RAM Timings Confirmation?

keogh

keogh

keogh

Soldato
Joined
22 Jun 2004
Posts
2,756
Location
Bangkok, Thailand (formally London)
Howdy,

I got a post in the Overclocking forum, and I've added with this question at the bottom, and I don't seem to be getting a response, so I thought I'd whack it here where it rreally belongs, cos its to do with RAM.

Can someone confirm that I am correct in thinking that:

2-2-2-5 1T 200

Would mean

CAS-tRAS-tRCD-tRP CMD Memclock

My spec is:

ASUS A8N-SLi Premium [w/ Zalman ZM-NB47J Northbridge Cooler]
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ [w/ Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro]
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200 Twinx
BFG Geforce 7800 GTX OC [With Zalman VF700-CU]
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type-R 580W ATX2.2 PSU

And Defcon suggested that the best timings for my RAM would be: 2-2-2-5 1T 200 and I tried changing things in my BIOS as the above, and my PC crashed on reboot.

If possible could someone take the below, and edit it so that I can get 2-2-2-5 1T 200 cos I must have done sumin wrong? Once I figure out what you have done, I can increment it to that in my BIOS and get it to its safest point.

My BIOS has the following settings:

Memclock (mhz): 400
CAS Latency (tcl): 3
Min RAS active time (Tras): 8T
RAS to CAS delay (Trcd): 3T
Row percentage time (Trp): 3T
Row cycle time (Trc): 12T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc): 24T
Read to write time (trwt): 2T
Write recovery time (Twr): Auto
1T/2T Memory Timing: 2T
S/W DRAM Over 4GB Remapping: Enabled

As mentioned above, I tried changing it to: 2-2-2-5 1T 200 with the idea that this meant: CAS-tRAS-tRCD-tRP CMD Memclock and it crashed.

Any help you can give will be appreciated... I wanna get my RAM uped, then I can look at my CPU.

Thanks

Steve M
 
Ive pretty much given up with it at the moment... until someone helps out anyway, then I will give it another go. I've gone back to stock.

Annoyingly aswell, everytime I push my CPU above 220mhz I get a boot failure when I start windows... and I havenlt a clue what is doing it.

I need more help from people in the know before I can understand what the hell is going on. Shame, cos I know my CPU and RAM can do more... just gotta figure it all out?
 
ouch that was scary... it got past the ASUS screen, but then I got a error in a DOS screen telling me a file was missing or corrupt, and I should repair my copy of windows?

So I rebooted and set it back to auto.

I set the memclock to 400mhz rather than 200mhz though? Is that correct? I am assuming its 400mhz cos thats what it defaults too in my BIOS and surely I don;t want to lower it to 200mhz do I?

Also, "CMD" is "1T/2T Memory Timing" right?
 
keogh said:
ouch that was scary... it got past the ASUS screen, but then I got a error in a DOS screen telling me a file was missing or corrupt, and I should repair my copy of windows?

So I rebooted and set it back to auto.

I set the memclock to 400mhz rather than 200mhz though? Is that correct? I am assuming its 400mhz cos thats what it defaults too in my BIOS and surely I don;t want to lower it to 200mhz do I?

Also, "CMD" is "1T/2T Memory Timing" right?
Click to expand...

CMD should be 1T (I assume that you have two sticks 1 Gb each, not 4x512Mb)

Do you get Windows to boot when the memory is on Auto in BIOS? If you have passed ASUS screen it means that the memory timings were OK. You might need to sort out your OS.
 
Yep I'm in now, when I have it on auto it works fine... just when I set it to what you said above I got that error. Set it back to auto and I get in?

Or if I manually set the values to the below I can get in no probs:

Memclock (mhz): 400
CAS Latency (tcl): 3
Min RAS active time (Tras): 8T
RAS to CAS delay (Trcd): 3T
Row percentage time (Trp): 3T
Row cycle time (Trc): 12T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc): 24T
Read to write time (trwt): 2T
Write recovery time (Twr): Auto
1T/2T Memory Timing: 2T
S/W DRAM Over 4GB Remapping: Enabled

So CMD does mean "1T/2T Memory Timing" right?
 
keogh said:
Yep I'm in now, when I have it on auto it works fine... just when I set it to what you said above I got that error. Set it back to auto and I get in?

Or if I manually set the values to the below I can get in no probs:

Memclock (mhz): 400
CAS Latency (tcl): 3
Min RAS active time (Tras): 8T
RAS to CAS delay (Trcd): 3T
Row percentage time (Trp): 3T
Row cycle time (Trc): 12T
Row refresh cyc time (Trfc): 24T
Read to write time (trwt): 2T
Write recovery time (Twr): Auto
1T/2T Memory Timing: 2T
S/W DRAM Over 4GB Remapping: Enabled

So CMD does mean "1T/2T Memory Timing" right?
Click to expand...

Yes, CMD means that.

What are the factory recommended timings for your sticks? And what is the recommended VDIMM (the voltage of the memory)? Sometimes you might need to slightly increase the voltage as the motherboard could undervolt the memory.
 
The annoying thing is most things are set to "Auto" so how would I know the default setting for most of the stuff?

I know the "tested" Voltage for my RAM is 2.75v, but I have my overclocking profile to Auto, cos I cannot get above 220mhz for my FSB/CPU Frequency cos I then get a Boot Failure. So as thats on Auto the DDR Voltage is unchangeable.

I'll try setting all the values to what the AUTO does so I can free up the slot aqnd manually change it.
 
Nope, it crashed at the ASUS screen this time? My PC will not overclock :)

I've set it to the AI Overclock 10% again, which works fine. And this gives me the below for my RAM... does it look good?

ram.gif


I can get the CAS to 2 without any probs... should I set that?
 
Ok a bit ofr success, Ive restarted on several settings and I got everything to match the above best I can apart from the tRCD value, whenever I set that to 2T it crashes, and 3T is the best.

But my timings now are (in Everest format): 2-3-2-5 1T (CL-RCD-RP-RAS CMD). I also have my DDR voltage to 2.75

As I say, setting RCD to 2 crashes it all the time, so this is the best I can get.

Does that look good? Or does that suck?
 
keogh said:
Ok a bit ofr success, Ive restarted on several settings and I got everything to match the above best I can apart from the tRCD value, whenever I set that to 2T it crashes, and 3T is the best.

But my timings now are (in Everest format): 2-3-2-5 1T (CL-RCD-RP-RAS CMD). I also have my DDR voltage to 2.75

As I say, setting RCD to 2 crashes it all the time, so this is the best I can get.

Does that look good? Or does that suck?
Click to expand...

You have done pretty well!

2-3-2-5 1T is the best I could achieve with my Patriot 2x1Gb sticks at stock voltage.
You might be able to squiz a bit more by playing with the voltage but the current situation is good in my opinion and playing too much with the voltage might damage the memory.

It seems that it is very difficult to get 2-2-2-5 with anything above 512 Mb. That is why I have not bothered myself pushing further.

Enjoy your overcklocking experience!
 
Nice one, cheers Paul.

I tried uping my DDR Voltage to 2.9 and still got the crash effect, so I'm gonna leave it at that I think.

Gonna try and work on my CPU now.
 
keogh said:
Nice one, cheers Paul.

I tried uping my DDR Voltage to 2.9 and still got the crash effect, so I'm gonna leave it at that I think.

Gonna try and work on my CPU now.
Click to expand...

I forgot to ask you, did you run a memtest to see whether the memory is stable at these timings?

This will help you later when you push the CPU, at least you would know that the memory is OK, if it did not POST.

Post some OC results when you get there :) .

Cheers.
 
I've given up now :)

I got a reasonable result from my OC.

I managed to get my CPU running at 2.58ghz via 258x10. I couldnt get 2.6 or more as it kept crashing.

I had to settle with 2-3-2-5 1T in the end, and I got that to 220mhz... wasn't going any higher than that for PC3200. This got my HT Link at 760mhz, having that more than 900mhz whilst my CPU was at 2.58ghz crashed it also.

But after I got a satifying clock, I ran SP2004 (orthos) and it ran fine for 1hr, then it crashed.

I also tested a few video stress tests in HL2 Lost COast, as that gives you a FPS at the end, and tbh it was sometimes about .5 better, if not worse than stock?

So I've gone back to stock, and if I want more speed I will buy a new rig :) I don't really use my PC for much gaming at all, I mainly use it for work everyday (as I work from home) so that was another reason I didn't want to risk my hardware for a couple more MHz... espcially when I see no gain in gaming.

I only wanted to try and get a bit more from my rig for STALKER as that doesn't run very well. But thats only cos I'm running it at 1920x1200! I tested it in 1280x1024 for example and it flew with a fantastic FPS.

So thats my overclocking done, it was great fun thou seeing what I could get, but very scary at times. My PC crashed countless times on me, and I must have rebooted 1000's of times :)

Once my PC gets complete obsolete when it comes to gaming, I'm splash out £2k on a new rig I think.

Thanks for your help though, appreciated!
 
Slightly off topic!

Whats more important Overclocking your processor or overclocking your RAM?

Or is it both in the middle that gives best all round performance?
 
Well neither for me, I OCed my PC best I got, and got my 4400+ from 2.2ghz each core to 2.6ghz each core (would not go higher for anything). Then got my RAM from 3-3-3-8 2T to 2-3-2-5 1T and no gain at all... only difference was my PC dies under MAJOR load.

So I'm sticking with stock, it was fun ocing, but I think now, if you want a gain buy a new PC. Although obviously some people have clocked their PCs to much higher specs, suppose that would make a diff.
 
keogh said:
I set the memclock to 400mhz rather than 200mhz though? Is that correct? I am assuming its 400mhz cos thats what it defaults too in my BIOS and surely I don;t want to lower it to 200mhz do I?
Click to expand...

The XMS are 200Mhz modules, it's DDR400 that you're thinking of which is 200Mhz dual-channel. :)

And overclocking your RAM is more important. On AMD, keep your timings as tight as you can, and for Intel, get the best clock speed you can. I've noticed that memory OC'ing is much more important than CPU overclocking. Since memory is running much slower than your CPU, it can be a major bottleneck. Getting the balance right is a matter of trial-and-error. CPU Speed doesn't play as much of a role as it used to. Memory is much more important. But, to get the best out of it, keep it in dual-channel, with 1T command rate. And keep your HTT Link at 16BiWay (16 up, 16 down). Then go from there with your overclocking.

HTH,
Scott.
 
Is there any order you should test the timings in?

Cos I'm trying to get my DDR timings better now, and leaving my CPU at stock. So far I've changed my CAS from 3 to 2 and stresses it and it seems ok.

Then I changed my CMD from 2T to 1T and stressed it, and it reboots my PC, so it doesn't like the CMS changing.

But is that cos my tRCD-tRP-tRAS are all still at stock? Or does my RAM just not like 1T CMD?

Also I'm sure it seems to run slower with a CMD of 1T? i.e. When I was stressing it with the CMD at 1T and booted up a browser to come here, I had to click twice. This happened both times I had the CMD at 1t on too different boots. But with it at 2T, straight in?

Any ideas?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom