Can I go past max bandwidth?

[AMDXP]

Even though my ram says its max bandwidth is 217, can I go past that or will I be killing my computer.....

 

[Talonz]

Uh.. yea.. you can go past specs.

It's a little thing we call "overclocking"

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

um, by bandwidth you mean mhz?
i've never heard of a bandwidth of 217.. hehe, though that means pc3500 ram (with 3500mb/s being the max bandwidth in this case)

i would guess you can get reasonably over the rated spec for the ram, though i don't know how much. just lower the timings for the ram and bring up the fsb a small bit at a time and boot into memtest intead of windows and run a loop or two at each speed. if you start getting errors, back down a bit and run as many loops as you can without erroring.
there's also ram voltage, but i won't go into that for now.

 

[AMDXP]

Hrmm sandra rates it at 4686 MB/s good bad odd wierd?

 

[Talonz]

Hrmm sandra rates it at 4686 MB/s good bad odd wierd?

About right given the overhead (though it seems just a bit low). You have 2 sticks of 512 (I'm assuming) so you should be running in dual channel mode (effectively doubling your bandwidth).

 

[atp1916]

Hrmm sandra rates it at 4686 MB/s good bad odd wierd?

Depends on your system. What are your specs?

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

Main System
Intel P4 3.2c @ 3.440 16x215
Gigabyte 8KNXP
6800GT
1 GB of Kingston 3500 Ram

from his sig. i guess the timings matter more, though i'm surprised the bandwidth isn't closer to 6gb/s at 215mhz. i had forgotten how much the ondie memory controller helps things out

 

[atp1916]

Main System
Intel P4 3.2c @ 3.440 16x215
Gigabyte 8KNXP
6800GT
1 GB of Kingston 3500 Ram

from his sig. i guess the timings matter more, though i'm surprised the bandwidth isn't closer to 6gb/s at 215mhz. i had forgotten how much the ondie memory controller helps things out

Thanks Eclipse. I guess i need to start checking sigs before asking for specs .

Anyways, the i875 chipset + PC3200 has always done close to 5mb in total memory bandwidth at stock DDR400. At 215mhz, i'd suspect that 4686mb/s is slightly low, as it should be at 5mb/s or over. Check your timings!

BTW, near 6mb/s is reserved for the afformentioned A64 with its ondie memory controller .

 

[AMDXP]

well is says max overhead as above 6868 mb/s

 

[atp1916]

Under theoritical conditions Sandra always lists the max possible bandwidth.

Your actual bandwidth was quite a bit lower. What are your timings?

 

[memphis_1220]

um, by bandwidth you mean mhz?
i've never heard of a bandwidth of 217...

Correct me if I am wrong, but isnt bandwidth 'technically' measured in Hz? It is most commonly expressed in bps, but Hz is again, 'technically' correct.

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

well is says max overhead as above 6868 mb/s

max theoretical bandwidth = mhz * 2 (ddr) * 8 (bits per clock iirc) * 2 (dual channel)

but yes, your actual bandwidth really should be higher. i'd be aiming for about 5.5gb/s at 215mhz