1600 FSB 2000 SPEED RAM

[Inquisitive1]

Hi there.

I have a x9770 775 processor on a Gigabyte EP45T-USB3P mobo. I had gotten some 2000 DDR3 4x2 gig sticks real cheap during a sale so figured I would make due with them. Default it's running te fsb at 1600 as it should and is downgrading the ram to 1333. There are 2 xtreme profiles that put it up to the 1860ish range and then 2000 but the mobo doesn't like the settings even when I tweak the dram voltage to match the timings of the extreme profile. I do not overclock, and I really do not wish to now (especially since the x9770 runs real hot for it's class). But with that said, if there is a slight adjustment I can make to take advantage of a better ram setting, then I am open to a compromise. However it might be better to just cut my losses and get 800 speed ram to run it default 1:1. Any information or input would be much appreciated.

 

[Guest]

i'd suggest getting the speed what you can and then you might be able to tighten the timings from like CL9 to possibly CL8 if not CL7.

that would give the performance a boost.

 

[Inquisitive1]

The way the board seems to be set up is it jumps from 1333 dram to 2200. No 1600 wthout tweaking 9if it's even possible). To get to 2200 apparently need to OC.

Here's the main page:

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3329#ov

Here's the compatible memory PDF:

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3329#memory%20support%20list

And here's the RAM I have now:

http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX2000C9AD3T1K2_4GX.pdf

Not sure 1600 would do anything 2000 isn't already doing. So 2400 OC'd down to 2200? If so what kind of timings should I start tweaking with?

TYVM

 

[Guest]

if you get 2200 i'd go there. if it doesn't get any lower than CL9 (you might need to loosen it to CL10) you really have some extremely fast ram.

though looking at the specs (thanks for that) if you get a low CL7 or a golden CL6 with 1333; having fast latency like that is close to drool worthy.

 

[Inquisitive1]

Thanks for all your help. So far all the tweaking has pretty much lead "no where". Either the machine won't accept it, or the machine likes and Windows 7 hates, or when it does pass, the benchmarks show it went down in performance. Pretty mcuh stuck with defaults. Part of the problem is that any asynchronous attempts just get the door shut right away. Synchronous ends up with fsb at 1800-2000. I will try another day to tweak some manual mutlipliers and see what I can do but the mother board is resisting half the time, and Windows the other (One of my all time favorite mobos for the features alone and won't be switching).

 

[Guest]

sorry i haven't been able to provide better advice; i haven't overclocked ram like this on a socket 775 set up. i would have killed for that motherboard while i had an e8500; so until your cpu limits you, i would hang on to it also.

(just asked for a hand)

 

[blazorthon]

You're trying to do something that might be a little too ambitious for that setup. Keep in mind the age of the motherboard and processor and how much newer that memory kit is. Are the rated memory voltages of the memory kit and the motherboard even the same?

 

[Inquisitive1]

Yeah it's easily within range. It will run 2000 bus a 1.65v. The MB goes up over that by a large amount. The problem is in the first memory bus number. I can't get it to go above 1333 unless I go with an extreme profile which does exceed what the mobo is willing to do. I can force all kinds of stuff and end up with a 1600 fsb 1333 1600 setup but it's not completely working as is it gets djusted back when the computer give s a 12 beep code then a real long beep code on second boot.

Right now I got it running stable at 6 7 6 14 1333 1333 and 1600 fsb 3.2 on x9770. I am now fine tuning each one and finding so far that 18 seems to be the sweet spot for the last timing adjustment (12 sends it into boot loop). 6 6 6 x blows windows up. The difference here is so marginal I question if it's even worth it.

I get 200+ more fps on 1024x768x32 (using passmark free w7 64) which is about 3900fps. So no clue how good it is doing on the resolutions that matter. Kind of tuning for low and hoping for good results high which is a bit unorthadox, but not willing to buy the full deal for a small test over a couple of days. Probably something better I have not found.

But anyways, thanks for the help. Just going to plod on tweaking individual settings while loosening the memory. I am above the default optimized baseline so I guess it doesn't hurt to keep tweaking.

 

[blazorthon]

Whether or not the motherboard can run 1.65v is not what I'm asking. Do you know the recommended RAM voltage for it? It might be higher, like 1.7v or 1.75v (just guessing at numbers) because of its age. Like low voltage 1.35v and 1.25v on modern systems, 1.5v and 1.65v might be lower than normal for that board and low voltage memory can often cause problems with boards and processors that aren't designed for it.

Also, keep in mind that memory performance, although often more important with older platforms such as LGA 775 than with newer ones, is generally not a huge performance changer in modern gaming. It is a big deal for some non-gaming workloads, but gaming isn't nearly as reliant on system RAM performance as it might seem. Graphics RAM is important, but system RAM is not so important and improving it generally has diminishing returns in gains after around DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 or DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24. Going beyond those tend to not help gaming significantly.

At higher resolutions, the impact is probably going to be less than it is at low resolutions because it is related to improving CPU performance, something that is usually more impacting at lower resolutions than it is at higher resolutions. I suppose that you could try bench-marking at a higher resolution to prove/disprove this theory if you want to.

 

[Inquisitive1]

The mobo base voltage state is 1.5v the reccomended voltage for the ram is 1.5-1.65 (at higher fsb). Voltage doesn't seem to play much of a part in the problems as much as the inflexiblity of the board settings, and what it will accept. The ram and the board were not that far apart in production even though the ram is forward looking and the board was 775 trying o be forwrd looking.

I am aware of the less than major improvements with ram timings. The goal I originally set out to accomplish with posting here was hopefully achivieng an operable 1:1 ratio with this hardware. But after tweaking things for a day or two now, doesn't seem probable. So I decided instead to mess around and see what kind of timing performance I can get while waiting to talk to a Gigabyte tech about some creative solutions.

The reason I am getting into this now is I am waiting for a particular set of gen 4 ssd's to hit the market and want everything tuned before then. May even go up to the top of the video cards too but I am running a 5900 series now and it gets the job done. I stick with 775 to be compatible as possible with games from the past as well as present and don't really use it for video editing and other more demanding uses.