RAM Confusion...help!

[ZombieDB]

Hi All,

Earlier this year I built a new computer, of which the hardware was made up of the following:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield
ASUS P5B-Plus (North Bridge Intel P965 Express, South Bridge Intel ICH8R)
Kingston HyperX 1GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) CAS: 4

This week when booting up in BIOS I noticed that my memory was actually listed as DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) instead of what it *should* be. Upon investigating, in the mobo manual it states the following:

"Due to chipset limitation, DDR2-800 with CL=4 will be downgraded to run at DDR2-667 by default setting. If you want to operate with lower latency, adjust the memory timing manually"

This didn't really make sense to me so I had a couple of questions:

1) Which chipset limitation is causing this? According to the Intel site, the NB supports this type fine, and the MOBO says it did. I am confused as to which piece of my hardware is causing the downgrade. I do understand I think how FSB speeds play into this but that's about as far as I got

2) Would upgrading to similar RAM with a CAS Lat of 3 make a difference in gaming? Contemplating a few small upgrades for Crysis, including a Raptor also.

3) Most importantly, if I were to upgrade, would it be compatible?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227261



Thanks in advance

 

[BillParrish]

my suggestion would be to not run the memory at default, and set your timings manually in the bios. The msg means nothing but Intel designed the chipset for JEDEC standard timings and speeds and if left on defaults that is what you get. The memory suppliers program the SPD chip with these same "plain jane" standard timings to ensure the memory will work on any crap MB in the world. The motherboard manufactures overcome these limitations with high performance bios settings. Use them.

Your other questions matter little until you set your CL4 timings and memory mulitplier to use the memory you have at at least its rated speed.

I doubt you would be able to tell any difference with the new sticks replacing your old, and unless your board has provisions for reading EPP memory profiles it is unlikely you reap (hehe) the full benefit anyway. If you install them and do not set them up properly they will give you the same speed and timings as your sticks above. Even if you were to set them up correctly memory is not where you want to spend your money. You did not mention your video card, that is what is critical in crysis along with a decent overclock on your CPU. Those two factors will hugely outweigh any latency changes in ram.

Note those sticks are EPP as I mentioned above and while using tools like SPDtool etc you could figure out the sub-timings etc. I am not sure you have the settings in your bios you would need. Also those memory modules are rated at 2.4V, a very high voltage that may not be availible in your bios.

Just get your current memory set up properly and buy another pair exactly like it would be my suggestion, or spend the money on somthing else. Raptor is probally a waste as well unless you have a 8800Ultra.

2

 

[ZombieDB]

I'm currently using a 8800 728 GTX.

I guess I will just cancel the order I have for the Reapers then!