Ram Timing vs MHZ and Memtest86+ Prime95

[PanskiKow]

I have been away from Overclockersclub and Overclocking for 7 years to go truck driving. I just put this rig together to start over and the board bios says it supports up to 2400 xmp (OC) I was testing ram timing vs purchasing higher mhz ram like 1866, 2000, 2400 with higher timings and was wondering if timing matters anymore vs (speed)? I have the ram below @ 1600 pass memtest86+ v4.2 10hrs and then was running prime95 and got a "FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4 Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file" I figure it is timing on the ram 7-8-8-24 but why would memtest86 pass and not Prime95 Im not overclocking the cpu yet untill i lap the heat pipe because of heat. I had 3.8 and 4 but not stable, temps to high! So until I get some sand paper its the timing. Also this ram posted @ 1866 but one of the 4 disappeared and only the triple channel was visable? Should I just keep working with this ram and timing or go with 1600, 1866, 2000 I like the snappy timmings but if I wouldn't notice it vs speed Hay! Thank you and Hello!

 

 

Windows 7 Ultimate
i7 930 2.8 GHZ
XIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk
Asus P6T6 WS Revolution
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 4x2GB xmp 7-7-7-24-2n-1.5-1.3 1333 (10600)
@ 7-8-8-24-2n-1.6-1.3 1600
Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200
PNY gtx 460 enthusiast edition

[Tjj226_Angel]

I have been away from Overclockersclub and Overclocking for 7 years to go truck driving. I just put this rig together to start over and the board bios says it supports up to 2400 xmp (OC) I was testing ram timing vs purchasing higher mhz ram like 1866, 2000, 2400 with higher timings and was wondering if timing matters anymore vs (speed)? I have the ram below @ 1600 pass memtest86+ v4.2 10hrs and then was running prime95 and got a "FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4 Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file" I figure it is timing on the ram 7-8-8-24 but why would memtest86 pass and not Prime95 Im not overclocking the cpu yet untill i lap the heat pipe because of heat. I had 3.8 and 4 but not stable, temps to high! So until I get some sand paper its the timing. Also this ram posted @ 1866 but one of the 4 disappeared and only the triple channel was visable? Should I just keep working with this ram and timing or go with 1600, 1866, 2000 I like the snappy timmings but if I wouldn't notice it vs speed Hay! Thank you and Hello!

 

 

Windows 7 Ultimate

i7 930 2.8 GHZ

XIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk

Asus P6T6 WS Revolution

Crucial Ballistix Tactical 4x2GB xmp 7-7-7-24-2n-1.5-1.3 1333 (10600)

@ 7-8-8-24-2n-1.6-1.3 1600

Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200

PNY gtx 460 enthusiast edition

 

Speed is better than timings so long as your timings aren't unreasonably high like 11. 

 

I would shoot for 1866 at 9-9-9-24 

[PanskiKow]

Thank you I was looking for the 1866 triple channel kits 3x4 but having problems finding any I like, no one is selling it like Newegg. Mushkin Enhanced Ridgeback 12GB 3x4 Timing 9-11-9-27 and at $119.99 looked good. But I found this board @ 1.65v wants to up to 1.66v and in the red with a warning. The board skips the 1.65v and rounds up and Im not sure if it would cause any problems or not? The Crucial ram I have now passes 10hrs memtest86 7-8-8-24 but fails Prime95 6-8hrs and passes Mem Test in windows @ 130% now with no errors. I don't no if I should worry about it or not? I don't have the cpu overclocked yet working on how the ram after having one stick dissappear on me @ 1866 with loose timings.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Oh, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231466 here you go

[PanskiKow]

Thank you! I I did see them.

[d6bmg]

Speed is better than timings so long as your timings aren't unreasonably high like 11. 

 

I would shoot for 1866 at 9-9-9-24 

 

 

This, explains everything. Any latency upto 11 is considered to be very good, even 12 is good, if your RAM runs at a very good speed.

Clock timing always comes before latency, unless you consider a few point difference in different benchmarks.

[wevsspot]

Panski - the main point everyone here is missing is the amount of QPI/VTT voltage you are going to have to use to run DDR3 1866 or higher memory speeds stable.  On the X58 platform QPI/VTT is a very very important voltage when you start pushing your cpu and your memory.

 

On the X58 platform the only reason I would consider high speed RAM is the extra flexibility in speed and timings when pushing the BCLK to squeeze the most out of your CPU.  CPU clocks are king for everyday computing needs.

 

And for the record - you can get near the same benchmark bandwidth with memory running at 1800Mhz with 9-9-9-24 timings as you do with memory running 2000Mhz at 11-11-11-28 timings.

 

I'm a big fan of G.Skill memory and use it almost exclusively - but if I were buying memory for the X58 platform right now, here is the kit I'd get;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148511

 

1. They have tighter timings at 1600Mhz than the G.Skill kit recommended previously.  Why is that important?  Because that usually means you have more headroom when upping the memory frequency.  i.e. this Crucial kit will easily do 1750Mhz at stock timings and will get you close to 1866Mhz at 9-9-9-28 timings @ 1.55v.  It's probably also capable of getting up into the mid 1900Mhz frequency at 10-10-10-28 timings with 1.6V

 

2. They have a factory voltage closer to what the X58 chipset and cpu likes @ 1.5v instead of the 1.25V of the G.Skill - so they should be pretty much plug and play.  Check the BIOS on your Asus board and it might not even have a DRAM voltage option as low as 1.25V

 

3. They are a little less expensive than the G.Skill kit previously recommended.

 

Having played with many, many, many different memory kits on the X58 platform, using CPUs ranging from the i7 920 up to the i7 950, I can tell you from experience that in the real world you won't notice one bit of difference from memory running at DD3 1600Mhz versus memory running at DDR3 2133Mhz.  Other than heat and voltage (more and more w/high speed memory).

 

As for passing Memtest, but failing Prime with your current memory & configuration - Memtest does not stress the IMC or other system components like Prime does.  If you want to pass Memtest with your current configuration set your primary memory timings to 8-8-8-24, vdram to 1.55v to 1.60v and your QPI/VTT to 1.25v.

 

Retest.

[Tjj226_Angel]

 

Speed is better than timings so long as your timings aren't unreasonably high like 11. 

 

I would shoot for 1866 at 9-9-9-24 

 

 

This, explains everything. Any latency upto 11 is considered to be very good, even 12 is good, if your RAM runs at a very good speed.

Clock timing always comes before latency, unless you consider a few point difference in different benchmarks.

 

 

I meant 11 for 1866 memory. Sorry. 

 

Wev even explains above that there is a balance.

 

 Oh and sometimes topology of the ram can also effect the speed too. A great example would be the samsung low profile ram. At stock settings, it actually outperforms standard corsair 1600 9-9-9-24 ram even though it has what we could consider to be worse specifications. 

[wevsspot]

Good point on the Samsung low voltage memory.  Some of our members around here run it and they rave about the performance.  If you don't need/want "pretty" then give the Samsung consideration too.

[PanskiKow]

Panski - the main point everyone here is missing is the amount of QPI/VTT voltage you are going to have to use to run DDR3 1866 or higher memory speeds stable.  On the X58 platform QPI/VTT is a very very important voltage when you start pushing your cpu and your memory.

 

On the X58 platform the only reason I would consider high speed RAM is the extra flexibility in speed and timings when pushing the BCLK to squeeze the most out of your CPU.  CPU clocks are king for everyday computing needs.

 

And for the record - you can get near the same benchmark bandwidth with memory running at 1800Mhz with 9-9-9-24 timings as you do with memory running 2000Mhz at 11-11-11-28 timings.

 

I'm a big fan of G.Skill memory and use it almost exclusively - but if I were buying memory for the X58 platform right now, here is the kit I'd get;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148511

 

1. They have tighter timings at 1600Mhz than the G.Skill kit recommended previously.  Why is that important?  Because that usually means you have more headroom when upping the memory frequency.  i.e. this Crucial kit will easily do 1750Mhz at stock timings and will get you close to 1866Mhz at 9-9-9-28 timings @ 1.55v.  It's probably also capable of getting up into the mid 1900Mhz frequency at 10-10-10-28 timings with 1.6V

 

2. They have a factory voltage closer to what the X58 chipset and cpu likes @ 1.5v instead of the 1.25V of the G.Skill - so they should be pretty much plug and play.  Check the BIOS on your Asus board and it might not even have a DRAM voltage option as low as 1.25V

 

3. They are a little less expensive than the G.Skill kit previously recommended.

 

Having played with many, many, many different memory kits on the X58 platform, using CPUs ranging from the i7 920 up to the i7 950, I can tell you from experience that in the real world you won't notice one bit of difference from memory running at DD3 1600Mhz versus memory running at DDR3 2133Mhz.  Other than heat and voltage (more and more w/high speed memory).

 

As for passing Memtest, but failing Prime with your current memory & configuration - Memtest does not stress the IMC or other system components like Prime does.  If you want to pass Memtest with your current configuration set your primary memory timings to 8-8-8-24, vdram to 1.55v to 1.60v and your QPI/VTT to 1.25v.

 

Retest.

Thank you all! I have been kicking around getting this ram as it is basically the same just looks better http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148503 I have all black with red light them going on inside and outside!

And your right I can't go any lower than 1.5v on this board! Also did you mean the QPI/Dram Core Voltage because XMP on this ram is 1.3v and I had Dram @ 1.6v for 1600mhz 7-8-8-24-2n timing. I loaded mem test in Windows using 7gigs of ram and with Prime95 8110 ram used It showed only 75mb left of ram to see if I could get an ram error, Nothing! But then when I let Prime run alone It wil fail one of the cores .5 rounding error and a different core at that..Weird! But stock XMP no fail! So I guess I'm missing something! But anyway I was hoping to solve my ram problem to overclock this proc to aleast 3800 24/7 But until I fix the temp and ram issue no go! I set ram to 8-8-8-24 and check bake later!

[wevsspot]

QPI/VTT = QPI/DRAM Core Voltage.  Unfortunately motherboard mfgs. can't seem to ever agree and use the same terminology in their BIOS.  Regardless, it is the voltage for the Integrated Memory Controller (IMC) inside of the CPU. This controller communicates directly with the RAM.  As you increase the system's BCLK or memory speed, at some point you'll have to up this voltage.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Good point on the Samsung low voltage memory.  Some of our members around here run it and they rave about the performance.  If you don't need/want "pretty" then give the Samsung consideration too.

 

 

Yeah but the issue is that EVERYONE buys it. The supply is low and the demand is high which jacks up the price. Case in point, I bought 16GB for 48 bucks, and now even 8GB of the stuff can run you 60 dollars off amazon. 

 

That is why I recommended the Gsill stuff. I BELIEVE it runs the samsung IC HCH9, so it can still probably OC fairly well. 

 

Here is more info in the samsung mem club that I started http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827190021 (the bench on my first post should give you guys a hint as to what it can do.)