RAM Running Incorrectly??

Ivan Drago · 9 Mar 2008 at 17:36

I have this G.Skill DDR2 pc2-8000:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-022-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=

Now my pc is extremely slow when doing things which I assume are RAM related such as copying files and extracting zip files.

CPUID has some information which makes me think it isn't set up correctly. The program says the RAM is running asymmetric with a DRAM of 470 mhz and that its max bandwidth is pc2-6400 (400mhz).

Does anyone know what is wrong with it because my older pc which only had 1gb of RAM ran much faster.

Thanks

lord filbuster · 9 Mar 2008 at 19:42

i think you have it running in single channel mode, check the manual and make sure the ram is in the correct slots to run in dual channel. the speed is probably correct, should be about 500MHz, it won't make much difference. CPU-z detects PC-8000 as 6400, because 8000 doesnt officially exist, at least thats what i saw in another thread.

steve258 · 9 Mar 2008 at 21:13

Are you overclocking at all?

DRAM 470Mhz means it's running at DDR2 940.

Ignore the max bandwidth it's only saying DDR2 800 PC6400 as there is no "official" standard for DDR2 1000 PC8000. So these kits are basically DDR2 800 that are tested and capable of running DDR2 1000 and is programmed that way in the SPD.

But even if it's running single channel it still shouldn't be "extremely slow".

Ivan Drago · 9 Mar 2008 at 21:20

steve258 said:
Are you overclocking at all?

DRAM 470Mhz means it's running at DDR2 940.

I am overclocking my CPU from the 2.4ghz to 3.2ghz. I havn't tampered with the RAM settings though. Is DDR2 940 the correct speed for this RAM?

lord filbuster said:
i think you have it running in single channel mode, check the manual and make sure the ram is in the correct slots to run in dual channel.

The RAM slots occupied are the correct ones for dual channel mode too.

When I say extremely slow, I mean it taking 10 seconds to un-RAR a 100mb .RAR file.

steve258 · 9 Mar 2008 at 21:23

The correct speed for the ram is DDR2 1000 so it's close.
Does it say dual channel under the memory tab?

Ivan Drago · 9 Mar 2008 at 21:44

steve258 said:
The correct speed for the ram is DDR2 1000 so it's close.
Does it say dual channel under the memory tab?

In CPUID, the memory tab says 'Channels # - Dual' but it also says 'DC Mode - Asymmetric'. Should this not be running 'Symmetric'?

lord filbuster · 9 Mar 2008 at 22:16

it probably just says that because of having 4GB on windows x86

Ivan Drago · 9 Mar 2008 at 23:19

lord filbuster said:
it probably just says that because of having 4GB on windows x86

Ok then.

But can someone say whether my system should be un-RARing a 100mb a lot quicker than 10 seconds? If it should be, isn't the RAM the problem?

steve258 · 9 Mar 2008 at 23:27

Well just done unraring a 66mb file and it took about 4 seconds. but bear in mind I have a raid 0 system with 2 320Gb HDD so on a normal hard disk 10 seconds for unraring a 100mb file shouldn't be that far off.

Also I have 4Gb RAM on 32bit vista also and my cpu-z says symmetric dual channel. So not sure what's going on there.

If I was you I'd probably download Sisoft sandra or Everest ultimate and run their memory bandwidth test and compare your results with other ones included in the benchmark.

Ivan Drago · 9 Mar 2008 at 23:33

I will do that and post back, Steve. Thanks.