DDR2 memory at 1T Timings?

Xplo · 13 May 2009 at 16:29

Just a quick question and to pick some brains, does anybody know if there is any DDR2 memory on the market that runs at 1T command rate on stock volts?

Basically looking to run a dual channel pair of DDR2 at 600mhz at something like 4-4-4-12 @ 1T but needs to be on stock volts or at worst case +0.1v

Ta muchly

Yellowbeard · 13 May 2009 at 17:53

1T (or 1N on Intel) is dependent upon the chipset or memory controller and not the memory. Are you talking about running DDR600 or an actual 600mhz which is DDR1200?

Xplo · 13 May 2009 at 18:07

Hi, I have an Asrock 4coredual-sata2 mobo atm and it gives me the option of 1T or 2T in the bios. I currently have 1.5gb (1x1gb and 1x512mb) Corsair DDR2 with the black and purple heatspreaders (think its PC5300).

CPU is at 240FSB atm, RAM 1:1, ram fails at 5-5-5-15 1T but runs fine at 3-3-3-8 2T? Could this be the ram not able to run at 1T or the mobo not able to run 1T then do you think? Mobo chipset and memory voltages are set to 'High'

Im not too fussed about 1T but im looking to get some new ram shortly for extra capacity and to utilise dual channel so I thought as I have the option in the bios I may aswell get some ram that can run 1T?

Cheers

Yellowbeard · 13 May 2009 at 18:11

Actually there are a couple of possible issues I see for running 1T. First, the Asrock board may not do well with 1T. And, you have mixed 2 different sized modules which puts the memory controller into a mixed or "flex" mode dual channel so it may not like 1T under those circumstances.

Xplo · 13 May 2009 at 18:14

Okay the Asrock board can use either DDR2 or DDR1 ram so the 1T option may be for DDR1 mode only?

Yeah im looking to get away from the mixed modules and get 2gb in dual channel, is the Corsair DDR2 PC6400 kit able to run 1T at 300mhz, DDR600, 4-4-4-12 at stock volts, or a 0.1v increase? If I can get a 1T able memory kit and its my board thats holding me back on 1T then no sweat im a winner anyway with 2gb

Yellowbeard · 13 May 2009 at 18:39

Xplo said:
Yeah im looking to get away from the mixed modules and get 2gb in dual channel, is the Corsair DDR2 PC6400 kit able to run 1T at 300mhz, DDR600, 4-4-4-12 at stock volts, or a 0.1v increase? If I can get a 1T able memory kit and its my board thats holding me back on 1T then no sweat im a winner anyway with 2gb

This is a better choice for the memory for sure. But, again, the command rate is going to be dependent upon the memory controller, not the memory.

Yellowbeard · 13 May 2009 at 18:42

Also, command rate is good for increasing memory bandwidth in benchmarks or synthetic tests. However, you'll never see the difference is real world usage.

Xplo · 13 May 2009 at 18:52

Okay so its all down to my mobo then, im aware of the tiny difference 1T is, just a bonus if I can get it running at that, cheers Yellowbeard

Jokester · 13 May 2009 at 18:55

As Yellowbeard says, in reality the real world difference is tiny, I did some tests a few years ago and the difference in FPS in games was in the order of 1%.

Yellowbeard · 13 May 2009 at 18:57

Xplo said:
Okay so its all down to my mobo then, im aware of the tiny difference 1T is, just a bonus if I can get it running at that, cheers Yellowbeard

LOL...yeah, I'm not trying to burst your bubble. At times, I'm like you and want EVERY single bit of performance I can squeeze out of a part. Other times I'm lazy and just don't want to tinker any longer. Fragging people is more fun than micro-tuning a BIOS. Have fun with it and good luck.

Xplo · 13 May 2009 at 19:34

Yellowbeard said:
LOL...yeah, I'm not trying to burst your bubble. At times, I'm like you and want EVERY single bit of performance I can squeeze out of a part. Other times I'm lazy and just don't want to tinker any longer. Fragging people is more fun than micro-tuning a BIOS. Have fun with it and good luck.

Very true and noted. Anyway, where was I with CS:S?

Xplo · 16 May 2009 at 14:37

So Yellowbeard I upgraded to 2GB dual channel Corsair today, fired straight up DDR480 3-3-3-8 1T and primed blend for 30mins to test ram, ran fine no crashes so went to play CS:S, which was lagging awfully with low fps? So I run 1M SuperPI and get 51s. I think thats not right and goto bios and set 2T, everything else left the same, ran 1M @ 37s, so 2T runs faster than 1T and CS:S is smooth as butter now and upto 20 fps faster than my unmatched sticks running at the same 2T! (Used to get low 30's in a certain part of cs_office now get low 50's :cool:

)

Cant quite work it out though as I thought 1T was faster but meh it was a well worth upgrade for the 2gb dual channel anyway! Would be interested to hear your opinions though!

Rroff · 16 May 2009 at 16:26

1T is more of an after thought on most motherboards so the BIOS probably has less than ideal timings or something programmed for it. Most vendors tend to focus on 2T which is where most people will be running it.

On my old long dead 680i motherboard 1T @ 850Mhz was worth a good 3000MB/s in extra bandwidth, on the 750i in my sig I actually lose 200MB/s using it over 2T.

Yellowbeard · 16 May 2009 at 16:40

Xplo said:
Cant quite work it out though as I thought 1T was faster but meh it was a well worth upgrade for the 2gb dual channel anyway! Would be interested to hear your opinions though!

Gremlins!