Full potential?

ACJJ619 · 12 Jan 2013 at 21:31

Current hardware:

ASUS M4A77T AM3 socket
Phenom II X4 955
4GB DDR3 1600mhz
EVGA GTX 460

I am unsure whether my motherboard or CPU are allowing me to get the full potential out of my other components. I can't seem to find any reliable info online so I thought I'd come here. From what I've read no AM3 socket motherboard/CPU will support 1600mhz RAM, although the official site says:

"4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory. AMD AM3 100 and 200 series CPU support up to DDR3 1066MHz"

I'm not sure what this means. Does it mean it will support 1600mhz if the CPU or RAM is overclocked? Everywhere else only seems to mention 1333mhz.

Also, I have bought an SSD hard drive which runs on SATA 3. I'm not sure what performance gains are to be had here but I'm not sure if my motherboard even supports SATA 2, let alone 3. Would I be right?

Here are somef screenshots of my RAM frequency/timings. It was set to auto in the BIOS and was giving me this:

I then went into the BIOS and changed it from auto to 1600mhz. It now says this:

As far as my knowledge goes, I think the DRAM frequency should be half of what the overall speed is because it's dual channel. This would indicate my RAM was running at around 1066mhz rather than the 1600mhz it should be. Having changed the BIOS settings the frequency is now saying 800mhz in CPU-Z which would indeed indicate I am now at the correct 1600mhz, but the timings have changed. Is this important?

AM3 seems to be a huge ballache. There doesn't seem to be many supported CPU's and it seems to be lagging behind current hardware. I think I might need an upgrade.

Thanks

Gav_881 · 12 Jan 2013 at 21:39

If you can afford to go to an intel setup but then again its probably worth holding out for Haswell now.

As for the RAM your correct in that it should be showing 800Mhz for 1600Mhz opperation, the other numbers are important and affect the speed the ram can be accessed but raw Mhz makes a much bigger difference.

ACJJ619 · 12 Jan 2013 at 21:48

My RAM should be running timings of 9-9-9-24 but CPU-Z appears to be showing 11-11-11-30. Why would this be? Are the CPU or motherboard limiting it?

snips86x · 12 Jan 2013 at 21:56

ACJJ619 said:
My RAM should be running timings of 9-9-9-24 but CPU-Z appears to be showing 11-11-11-30. Why would this be? Are the CPU or motherboard limiting it?

You'd need to set it manually in the BIOS if you want the timings right!

ACJJ619 · 12 Jan 2013 at 21:57

Okay, I'll give that a go thanks!

Martini1991 · 12 Jan 2013 at 22:04

Officially 1600MHZ isn't supported on Phenom II.
I think when Thuban launched was the first time AMD's IMC could reliability do 1600MHZ.
You might get lucky with your chip and be able to do 1600MHZ, to remain stable it's no guarantee.

Your board doesn't support SATA III, but it does support SATA II.

But to be honest, I don't see much wrong with your rig, I can't see anything that's being hugely bottleneck because of something else.

snips86x · 12 Jan 2013 at 22:08

Martini1991 said:
Officially 1600MHZ isn't supported on Phenom II.
I think when Thuban launched was the first time AMD's IMC could reliability do 1600MHZ.
You might get lucky with your chip and be able to do 1600MHZ, to remain stable it's no guarantee.

Your board doesn't support SATA III, but it does support SATA II.

But to be honest, I don't see much wrong with your rig, I can't see anything that's being hugely bottleneck because of something else.

If you look at your boot screen when it does the mem check, it is running @ 1333? BIOS should tell you also.

ACJJ619 · 12 Jan 2013 at 22:51

Martini1991 said:
Officially 1600MHZ isn't supported on Phenom II.
I think when Thuban launched was the first time AMD's IMC could reliability do 1600MHZ.
You might get lucky with your chip and be able to do 1600MHZ, to remain stable it's no guarantee.

Your board doesn't support SATA III, but it does support SATA II.

But to be honest, I don't see much wrong with your rig, I can't see anything that's being hugely bottleneck because of something else.

Ah okay, that really clears things up thanks. So judging by those CPU-Z screenshots, am I running at 1600mhz? I suppose the only way I'll know if it's stable is over time.

Good to hear it supports SATA II. I guess if I can get the RAM working at its optimum speed and timings, it probably won't be worth upgrading my motherboard/CPU just for the sake of SATA III instead of SATA II.

UPDATE:

Just manually set my RAM timings. If CPU-Z is correct, I believe I should now be running at the correct RAM frequency and timings. 1600mhz at 9-9-9-24.

So now it's just what to do about this SSD hard drive. I guess it's only worth upgrading to SATA III if my new SSD can actually go above 3gb/s. That seems like an awful lot. These are the specs: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vector-series-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html#specifications

So my SATA II will allow up to 300mb/s and their website reckons the disk runs at 400/550mbs. I'm not sure which one matters. I'm still not sure it's worth upgrading my mobo and CPU just for the SATA III benefits...