Why the low Memory score in windows Experience

[redhandmanc]

I own a relatively high end system - This is bourne out by all my windows experience marks being 5.9

My score however is reduced to 5.3 due to my Ram score.

I fail to undersand how the following Ram can produce such low a mark

Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB

Relevent spec

EVGA 780i SLI Board (DDR2)
intel quad core 2.6
9800 nvidia

 

[JonathanDeane]

Maybe your ram timing is all goofed ?
I have 4GB's of DD2 OCZ SLI and I get 5.9

But I did have to tune it a bit to bring it up to that point so check into that

 

[dallasjoh]

Did you set the ram timings and voltage in the BIOS. Run CPU-Z and see what speed the ram is running.

 

[dagger]

Did you set the ram timings and voltage in the BIOS. Run CPU-Z and see what speed the ram is running.

Yep, it's loose timing. Happens when you leave voltage and timing at default.

 

[redhandmanc]

Thanks for ths - unfortunately - bit of a noob - can yo talk me through it ??

evga BOARD

 

[redhandmanc]

had a look at the bios settings

the timiings are 5-5-5-15-2T
2.1 vdimm
and 1066

 

[redhandmanc]

had a look at the bios settings

the timiings are 5-5-5-15-2T
2.1 vdimm
and 1066

 

[redhandmanc]

Beliarc and other analysis software shows this on my memory

"""1790 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A1' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A2' is Empty
Slot 'A3' is Empty

 

[Scotteq]

A couple things:

The first is that most motherboards are set up for RAM to be paired in every other slot - i.e. slots 0/2 and 1/3, rather than 0/1 and 2/3. So you may be running in single channel mode. That'd be worth around 5% performance right there. Check to be sure your mobo is supposed to be adjacent slots and not every other one. Make the appropriate change, if needed.


The second thing is WEI measures the performance of the entire subsystem, rather than the speed of individual components. I tend to agree with the view of looking at the system as a whole - It makes little sense to me to install fast components and end up running them below their potential due to not paying attention to setup details. Having said that, WEI is *not* meant to be a comprehensive benchmark, rather it is just a guideline. There are other much more effective and detailed benchmarks if you need that.

Details on WEI, if you care to read it:
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/458117.aspx


Since WEI is measuring the throughput of the entire subsystem, in the case of Memory on an Intel based system the front side buss is the limitation and not the speed of your DIMMS. In other words: Your PC2 8500 (DDR2 1066) stuff is being held back by a 1066 buss. I have my own memory running at 800 Mhz and score a 5.9 - But I have the FSB cranked up to 1600, rather than the stock 1066. Tightening the timings would help a little, but bumping up the FSB would make a big difference. Of course, doing so would also overclock your Processor.

 

[notherdude]

"""1790 Megabytes Installed Memory

But you have 4 gig in there right? Could it say 2790 instead? That would make more sense.

If it really says 1790 then something is amiss. A bad stick, not in the slot properly, or maybe needs to be in another slot.

 

[redhandmanc]

Hi and thanks

Yep - just rechecked and the report says 1790 as above

ie

"""1790 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A1' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A2' is Empty
Slot 'A3' is Empty

My board is a EVGA Nvidia nforce 780sli - dimm slot (Ordered) 0, 2, 1, 3 - as above they are in 0 and 1

just gonna check they are seated correctly - but surely they whe system wouldnt read 4gig in "my computer" or the bios would bleep if unseated

reference the OC'ing the FSB - am afraid I am out of my death there - scares the hell outa me

 

[redhandmanc]

.........................................................................................

Just took one out and booted with just 2gb - got this

1790 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty
Slot 'A2' is Empty
Slot 'A3' is Empty

Swapped them over and got the same result

The system is Windows 32 btw
...........................................................................................

reference the OC'ing the FSB - am afraid I am out of my death there - scares the hell outa me

 

[redhandmanc]

Does this screeny help

http://www.doca.org.uk/memory.jpg

 

[redhandmanc]

Had a chat with OverCockers Tech this morning

The reason for the low Physical memory is that I have 2gb on my graphics cards - (2 x 9800 Gx2)

I took a card out and the physical memory jumped 1000 again

Cheers all

 

[notherdude]

Had a chat with OverCockers Tech this morning

The reason for the low Physical memory is that I have 2gb on my graphics cards - (2 x 9800 Gx2)

I took a card out and the physical memory jumped 1000 again

Cheers all

Ah hah. You didn't tell us you had two cards in there. You're a good candidate for Vista 64 then. You'd get to use all 4 gig of your RAM.

 

[redhandmanc]

Sorry - thought I had -

64 bit - yeah - thought of that - too much aggravation with my software

I have no 64 bit software (needless to say) and I assume there are lots of issues running 32 bit software.

 

[redhandmanc]

Sorry - thought I had -

64 bit - yeah - thought of that - too much aggravation with my software

I have no 64 bit software (needless to say) and I assume there are lots of issues running 32 bit software.

To be honest - I dont actually need all the memory - as I mainly build web sites and do a lot of gaming

The GPUs have all the ram I need (2 GB) so 64 isnt really going to improve performance (unless you are going to say otherwise !!)

 

[dagger]

Sorry - thought I had -

64 bit - yeah - thought of that - too much aggravation with my software

I have no 64 bit software (needless to say) and I assume there are lots of issues running 32 bit software.

To be honest - I dont actually need all the memory - as I mainly build web sites and do a lot of gaming

The GPUs have all the ram I need (2 GB) so 64 isnt really going to improve performance (unless you are going to say otherwise !!)

There are absolutely no "issues" running 32bit software. They're backward compatible. The issues are from manufacturers not releasing drivers for 64bit OS. But that already changed 2 years ago. There are good drivers for 64bit OS out for eveything now.

As for ram, remember, 2gb was considered far more than you'd need as recently as 2 years ago. Then Crysis came out, and it hogs 2+gb alone.

 

[redhandmanc]

yeah - I had sli with 8800s when I played that - even that struggled with all turned up full

Can you recommend any decent sites for the pros and cons of 64 bit ??

Most of my hardware will be fine as its all main stream - ie Creative, Nvidia, ?

Any other considerations such as the mobo etc

i appreciate the help

 

[dagger]

yeah - I had sli with 8800s when I played that - even that struggled with all turned up full

Can you recommend any decent sites for the pros and cons of 64 bit ??

Most of my hardware will be fine as its all main stream - ie Creative, Nvidia, ?

Any other considerations such as the mobo etc

i appreciate the help

There should be many old threads about 32 vs 64bit on this forum. Do a search.

Nvidia's fine. Although I've heard Creative have bad driver support. Not sure how much of an impact this is though.

As for memory, the ratio should be ideally 1:1. Speed increase resulting from higher ratio tend to not help much. The cpu access it on a per cycle basis, so if ram is set at above 1:1 ratio, it's running faster in theory, but have to wait for the cpu to respond, which is a waste. Does that make any sense?

Try to set it back to 1:1 ratio and tighten timings, see if that helps.

 

[redhandmanc]

Many thanksmfor the help - yep it does

Have found a few good articles

 

[redhandmanc]

Since WEI is measuring the throughput of the entire subsystem, in the case of Memory on an Intel based system the front side buss is the limitation and not the speed of your DIMMS. In other words: Your PC2 8500 (DDR2 1066) stuff is being held back by a 1066 buss. I have my own memory running at 800 Mhz and score a 5.9 - But I have the FSB cranked up to 1600, rather than the stock 1066. Tightening the timings would help a little, but bumping up the FSB would make a big difference. Of course, doing so would also overclock your Processor.

If I was to crank my FBS up hat high - do I need to manually do anything else

The timings and other settings are currently

Actual FSB (QDR) 1066
Actual Mem (DDR) 800

timings 5;5;5;18;2T are

 

[redhandmanc]

If I was to crank my FBS up hat high - do I need to manually do anything else

The timings and other settings are currently default

Sli ready memory - disabled

Actual FSB (QDR) 1066
Actual Mem (DDR) 800

timings 5;5;5;18;2T are