Help!!!

mr griffin · 23 Dec 2010 at 13:14

Got a weird problem occurring and was wondering if any of you could shed some light on the situation as maybe it might of happened to you before. I'm not really clued up on gigabite motherboards have tended to use Asus in the past so it could be some setting I am missing or not using I really just don't know.

The System:
GA-X48-DQ6 GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARD
E8400 CPU
4 X 1GB STICKS OFPC3 10666 PLATINUM EDITION

Anyhow I have clocked the machine to 444x9 = 4.0ghz and its stable and fine and with only 2 sticks of ram it runs nice and fast and plays games as it should. just as a test it also does super pi 1m in just over 11 seconds which I would say is about right for this pc, the problem starts when I add the other 2 sticks of ram although the pc is stable it runs slower a lot slower - super pi 1m takes 19 seconds to do the same test and games are now laggy. As soon as I go back to just 2 sticks each time its fine again. Obviously if I can I would like to use all 4 sticks.

Anyone got any idea what the problem could be?? :confused:

mr griffin · 23 Dec 2010 at 20:42

no one has any idea?

Orcvader · 23 Dec 2010 at 21:21

What speed is the RAM running at? I have a feeling you're straining the memory controller a lot more, hence the slow down.

RJC · 23 Dec 2010 at 21:22

Usually running all 4 memory modules occupied puts extra stress on the northbridge, try looking for MCH (Northbridge) voltage in the BIOS and increase a few notches.

mr griffin · 23 Dec 2010 at 21:52

Thank's for the advice. I have the ram running at 1066mhz and it is rated at 1333 I also have the timings running looser than needed as I just wanted to rule out the ram being the problem. Tried bumping up the mch settings but made no difference either, doing my head in.

Any other ideas???

1Day · 23 Dec 2010 at 22:24

It is called dual channel. With two sticks your system will run heaps faster than with 4. Simple as that.

mr griffin · 23 Dec 2010 at 22:35

Are you sure about that??

In my other system I have 4 x 2gb sticks and it does super pi in 11 sec with 2 or 4 sticks in the machine, so thank's for that but I can't see that being true. also when I look on cpuz it is saying that all 4 sticks are still running in dual channel

1Day · 23 Dec 2010 at 23:20

Simple method to check.

Run some bandwidth benchmarks for your ram. First with the two sticks in and then with the 4 sticks in.

See which gives you the greater bandwidth.

The thing with 4 sticks in your slots is they have to be balanced and the settings in your bios need to be spot of for all 4 sticks. What happens is the slowest stick will determine the auto function of all four more often than not. And unless all four are a matched set (which yours are not) it is likely that there is a different in the sub timings that is messing things around for you.

Now if latency is being changed as it is very likely to be. Then that can be why your performance is dropping. Just because it did not happen on another system does not foreclose it happening on the X48 chipset.

Bottom line is 2 works really well for you and 4 does not. So why do you want 4? What additional work will 4 GB do that the 2 GB is currently not doing?

Run some Sandra and see.

Yes technically all four are running in dual channel because they are populated. So I do stand corrected for that.

mr griffin · 24 Dec 2010 at 14:57

I'm still not having any luck with this ram if anyone else has any ideas I could try???.
I'm not sure if these are a matched set but all 4 sticks of ram are the same make and model number as each other, so I would assume there would be no compatability problems, probably 2 gb sets. I have added more ram to lots of pc's in the past and this is the first time it has caused me trouble. The reason I want to use 4 sticks of ram is because I have 4 stick of ram and if I can get it running properly 4gb will be better that 2gb of memory for demanding games.

1Day · 24 Dec 2010 at 17:00

Even if the sticks have the same part number that does not guarantee that the SPD of each stick is the same. However that being said it is strange that you are having such an issue.

May I suggest that you run memtest86 it might just be that you have one stick of ram that is faulty and that is holding you back.

When you do run the test please make sure that you enable the xmp of the ram so that they run at their specified settings.

Regards