Geil Ultra Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-17000 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit Packaging

At least I'm managing 1600Mhz at 8-8-8-28-38 @ 1.5v (Which is in the SPD),
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Must admit, I'm pretty confused by SPDs.

On my MoBo, each RAM setting has 3 values

MANUAL - SPD - AUTO

Seems pretty straightforward - MANUAL is what you put in manually, SPD is what it has read from the SPD and AUTO is what the MoBo calculates is best.

But when I look at the SPD column it's not what I was expecting to see based on what has been printed here.

At 1333 the SPD coloumn shows 7-7-7-24 and AUTO agrees

At 1600 the SPD column shows 7-7-7-24 but AUTO slackens most of the values

Earlier in this post, there is a screen shot of the SPD and there is no entry for 1600.

It shows SPD for 1333, 1500 and XMP for 2133.

So there are a couple of things that are confusing me

(i) According to the previous post and CPU-Z screenshot, there is no 1600 SPD entry - so what are you picking up.

(ii) However, there is a 1500 SPD entry so why does my MoBo disregard this and use the 1333 one.

I've heard that Everest reads the SPD in full - that's what I'm going to try when I'm up and running.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
You're absolutely right. The correct SPD entries I am getting are the following:

1) 666Mhz @ 7-7-7-24-33, 1.5V
2) 761Mhz @ 8-8-8-28-38, 1.5V (however I pushed this up to 800Mhz on same timings and voltage)
3) 1067Mhz @ 9-9-9-28-38-2T, 1.65V

My MOBO agreese with (1), disagrees with (2) at 800Mhz, and slightly disagrees with (3) on the 28-38 readings.

I'll try get Everest myself, and post any info again :)

Edit:
EVEREST Info is VERY interesting :D

The memory is set to a Default @ 666 MHz 7-7-7-24 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 33-60-4-10-5-5 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)

The Extreme Memory Profiles are the following:

Profile Name Enthusiast (Certified)
Memory Speed DDR3-2133 (1066 MHz)
Voltage 1.65 V
@ 1066 MHz 9-9-9-28 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 33-171-3-8-16-8-8 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)
@ 948 MHz 8-8-8-25 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 30-152-2-8-15-8-8 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)
@ 829 MHz 7-7-7-22 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 26-133-2-7-13-7-7 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)

I really wish I could try that 829Mhz at those settings...I'll try to put those on 800Mhz...
 
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Guided by the SPD, I tried:
@ 800 MHz 7-7-7-22 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 26-133-2-7-13-7-7 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)

However the system wouldn't POST :(
Also, my motherboard (Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G) doesn't let me set the CR (Command Rate) to 2T...keeping it at 1T. And that is what is probably causing some major problems...

Also, my RFC goes up in predefined steps in the BIOS, and cant be set to 133...its either 110 or 170...
 
Thanks,

I'll try those this evening to see if I get any joy.

One interesting thing I notice straight away

all of these XMP records are setting Trfc = 160nS

My MoBo that gets the value from the SPD is setting it to 90nS - quite a difference.

Not really sure what Trfc is but wonder whether relaxing it so much is how they are acheiving the high speeds.

My MoBo sets the Trfc using a set of times (in nS) rather than clocks. Generally, I've read that Trfc should be set to 90nS or 110nS and when I've read forums where people have had trouble running RAM one of the suggestions has always been to push it upto 160nS or more.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
nheather said:
One interesting thing I notice straight away
all of these XMP records are setting Trfc = 160nS
Click to expand...

How do you know that they are being set to 160nS?

@ 1066 MHz 9-9-9-28 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 33-171-3-8-16-8-8 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)
@ 948 MHz 8-8-8-25 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 30-152-2-8-15-8-8 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)
@ 829 MHz 7-7-7-22 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 26-133-2-7-13-7-7 (RC-RFC-CR-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)

Aren't they 171nS,152nS,133nS respectively?

My mobo doesn't let me set the RFC manually, it just gives me a choice of certain values of nS
 
Aren't they 171nS,152nS,133nS respectively?
Click to expand...

They could be I guess - to be honest because they were odd values I thought it was being expressed as clock counts rather than nS.

171 clocks at 1066 = 160nS
152 clocks at 948 = 160nS
133 clocks at 829 = 160nS

Clock period = 1/freq = 1/1066MHz

So 171 clocks = 171/1066e6 = 160e-9

also 171/1066M = 152/948M = 133/829M = 160nS

Sometimes it is expressed in clock counts, sometimes in nS.

I just assumed these were clock counts, especially as they all spookily work out at 160nS.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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Well they will both run well on i5 because they are spefically designed for P55 chipsets. The i5 can read the XMP records so should pick up the enhanced settings automatically.

Of the two I'd say the Geil - why?

(i) Same price

(ii) Geil is spec'ed upto 2133, whereas the Ripjaw only upto 1600

(iii) If you run the Geil at 1600 then it will match the GSkill latency

So to me, the Geil is the same price, will match the GSkill and if you want you can run it at a higher bandwidth.

Price of RAM is shooting up isn't it - last week that Ripjaw was £74 and the Geil was £73 (although the Geil was on TWO then).

Cheers,

Nigel
 
nheather said:
Well they will both run well on i5 because they are spefically designed for P55 chipsets. The i5 can read the XMP records so should pick up the enhanced settings automatically.

Of the two I'd say the Geil - why?

(i) Same price

(ii) Geil is spec'ed upto 2133, whereas the Ripjaw only upto 1600

(iii) If you run the Geil at 1600 then it will match the GSkill latency

So to me, the Geil is the same price, will match the GSkill and if you want you can run it at a higher bandwidth.

Price of RAM is shooting up isn't it - last week that Ripjaw was £74 and the Geil was £73 (although the Geil was on TWO then).

Cheers,

Nigel
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Thanks bro. Compared to overclocking a CPU, is overclocking RAM quite hard?

Will I be able to OC this Geil RAM to 2000MHz+ without cooling it in some way?
 
StarSolitude said:
Thanks bro. Compared to overclocking a CPU, is overclocking RAM quite hard?

Will I be able to OC this Geil RAM to 2000MHz+ without cooling it in some way?
Click to expand...

The GEIL set is spec'd up to 2133Mhz. It's not even considered an Overclock as such, since it is capable of that speed as an XMP setting directly from factory :D
 
nheather said:
They could be I guess - to be honest because they were odd values I thought it was being expressed as clock counts rather than nS.

171 clocks at 1066 = 160nS
152 clocks at 948 = 160nS
133 clocks at 829 = 160nS

Clock period = 1/freq = 1/1066MHz

So 171 clocks = 171/1066e6 = 160e-9

also 171/1066M = 152/948M = 133/829M = 160nS

Sometimes it is expressed in clock counts, sometimes in nS.

I just assumed these were clock counts, especially as they all spookily work out at 160nS.

Cheers,

Nigel
Click to expand...

Hmm I didn't know how to make these calculations.

I'll have another look tomorrow when I find some time and get back to you with results.

Thanks a lot though. VERY useful :)
 
Well I tried the 829 settings but running at 800 so should have been fine, but no joy, wouldn't post.

The odd thing with my MoBo is that if I just leave it at 'AUTO' it comes up with good settings and works, but if I try to put stuff in manually (even the values that AUTO decides) then it fails to post.

Must admit I find a couple of things odd about the values Everest reports

(i) That RFC is so high - 160nS - my stuff runs at 90nS

(ii) That WR is so low - mine runs at 40 which is pretty normal - but the everest settings use 13, 15 and 16. Even at 1333 in the SPD it is set to 33.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I guess we're just a bit unlucky of having coupled this RAM with an AM3 system, and not an i5/i7 :(

This was my first AMD system...and I'll live with it...it is powerful enough for anything I'll be needing for the next 2-3 years I think. Nothing much left to do...except cool this chip and overclock it a little bit and maybe get 3.7-3.8Ghz out of it. At least I know that the RAM will give me some room (at slacker timings)
 
Purchased 3 of these yesterday after they went on This Week Only to upgrade my i7 to 12GB, straight off the bat I'm running 1600mhz cas 7 which is better and cheaper than almost any Triple Channel Kit available.

Best of all they don't have a 10ft heatsink so the one closest to the CPU socket doesn't get blocked by the heatsink/fan assembly as my Patriot Viper did. :p
 
Purchased 3 of these yesterday after they went on This Week Only to upgrade my i7 to 12GB, straight off the bat I'm running 1600mhz cas 7 which is better and cheaper than almost any Triple Channel Kit available.
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Would you post your RAM settings please. My automatically runs at CL7 at 1600 but the other parameters are quite relaxed (more like you would get with CL9).

Mine goes to

CL = 7
RAS to CAS = 9
RAS Precharge = 9
tRAS = 29
Command Rate = 2 (command rate is a bit odd in AUTO it is listed as -- and in the SPD. But if you change to MANUAL it shows it as 2.
twTR = 6
Trfc0,1,2,3 = 90nS
tWR =12
tRP = 6
tRC =40
tRRD = 5
Vddr = 1.6V

As I understand it, there is no SPD or XMP entry for 1600 so any settings that happen automatically have been worked out by the MoBo.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
The most important settings are:

CL = 7
RAS to CAS = 7
RAS Precharge = 7
tRAS = 20
Command Rate = 1

The rest of your settings look fine they're almost identical to what my Patriot Viper 1600Mhz XMP profile was, they make very little performance difference anyway and could cause stability problems set too low.
 
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