Please help....!!!!

County · 1 Oct 2006 at 19:30

Hi all

Basically, i have a dilemma!

I have the following:

AMD64 3700+
2GB Geil Value RAM
MSI Neo 2 Motherboard
X1800xt 256mb Gpu

and have just purchased the Arctic Cooler 64pro to compliment this setup. I got the CPU to (11*270=2970mhz) on stock HSF and stock volts, BUT never did anything with the RAM.

I understand that the RAM goes up inline with FSB and that this can DECREASE performance if its not 1:1.

So can someone tell me whether this RAM and Mobo is capable of supporting such an overclock, and if so, how do i change the RAM to compliment the CPU overclock????

Cheers

County · 2 Oct 2006 at 11:27

Anyone?

Any help or links to help would be great!

I really cant grasp how the FSB affects the RAM.

Cheers

Cob · 2 Oct 2006 at 11:33

The AMD64's can run with the RAM slower than the cpu without any preformance hit. There should be a RAM divider option in your bios (something like 200, 166, 133 etc or 1:1, 4:3, 2:1 etc).

V|per · 2 Oct 2006 at 12:21

As above, A64 systems benefit much better from tighter ram timings, definately no need to run it at 1:1

btw, good going if you got your geil value to 270mhz :eek:

(i was assuming it was pc3200 though..)

County · 2 Oct 2006 at 12:31

Cob said:
The AMD64's can run with the RAM slower than the cpu without any preformance hit. There should be a RAM divider option in your bios (something like 200, 166, 133 etc or 1:1, 4:3, 2:1 etc).

Thats good to know, thank you!

Is there any reason for this?

btw, good going if you got your geil value to 270mhz (i was assuming it was pc3200 though..)

Thank you!

This was Prime stable overnight and game stable, so thats why i got the Arctic Cooler Pro64. Yes, the RAM was at PC3200 though and i understand this isnt good?

What would be the best to run the RAM at if i get it back upto 2970mhz?

Cheers

Cob · 2 Oct 2006 at 12:39

County said:
Thats good to know, thank you!

Is there any reason for this?

The A64's have the memory controller on the cpu instead of the motherboard and thus can 'talk' to each other at great speeds anyway.

County said:
This was Prime stable overnight and game stable, so thats why i got the Arctic Cooler Pro64. Yes, the RAM was at PC3200 though and i understand this isnt good?

PC3200 is as good as it overclocks. You've got some great PC3200 there.

County said:
What would be the best to run the RAM at if i get it back upto 2970mhz?

Run some benchmarks (Sandra etc) at 1:1, and then lower with tighter timings and see which gives the better results. As mentioned above, the A64 will often give better results running on a divider with tight timings than it will running at 1:1 with loose timings.

qwerty07 · 2 Oct 2006 at 13:01

Dividers dont really affect performance for A64 systems. Its fine to do

County · 2 Oct 2006 at 13:04

Cob said:
Run some benchmarks (Sandra etc) at 1:1, and then lower with tighter timings and see which gives the better results. As mentioned above, the A64 will often give better results running on a divider with tight timings than it will running at 1:1 with loose timings.

These are all great bits of advice, thank you!

Can you please explain what "tight" and "loose" means as regards to RAM timings, i sound like a n00b but i aint

Just this is the ONLY thing with computers i cant seem to get my head round!

Cheers

Cob · 2 Oct 2006 at 13:12

The lower they are, the tighter they are eg- 2-2-2-5 is tighter than 3-3-3-8 etc. The tighter the better.

But ofcourse you will usually find that 2-2-2-5 @200Mhz is 'slower' than 3-3-3-8 @250Mhz. Benchmarking is pretty much the only way to find out. I found out that my Opteron 146 (300x10) ran slightly faster with the RAM at 3-4-3-8 @250Mhz than it did at 2-2-2-5 @200Mhz.

County · 2 Oct 2006 at 13:49

Think im beginning to understand!

So, if i can up the FSB then benchmark the RAM at different timings to see what is best?

The timings are changed in the BIOS?

Cheers

V|per · 2 Oct 2006 at 14:04

Spot on..

My a64 @305x8.5 ran much better with ram @ 200mhz 2-3-2-5 than it did at 250mhz 3-4-3-8 (like 4 seconds faster on spuer pi and over 1000 3d marks in 01) 03/05/06 benches were pretty similar, but all were slightly increased

Cob · 2 Oct 2006 at 14:05

Yeah they're listed in the BIOS. 2-2-2-5 are the settings for CAS-tRP-tRCD-tRAS. You can leave the others on auto. Up the vdimm (RAM) voltage a notch if she refuses to run when you tighten the timings.