faster cpu vs faster ram?

[songoku]

Anywho, my a64 overclocks to 2.4 quite easily, but I have to decrease my memory speed to 266 (3-5-5-10 @2.7) or 200 (2-2-2-5 @2.7) in order to get it to this speed. Now here comes the question, is a 600mhz overclock worth a 133 loss in memory speed?

The best of my system specs –
AMD athlon 64 3000 (939)
Asus A8V deluxe (rev 2.0)
Kingston hyperx PC2700
Neo power 480

PS. is there a way to overclock my ram with out overclocking my htt?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by songoku on 10/18/04 09:22 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Nights_L]

Test with some benchmarks and see?

 

[songoku]

any ideas on overclocking the ram, but not the hyper transport?

Antec Neo Power 480, AMD Athlon 3000 (@2.4), A8v Deluxe (rev 2.0), Kingston Hyperx pc2700 (@266), ATI Radeon 9800XT, WD740GD, 6Y200M0, 6B300S0, 1633s, 832s, HD-166D, Samsung 172x, Logitech MX700.

 

[Kanavit]

lock the cpu/memory ratio at 2:1 for A64 HTT systems. That would force ram to run at default DDR400 speeds. Some motherboards come with PCI/AGP locks which helps keep overclocking more stable. Asus K8V deluxe for example uses VIA KT800 pro chipset which includes these features. Also, I recommend Corsair LL XMS ram 2-2-2 timings or PC4000 ram Ballistix or Kingston HyperX. I would not sacrifice any speed on ram for lower timings.

------
A64 3400+ Newcastle
1GB PC 4000 Kingston HyperX
Asus K8V basic Bios 1004
PNY Geforce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3
73,225 Aquamarks

 

[TheRod]

Athlon 64 system are not bottlenecked by their HT link. You can try to run benchmark at different HT multiplier, you will see that the HT speed have not much influence in most benchmark. the HT speed is more than enough for HDD, GPU and PCI cards access!

So use your favourite benchmark, if you are a gamer, use a game timedemo and write down your results.

And I'm pretty sure you can change your memory ratio, you probably have a menu in your BIOS that fix the ratio between your RAM and the HT. Usually hte slection will be something like : 133%, 100%, 83%, 75%, etc.. or 1/1, 3/4, 5/4, 5/6, etc...

So, you can get the most of your ram. You can also mess with your HT multiplier.
Ex : 4 x 200 = 3 x 267

The third option is to lower your CPU multiplier to get higher FSB and use it in combination with the memory ratio.
Ex :

HT = 4 x 200
MEM = 100%
MULTIPLIER = 10
Result : 2000MHz @ DDR400

HT = 4 x 222
MEM = 83%
CPU MULTIPLIER = 9
Result = 2000MHz @ DDR366

HT = 4 x 250
MEM = 75%
CPU MULTIPLIER = 9
Result = 2250MHz @ DDR400

--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green> <-- <i>Is this affecting my credibility???</i>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[songoku]

there is not an htt multiplier in the bios, and the only memory speed type setting is to limit is operating frequency. It however does not overclock my ram when set to ddr400.

Antec Neo Power 480, AMD Athlon 3000 (@2.4), A8v Deluxe (rev 2.0), Kingston Hyperx pc2700 (@266), ATI Radeon 9800XT, WD740GD, 6Y200M0, 6B300S0, 1633s, 832s, HD-166D, Samsung 172x, Logitech MX700.

 

[TheRod]

there is not an htt multiplier in the bios, and the only memory speed type setting is to limit is operating frequency.

Have you the latest BIOS for your MB?

<A HREF="http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A8V Deluxe" target="_new">http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A8V Deluxe</A>

The latest BETA BIOS for your MB is Version 1008.002.

--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green> <-- <i>Is this affecting my credibility???</i>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[songoku]

yes, i do have that bios rev. the only htt setting is to select the speed 200, 40, 800, 1000. and the bit speed.

Antec Neo Power 480, AMD Athlon 3000 (@2.4), A8v Deluxe (rev 2.0), Kingston Hyperx pc2700 (@266), ATI Radeon 9800XT, WD740GD, 6Y200M0, 6B300S0, 1633s, 832s, HD-166D, Samsung 172x, Logitech MX700.

 

[TheRod]

<A HREF="http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/asus/a8vdeluxe/g3.html" target="_new">http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/asus/a8vdeluxe/g3.html</A>
Check those screenshots! You can do more than you think with your bios!

--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green> <-- <i>Is this affecting my credibility???</i>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[songoku]

hem....i already know all of those options in the bios. Did you mean to lower my htt speed (as stated earlier) and thus that will force my ram to run slower?

Antec Neo Power 480, AMD Athlon 3000 (@2.4), A8v Deluxe (rev 2.0), Kingston Hyperx pc2700 (@266), ATI Radeon 9800XT, WD740GD, 6Y200M0, 6B300S0, 1633s, 832s, HD-166D, Samsung 172x, Logitech MX700.

 

[TheRod]

<A HREF="http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1617&page=3" target="_new">http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1617&page=3</A>

Check on this page, there is "Memclock to CPU ratio" option. Based on your BIOS type, here is the things that should work for you.

<b>== CHOICE 1 ==</b>
HTT SPEED = 800MHz <-- <i>This setting is the HT multiplier (X / 200)</i>
FSB SPEED = 240MHz
CPU MULTIPLIER = 10
Memclock to CPU ratio = 4:3

MEM SPEED = 320MHz
CPU SPEED = 2400MHz
HTT SPEED = 960MHz

<b>== CHOICE 2 ==</b>
HTT SPEED = 600MHz
FSB SPEED = 300MHz
CPU MULTIPLIER = 8
Memclock to CPU ratio = 1:1

MEM SPEED = 300MHz
CPU SPEED = 2400MHz
HTT SPEED = 900MHz

Here is the math behind this :

HTT SPEED = FSB * (BIOS HTT SPEED / 200 <b>or</b> HTT multiplier)
CPU SPEED = CPU MULTIPLIER * FSB
MEM SPEED = FSB * (Mem Ratio where you substitute ":" by a "/")

--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green> <-- <i>Is this affecting my credibility???</i>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290

 

[songoku]

Thanks rod that really helps out.

Now for the next problem. On my motherboard (asus a8v deluxe), any fsb change over 250 deosnt work. The board refuses to boot up, but with the same settings and the fsb at 249, everything works fine. Is there a work around or a fix for this?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by songoku on 10/31/04 08:18 AM.</EM></FONT></P>