Help! 2 gigs @ 333 1.5 gig @ 400! Please!

My friend and I have the exact same system as the one in my signiture. The only difference is that I have 2 x 512 + 1x1gb (2gigs) of ram and my friends has 3x512 (1.5gigs)

My friends( 3 x 512 ) runs at 400 just fine, while my( 2 x 512 )+ (1 x 1gb ) only runs at 333. I think I read that this is normal on a 754 VNF3 250 Mobo.

Do I have a problem compared to my faster friends?

Is there a way for me to run my 2 gigs at a full 400 with the ram config that I have? If so how do I do so in my bios?

thanks for all your help.
Isaac

The problem is you're filling up all the banks of the memory controller. Not all the slots, but all the banks. Chances are, 1 or more of your friends 512MB sticks are single sided, and therefore only take one bank, whereas all of your sticks are double-sided, and therefore take a total of 6 banks, which is the limit the A64 memory controller can run memory at full speed.
The easiest solution would be to sell your 2x512MB and get another 1GB stick. That will certainly solve your problem. Or, you could try getting a Rev E CPU (Newark) and manually setting the RAM speed to 400, but that's really a luck of the draw. It may work...may not.

it has to do with the ram being either dual sided or single sided, more than likely the 1 GB module you have is double sided and kicking your ram speed down, i dont know all the details, but in sure eclipse and others will be by to explain it in further

thanks for the help guys...

Sooo basically my friend has ( 3 x 512 ) witch are mostly single sided so he can have the full 400 mhz. I have ( 2 x 512 ) and ( 1 x 1gb ) that will only let me run at 333 becasue all of them are double sided banks. If I pull one of the 512 sticks so I have (1 x 512) and ( 1 x 1gb ) will I be able to go 400 since the total number of banks would be 4? (I'm at work so I can't try this yet)

What would be better 2 gigs of 333 ram or 1.5 gig of 400 for gaming?

Thanks for the help, someone confirm this for me please.

what games do you play?

All I really play is CS:S nowadays even though I own FEAR, BF2, FC, etc.

When I was playing with 1 gig at 400, it would sometimes chug when I alt+del back to windows. Ever since 2 gig at 333 I have been able to alt+del out of any game.
Funny thing is I did notice the latency difference ever so slightly when I went to 333 from 400, the reaction time is miliseconds slower.

Sooo, should I be able to remove one of my 512 to get 1.5 gigs at 400? Should I be happier with 1.5 at 400 since all I play is CS:S? Ive been fishy about my 2 gig at 333 since I've installed it.

Thanks for all your help.

well.. the performance difference between 166mhz and 200mhz isn't exactly astounding. i guess leave it at 1.5gb for now, and in the future, if you start playing more memory demanding games, you can switch over to 2gb

Thanks for you help. For giggles I think I'll run 3d Mark 2005 and see if there is a difference.

the cpu score will like the 1.5gb at 200mhz, though the overall score should barely be touched

WTF???

I can only get 333 when I have 1 gig stick and 1 (512) stick in any combonation of the 3 slots! all my sticks are double sided. What gives?

help

I need 2 gigs at 400 or 1.5 at 400 like my friendst same exact setup.

thanks

1gb in slot 1 and 512mb in slot 2 gives 166mhz, 2T?



6

How can 2 sticks = 6 banks?

My friend has 3x512 and it works fine for him. Am I shit out of luck?

Originally Posted by Isaacav2

How can 2 sticks = 6 banks?

My friend has 3x512 and it works fine for him. Am I shit out of luck?

Actually, the Socket 754 memory controller is limited to three banks of memory at DDR400. This means that on your friend's rig with three 512MB sticks, all three of those sticks are single-sided (Crucial and Kingston are the only two known makers of single-sided 512MB modules - and Kingston offers both single-sided and double-sided versions of their 512MB PC3200 CL3 ValueRAM modules). But your 512MB stick is double-sided, and all 1GB sticks are also double-sided. That means that you have four banks of memory, which is above the three-bank limit at DDR400.

Originally Posted by E4g1e

Actually, the Socket 754 memory controller is limited to three banks of memory at DDR400. This means that on your friend's rig with three 512MB sticks, all three of those sticks are single-sided (Crucial and Kingston are the only two known makers of single-sided 512MB modules - and Kingston offers both single-sided and double-sided versions of their 512MB PC3200 CL3 ValueRAM modules). But your 512MB stick is double-sided, and all 1GB sticks are also double-sided. That means that you have four banks of memory, which is above the three-bank limit at DDR400.

Thank you for your most helpful reply. I Wish I would have knew about this earlier, I'm kicking myself because I'm usually one to do research to make sure everything will work.

O well, I hope 2 gigs @ 333 > 1.5 gigs @ 400

I'm sad I baught theese rams

well. sorta not really eagle. i've linked this before
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/26094.PDF

page 175 in this case.

most, if not almost all, double rank 512mb sticks are x16
1g sticks are usually x8, double rank

my guess is that he does not have x16 512mb sticks.


isaac, can you check with everest (http://www.lavalys.com/products/down...?pid=1&lang=en), go to motherboard -> SPD, and tell us how many rows each stick is (row = rank)

Originally Posted by (cf)Eclipse

well. sorta not really eagle. i've linked this before
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/26094.PDF

page 175 in this case.

most, if not almost all, double rank 512mb sticks are x16
1g sticks are usually x8, double rank

my guess is that he does not have x16 512mb sticks.


isaac, can you check with everest (http://www.lavalys.com/products/down...?pid=1&lang=en), go to motherboard -> SPD, and tell us how many rows each stick is (row = rank)

Wow, I am more confused than ever.

I went to the first link and browsed through page 175 ish of the PDF file and didn't see anything that would tell me if I have something wrong. The second link goes to a website witch doesn't look like it would help me. I feel lost :-(

When I get home I will write a description of what my ram sticks look like, and hope that one day I can get 2 gigs at 400 or at least 1.5 at 400.

Help.....

download everest and install it, it's a handy computer diagnostic program, similar to sisoft sandra

then from the program, check what i told you to

Originally Posted by (cf)Eclipse

download everest and install it, it's a handy computer diagnostic program, similar to sisoft sandra

then from the program, check what i told you to

Thanks for the on-going help.

I will go home and install all of my ram back in my computer and run that program to see how many rows I have.

All of the ram sticks say that they have 2 ranks and 4 banks.

What else could I do? Is there anything I can do?

Thanks.

so 1gb + 512mb doesn't work at 200mhz, 1T?
did you try both 512mb sticks?