RAM OCing question

[marshal11]

hey, i have a MSI Z77A GD55 motherboard and Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 1600MHz RAM (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345) and for some reason my BIOS won't post in a dual channel config, (someone said that bad timings could be the cause of this?) and my BIOS automatically set it at 1333MHz. i want to manually set up speed/timings, but there are a bunch of different things that i don't know about. those 4 first timings are the only ones i could find online, but in my BIOS there are all of these: Command Rate, tCL tRCD tRP tRAS tRFC tWR tWTR tRRD tRTP tFAW tWCL tCKE tRTL and then there is advanced timing configuration: tRRDR tRRDD tWWDR tWWDD tRWDRDD tWRDRDD tRWSR tRRSR.

i have all of these set to auto. do i just leave everything except for tCL tRCD tRP tRAS and set those to 9-9-9-24 or lower if possible?

before getting flamed, i tried google. i couldn't find anything, but i wasn't entirely sure what exactly to search. i'm sure some of you will find an article within a second. if you do know of one, post it. i am interested in how RAM works, but answer the question first. thanks

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

I don't know the BIOS of that board, so I don't know where it'll be located, but you should enable the XMP profile. You can do everything manually, like you're trying to do, but the XMP Profile will set it all automatically to all the correct settings.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

After looking in the manual, it's in the OC section of the BIOS listed as "Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P)"

 

[marshal11]

i had that enabled before. i guess my RAM or motherboard has a problem. i'm taking it to my local tech shop and ask the guy that owns the place to borrow his RAM for a second xD the guy is awesome. i'm pretty sure he will do it for free

one more quick question; can i overclock while XMP is activated? I want to run it at 1866 because i'm currently using HD4000 OCd and faster RAM helps the OC. if not, can i just change the first 4 to 9-9-9-24 manually and let everything else go auto?

i'm running off of HD4000 for now while i'm waiting for NCIX.ca to put up a gtx570 with Just Cause 2 or BF3 or something awesome. the 570s are priced at 220$ after MIR and when they go on sale, 200$ with a free 60$ game. amazing price. last month there was a twinfrozrII 570 for 199$ with batman, just cause 2 or mafia 2. was gonna grab it but it already expired when i saw it

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

I'm honestly not sure what would happen if you try to go above what the XMP Profile has set. Never tried it or heard of anyone doing it. You can try and see, I suppose. It should be fine, but you may have to relax the timings a bit and/or raise the voltage. Basically, doing it all manually anyway, lol.

Honestly, 1600 -> 1866 isn't even a big enough jump to affect anything (even the iGPU performance) anyway.

RAM OC'ing is rarely worth it for modern CPU's with Integrated Memory Controllers (one of the FEW times that it IS, is for iGPU performance, though, it's just that like I said, just going to 1866 won't even really help you much).

 

[marshal11]

okay. i'll enable XMP and will set the frequency to 1866. but if that doesn't work and i have to end up manually doing it, all i need to do is set the tCL, tRCD, tRP and tRAS right?

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

Yep

 

[marshal11]

i got xmp on and i'm running at 1886MHz. perfect. now i'm gonna try lowering the timings as much as i can. thanks

 

[marshal11]

Best answer selected by marshal11.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr