Memory upgrade for M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 [SOLVED]

[axipher]

I recently upgraded to this motherboard and I'm stuck using a 2x 2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz kit from PQI and it doesn't overclock very nicely at all. I have an Athlon II X3 440 @ 3.3 GHz with a 220 MHz reference clock along with 2 Sapphire 5750 in crossfire. I'm using all blue led fans so blue or black RAM sticks would be preferred or a kit with a blue cooler. I'm using the system for gaming/home theatre/school so I don't think I need more than 4 GB of memory. Thanks in advance fr the recommendations.

 

[saint19]

Hi Axipher and welcome to THG.

U can go with this G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 that're very good for price/performance.

 

[axipher]

Thanks for the welcome and the recommendation.

Update 1: So I ordered the kit from Newegg and await it's arrival. I'm hoping for a little performance boost as well as being able to overclock a little higher without getting memory issues.

 

[Formation of Damnation]

i have two of the 4gb DD3 1600 CL9S gskill ripjaw sticks in my rig with the same motherboard as yours. just received the second stick today at work so i'll have to memtest64 the stick and make sure everything is running fine. love the memory power of them. you'll by happy with it. you might have to fine tune it a bit in the bios though and make sure it's running at 1600 not 1333 which the board might default to a few times.

 

[axipher]

Could you post the steps you take to get it running at 1600? Would be much appreciated, so the voltage, timings, etc. I used the built in OC tuner to get a reference clock of 220 MHz and a north and south bridge of 2000 MHz and the 4th core unlocked, so I'm just curious to know all your settings.

 

[Formation of Damnation]

here is what i have in my bios.
cpu ratio 16.0
dram freq 1600
cpu/nb freq 2200
cp & nb (offset)
cpu offset +

in order after cpu offset ..... 1.344 (0.006250)
1.250 (auto)
2.496 (auto)
dram volt 1.643

i just installed my second 4gb stick and works much better. 8gb's recognized. make sure to run memtest64 and go thru a pass or two to make sure it passes the memory tests 100 percent.

 

[axipher]

Awesome, thanks Formation, by any chance would you happen to know the timings that were set just so I have a reference, I'll most likely have mine installed next weekend.

 

[Formation of Damnation]

the timings i have are standard since i haven't fiddled with it too much. it's standard 9-9-9-24 i have in the bios so far. i'm not sure what works best in that department yet. i know others say lower is better. i'm just happy it's not blue screening every five seconds as it was in the beginning when ihad my computer built. it's been running fine so far.

 

[axipher]

Well I was just curious if you had to fiddle with them, I'm sure anything is an upgrade from my PQI 1333 MHz memory with timings of 9-9-9-24

 

[Formation of Damnation]

you can manually set the timings in the bios too. no matter what though, you'll be happy with it. gskill makes some good stuff. they have a technical forum too if you have any questions.

 

[axipher]

Thanks for the info Formation, I'll be getting them installed this weekend. Just upgraded to a Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.6 GHz so I'll report back the results once they're in.

 

[axipher]

So I installed the G.Skill memory and it defaulted to 1333 MHz so I had to manually set it to 1600 MHz and when I get into windows, under CPU-z, I get 9-9-9-24 timings, not the 7-8-7-24 timings advertised on the box. Any solutions on how to fix it?

Solved:

So I went in to the BIOS and on the AI tweaker tab simply manually entered the timings, the DRAM voltage automatically switched to 1.64 V so I loaded up Windows, CPU-Z reports 7-8-7-24 timings at 1600 MHz and I ran Memtest64.

The odd thing is the huge performance increase, Here are my Windows Experience Indexes before and after the new RAM:

With PQI 1333 MHz @ 9-9-9-24
CPU 7.3
Memory 7.3
Graphics 2D 7.2
Graphics 3D 7.2
Hard Drive 5.9

G.Skill 1600 MHz @ 7-8-7-24
CPU 7.4
Memory 7.5
Graphics 2D 7.4
Graphics 3D 7.4
Hard Drive 5.9

I don't see how the graphics score is affected by RAM so I ran 3DMark06. Here are the results:

Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.2 GHz, 2x ATI 5750 @ 710 MHz/1160 MHz and PQI Ram: (Stock speeds)
14,400 3DMarks

Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.5 GHz, 2x ATI 5750 @ 870 MHz/1300 MHz and PQI Ram: (Over Clocked speeds)
17,700 3DMarks

Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.5 GHz, 2x ATI 5750 @ 870 MHz/1300 MHz and G.Skill Ram: (Over Clocked speeds)
19,500 3DMarks

I'd ask if they make sense, but it's real world result, so I can't dispute them, but has anyone else experienced this much of a performance upgrade from just RAM?

 

[axipher]

Best answer selected by Axipher.