DDR3 - Why is it so dishonest?

[nheather]

I'm in the market for my first DDR3 RAM - in fact I've just bought some and returned it because it didn't peform as advertised.

Now when I bought DDR or DDR2 and it was advertised at CL5 @ 1066MHz @ 2.0V (for example), I plugged it in and it was CL5 at 1066Mhz.

I new that if I wanted to squeeze some extra MHz or tighten the timings I might have to play around with the BIOS settings and voltages etc. But that was my choice, part of being an enthusiast and overclocking my kit.

But, if I understand what I've been told and read, DDR3 isn't sold anything like this. The advertised setting are overclocked (because I'm told the only JEDEC standard for DDR3 is 9-9-9-24 @ 1333) and to acheive it I will have to play around with my BIOS, experimenting with parameters in the hope of finding the ones that will work. The real challenge is there is no guarantee that it will work at advertised and all the experimenting in the world won't help. To confound this the manufacturers don't even provide a set of paraemeters to use, even as a starting point.

It just seems really iffy that the manufacturers are selling stuff which it's customers have to put in a lot of advanced configuration just to get working at the advertised spec.

Or am I missing something?

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[nheather]

Unless you enable the XMP profile.

(1) If you can

(2) If there is one

(3) The manufacturers don't make it clear whether there advertised settings are in XMP, EPP, AOD download profile or what - pure guess work.

Sometimes they don't advertise that it is for a specific chipset until either you receive it and it has a big 'Designed for i5' sticker on it or you contact the manufacturers technical support and they tell you.

I wouldn't be so bad if the configuration involved just the main 5 parameters and DDR voltage but it seems you have to play around with all the obscure parameters and other voltages (NB and SB).

And it wouldn't be so bad if the manufacturers supplied a set of settings that are likely to work (or at least a good start) rather than leaving the customer in the total dark.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[nheather]

The settings the RAM is rated to run at is actually on the stick.

How do you find out what they are?

Obviously, the 7-7-7-24 @ 1.65V is advertised no problem with those.

But how do find out what all the other parameters and voltages would be set to?

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[nheather]

You need to use the FSB/BCLK in your BIOS, and multiply it by the RAM multiplier. It's just like basic maths.

Yep I know that - setting the memory speed to 1600MHz is childsplay.

What I'm talking about is the host of extra parameters, such as

TwTr Command Delay
Trfe
Write Recovery Time
Precharge Time
Row Cycle Time
RAS to RAS Delay

Haven't got a clue what they should be set to. Some people say they are not important, but when I visited the GSkill forum there many 'problem threads' where the advice involved playing about with these particularly Trfe.

Also voltages beyond the obvious DDR such as SB and NB.

I fully accept that it could be that my motherboard isn't up to it, but still contend that if a product is sold at 7-7-7-24 then the manu should list the settings needed to acheive this - and if after trying them, it still doesn't work I could concede that it is my MoBo or marginal memory. But instead the customer is left guessing what settings should be used and so when it fails it is not possible to tell whether it is settings, voltages, MoBo or memory that is at fault.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[nheather]

So at the risk of ULTIMATE FAIL , when I plug my 1600MHz 7-7-7-24 DDR3 memory into my Gigabyte P55M-UD2 motherboard, running at standard 133 BCLK, what will the default timings be at 1333MHz?

Based on the memory I have just used, I suspect that it will default to 9-9-9-24 @ 1333. But since you have a P55 you should be able to enable XMP and then it should automatically pick up 7-7-7-24 @ 1600. It should run fine at that because I was informed by the manufacturer that it was specifically designed for P55.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[nheather]

Aye, but that bumps my CPU base clock form 133 to 160 - something which I don't want to happen (yet)

Okay, I assumed that it uses a memory clock ratio like my board, so that the CPU speed is left unchanged.

Cheers,

Nigel