Questions about adding more ram to NF4 Ultra-D

[malinois1]

Hi Geebs we meet again Well I would rather have 1T IMHO and a 1G kit. You have an FX55 with a hauge multi so you don't need huge FSB. If you really need the 2 gig it will be much better than 1G and accessing the pagefile. Also you could always use a divider if FSB is that important to you. With A64 you don't need to worry about bandwidth as much being that the mem controller is on die and doesn't have to travel to a mem controller on the mobo. F

 

Bottom line is you want 1T. Above all CPU MHZ is king not bandwidth. Of course I am talking real world results not synthetic benchies.

[Geebs]

Hi Geebs we meet again Well I would rather have 1T IMHO and a 1G kit. You have an FX55 with a hauge multi so you don't need huge FSB. If you really need the 2 gig it will be much better than 1G and accessing the pagefile. Also you could always use a divider if FSB is that important to you. With A64 you don't need to worry about bandwidth as much being that the mem controller is on die and doesn't have to travel to a mem controller on the mobo. F

 

Bottom line is you want 1T. Above all CPU MHZ is king not bandwidth. Of course I am talking real world results not synthetic benchies.

 

Fancy meeting you here... :cool:

 

Thats a good point about the upwards unlocked muti...

 

I'll have think about it.

 

I appreciate your help, malinois1

[Angry_Games]

Angry, is it possible to overclock the 4 dimms to overcome the performance drop caused by using 1T?

 

performance drop?

 

you act like you will lose 400Mhz and 1000MB/s from dropping to 2T lol

 

there is no performance drop...you might lose some memory bandwidth in memtest or Everest....so what...as I've said a zillion times, memory bandwidth is a moot point on the A64 since the memory controller is integrated and the cpu Mhz is the most important thing in the system.

 

if you could have 9000MB/s memory bandwidth but only 2200Mhz, or 5000MB/s bandwidth @ 2400Mhz...which would you choose?

 

the 2400Mhz

 

there is so little difference in 2T vs 1T on the A64 (unlike the NF2 and Intel p4 that you are probably remembering) that you should forget it. Just like dividers.

 

so dont listen to mal as the bottom line is not 'you want 1T' heh

 

the bottom line is 'you want stability and 2GB of memory and CPU MEGAHURTZ' (yes, you want to put the 'HURTZ' on mofo's heh)

 

he is right however about 1GB of memory vs 2GB of memory

 

i came from 2x512 @ 2-2-5-2, 240x12, 2880Mhz, 1T

 

now i am using

 

4x512 @ 2-3-5-2, 200x12, 2400Mhz, 2T

 

performance difference? I'd have to run a benchmark program like 3dmark to answer that, because it feels exactly the same to me.

 

but

 

Battlefield2 runs about 100% better with 2GB of memory. 1GB and all my options on high it just stutters for a bit and a lot during gameplay.

 

2GB it means i am almost always teh first to join the map, and it don't stutter...ever.

 

plus a lot of other programs run real real good like Photoshop and my 10+ web pages open and CuteFTP and Folding and Winamp and Front Page and Word and blah blah blah blah blah heh.

 

2GB + cpu Mhz (regardless of memory bandwidth and command per clock)

 

try it for yourself...everyone that has taken the 'angry challenge' has came back and said 'you were right...2GB @ 2T is better than 1GB @ 1T!'

[Angry_Games]

oops, to answer your original question...your overclocking depends on your cpu's memory controller and your memory as always.

 

also keep in mind you have an FX-55 clawhammer...you will be forced to run 4x512 @ DDR333, 2T

 

a San Diego FX-55 (i have one of these) or any venice/san diego/x2 can run 4x512 @ DDR400, 2T (but never 1T for 4x512)

 

i've seen some excellent overclocks on 4x512...but an FX-55 isnt going to clock much without water or subzero cooling anyway.

[malinois1]

so dont listen to mal as the bottom line is not 'you want 1T' heh

 

Heh!! Put em up put em up :nod: . I agree with what you said AG just if you have a chance to do so and get 2 x 1G and run 1T it would be better than the 2T option. As you know most of us choose this DFI board because we are tweakers and are always trying to get the last bit of performance out of them. I know 1T is only about 3-5% but hale like I I said tweakers

[Fire-N-Ice]

but then with the bigger modules you wouldn't get as good timings, right? (not that this matters much either)

[malinois1]

The OCZ modules in question are 2-3-2 so not exactly what I would call loose timings. Like AG said though CPU MHZ is KING

[7sudden]

Okay,

ordered the OCZ kit mentioned previously.

 

Any thoughts as to which BIOS to use? -also which slots?

 

thx

 

 

 

Any ideas?

[Geebs]

oops, to answer your original question...your overclocking depends on your cpu's memory controller and your memory as always.

 

also keep in mind you have an FX-55 clawhammer...you will be forced to run 4x512 @ DDR333, 2T

 

a San Diego FX-55 (i have one of these) or any venice/san diego/x2 can run 4x512 @ DDR400, 2T (but never 1T for 4x512)

 

i've seen some excellent overclocks on 4x512...but an FX-55 isnt going to clock much without water or subzero cooling anyway.

 

Thanks for the post Angry... I will take the "angry challenge" and let you know...

 

I hope to have a San Diego FX-55 by the end of the week, so I should have a bit more headroom for overclocking

 

Again, thanks for the post. Very informative

[mathboy]

a San Diego FX-55 (i have one of these) or any venice/san diego/x2 can run 4x512 @ DDR400, 2T (but never 1T for 4x512)

 

Hi Angry,

I've been having "only-stable-at-1x-LDT" issues for over a week with my Venice 3000+ (thread here ) with 4x512 @ DDR400, 2T, regardless of other settings (even if CPU not overclocked).

This evening I found that:

1) If I take out two sticks, leaving 2x512, then there are no problems.

2) If I run @ approx DDR333 it seems to work fine, and I can overclock my venice to 260MHz FSB (133 divider to get roughly DDR333 equiv) at LDT 3x.

 

I'm using Geil Value Ram (Manuf. Specs ).

 

So I guess if cheaper/double sided RAM is used, DDR400 with 4x512 might not work even with a venice.

[tarabas]

Sorry for my english.

 

It is possible to run the board with 3 ddr333 Ram modules(e.g. 256X256x256)??

 

I have done everything(new bios 704-1 ) but it won´t boot, only a long beeeepp. With 2 modules it runs perfect.

[Fire-N-Ice]

you can run 3 modules, but it won't be dual channel. You'd be better off with 2 modules in the same colored slots to give you dual channel.