in games is a few % in the very best case and the price difference is massive. In other words go for CL9 and spend the money you save on other important components that will make a real difference. (also the XMS3 RAM has the benefit over the vengeance that it doesn't use ridiculous - and unnecessary- heatsinks, so you will have much less problems with large CPU heatsink clearance).

You mention you are gaming, may I ask what CPU and GPU you will be using with this motherboard?
 
cmndr_andi said:
Yea, the vengeance ram wil run fine in that board, but I would strongly suggest going for this RAM instead. In terms of latency - with modern RAM (DDR3) the difference between CL7 and CL9 (1600MHz) in games is a few % in the very best case and the price difference is massive. In other words go for CL9 and spend the money you save on other important components that will make a real difference. (also the XMS3 RAM has the benefit over the vengeance that it doesn't use ridiculous - and unnecessary- heatsinks, so you will have much less problems with large CPU heatsink clearance).

You mention you are gaming, may I ask what CPU and GPU you will be using with this motherboard?
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Just updated my sig with my specs, don't get me wrong I'm not bleeding edge or anything, just want to enjoy games at fairly decent settings. Im not going for 16xAF and 8xAA here :p

About your point regarding there being a minimal % hit in performance, I'm not bothered about that at all, 70 or 65 fps makes no odds to me.. I am however worried about ending up with stuttering.. Id rather pay a tenner more and get 70fps constant, than save a tenner and end up with 65fps with frequent micro stuttering.....
 
Duderooni said:
Just updated my sig with my specs, don't get me wrong I'm not bleeding edge or anything, just want to enjoy games at fairly decent settings. Im not going for 16xAF and 8xAA here :p

About your point regarding there being a minimal % hit in performance, I'm not bothered about that at all, 70 or 65 fps makes no odds to me.. I am however worried about ending up with stuttering.. Id rather pay a tenner more and get 70fps constant, than save a tenner and end up with 65fps with frequent micro stuttering.....
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That's fair enough, the difference will be more like 1-2FPS at the VERY most (in the majority of games there just isn't a performance difference between CL7 and CL9 1600MHZ dual channel DDR3).

Looking at your sig the one thing that stands out is the RAM and your OS, upgrading your RAM is a very worthwhile upgrade. However, if you are gaming then 4GB should be plenty - this would be a good kit to get and very good value (you could also install your existing 2GB at the same time to reach a total of 6GB if you wanted). If you do want to go for a 8GB (2x4GB) kit for futureproofing or whatnot then I would strongly suggest going for the 8GB XMS3 kit I linked to in my earlier post.

Have you tried overclocking your CPU and/or unlocking the fourth core?
 
Hmm maybe I should try some CAS 9 and see if I experience any stuttering, and if I do RMA it.. If I don't I'll have saved myself a few quid.. I'll think over the next couple of days and see what offers come up.

Yea my ram is without a shadow of a doubt my weakest link. It was fine in XP but there certainly seems to be some issues now. I tried searching for my current ram (2GB 2x1 sticks of Kingston 1600Mhz DDR3 KHX12800D3K2/2G) and it doesn't seem to be particularly popular any more. Its like Kingston have changed the format of their RAM coding. Not particularly helpful to say the least! I've read it isn't a good idea to mix and match ram so I'm guessing getting a 4gb kit to mix with my current ram isn't a good idea?.. This is slightly off topic but since going from XP to 7x64 ultimate I've noticed the whole machine just seems sluggish.. For example, Outrun 2006 would usually load stages in a few seconds, now it takes around 20 (!).. Is this due to the OS being a RAM hog? Or am I missing something here.. Write caching seems to be all on, its not the spinpoint because I copied the game to my seagate sata2 drive and it took ages to load stages on that too.. Very odd. Just to clarify my system specs in my sig were the same on XP and loading fine, all I have done is formatted from Windows XP SP3 x86 to Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

To answer your final question, I haven't yet tried overclocking or unlocking the forth core.. I recently had heating problems which I managed to sort out by replacing my dying stock heat sink with a artic freezer 7 pro =) very happy with the temps now! Could have some head room for overclocking now I guess, I've not yet hit 60c (MB temp sensors) or 40c (core temps). Thanks for your help by the way, really good stuff!
 
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Duderooni said:
Hmm maybe I should try some CAS 9 and see if I experience any stuttering, and if I do RMA it.. If I don't I'll have saved myself a few quid.. I'll think over the next couple of days and see what offers come up.
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Good plan, though I don't think you will do much better than that 8GB XMS3 kit for £66 - the cheapest 8GB (2x4GB) kits usually hover around the £80 mark - so this weeks deal is a really nice one for a very nice quality kit.

Duderooni said:
Yea my ram is without a shadow of a doubt my weakest link. It was fine in XP but there certainly seems to be some issues now. I tried searching for my current ram (2GB 2x1 sticks of Kingston 1600Mhz DDR3 KHX12800D3K2/2G) and it doesn't seem to be particularly popular any more. Its like Kingston have changed the format of their RAM coding. Not particularly helpful to say the least! I've read it isn't a good idea to mix and match ram so I'm guessing getting a 4gb kit to mix with my current ram isn't a good idea?..
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Yea, it is a bit older but it should be on this page.

You are right about mixing RAM, it can be problematic - though if you are buying 1600MHz memory of about the same spec then you may as well test it out. If you can't get them to run stably then just take it out and sell it - but if if does run fine then you get an extra 2GB of RAM to use and preserve dual channel mode.

Duderooni said:
This is slightly off topic but since going from XP to 7x64 ultimate I've noticed the whole machine just seems sluggish.. For example, Outrun 2006 would usually load stages in a few seconds, now it takes around 20 (!).. Is this due to the OS being a RAM hog? Or am I missing something here.. Write caching seems to be all on, its not the spinpoint because I copied the game to my seagate sata2 drive and it took ages to load stages on that too.. Very odd. Just to clarify my system specs in my sig were the same on XP and loading fine, all I have done is formatted from Windows XP SP3 x86 to Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.
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Yea, windows 7 uses a lot more RAM than XP - so this is most likely the cause of your issues. That said, if your are running a particular game off a slower HDD then this would contribute to increased load times - since the data needs to be read off the HDD when loading a level.

Duderooni said:
To answer your final question, I haven't yet tried overclocking or unlocking the forth core.. I recently had heating problems which I managed to sort out by replacing my dying stock heat sink with a artic freezer 7 pro =) very happy with the temps now! Could have some head room for overclocking now I guess, I've not yet hit 60c (MB temp sensors) or 40c (core temps). Thanks for your help by the way, really good stuff!
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Sounds like you have the system running cool now - perhaps it's worth going into the BIOS and trying out a bit of core unlocking. Nothing nicer than turning a triple core into a quad core for free. Have a read of this guide (to be clear - according to that guide your motherboard is fully capable of unlocking CPU cores and a couple of people people have confirmed doning it).
 
yea i think my ram is on that page somewhere but the ram code they use seems to have changed. Like mine is 12800 but now this speed seems to be referred to as 1600, what a pain!

going back to the slow loading times, i don't think i explained properly, Im using the Samsung spinpoint f3 for games which is meant to be a quick drive, but in windows 7 its loading noticeably slower than xp and the whole system just seems lethargic :( my old drive was the seagate and i tried the game on that too to elimate the theory of the f3 having a fault, but its slow on that too..
 
Duderooni said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-290-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

I'm tempted to get this ram but i see its voltage is higher than 1.5v which everyone seems to be on about. Should I get a 1.5v kit or doesn't it really matter because I'm not on a sandybridge machine? Could anyone explain what the deal is with ram voltage and which voltage I should go for?
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Your board may auto volt the ram to 1,5V. This should not be a problem, however I am running 8Gb (4 x 2Gb Geil and OCZ mix) at 1667Mhz and I find that 1.6V is about the best voltage for stability on the Gigabyte GA 890.
 
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