Quick question on timings.

[Nikkoli]

confused on memory timings. my ram says it is 4-4-4-12@2.1V. What does that mean, and do lower numbers = faster?

[rabb1t]

Think of it like how long it takes you to go to the bathroom and come back when you are gaming. Yeah, lower = better. :)

[Nikkoli]

so my ram says those specs and that its native is 800MHz, but that it is capable of doing 1066MHz. Is there some way for me to know what numbers to set my timings for memory/cpu/etc??

I am asking cause I have always done the auto timing settings in the BIOS when I build my computers, but I am reading on couple of forums that you will get better performance and stability if you set the voltages and timings for the CPU, Memory, and GPU manually in the BIOS.

I would love some advice. This is my system:

Intel Core2Duo E6600 w/4MB L2 Cache (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003)
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009)
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130071)
80GB Seagate Barracuda 7900.9 SATA 300 HDD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148148) x5 in Raid 0 config for performance
OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341002)
Antec Nine Hundred Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129021)

[rabb1t]

The board caps at DDR2-800 natively, so to get it up to 1066 speeds you'd have to overclock it. I have no idea how to do that.

Not sure who recommended 1066 ram, but it was unnecessary to exceed 800 speeds. :(

[Nikkoli]

I think there must be something wrong because my 3Dmark06 score is only 7761 =o(

[rabb1t]

eeeemmmm yeah that doesn't sound right. Foz's wifes system got like 9k I think. You should be getting 9-10k with that.

Do you have the newest drivers? Is the raid sucking up too much power?

Oh woops, my bad. Here's what Foz said...

I ran 3Dmark06... scored 8314 on the first run. Score breakdown -
SM 2.0 - 3717
HDR/SM 3 - 3727
CPU - 2073

Still, 7.7k when Foz's wife's system is seeing ~8.3 sounds wrong. You should be near or higher than her score. ... hum only like 5% less, but still.

[Nikkoli]

I noticed in my Bios that my cpu multiplyer was 7x not 9x. My memory was set for 5-5-5-12 but if I change it to 4-4-4-12 it doesn't boot (maybe because I dont know which is which value?)

I am running a new benchmark with the cpu at the higher setting. We will see how it performs this time, then I will start looking at the memory.

As far as the raid goes, I would hope its not pulling too much power. Its on its own power line. I ahve the drives on 1, the fans on another, the motherboard connections on their own lines and the 8800 on its own line. How they are connected in the PSU I dont know but I know.

[rabb1t]

Odd, isn't 9x supposed to be default?

Honestly I'd leave the timings alone, set em to auto, and just set the voltage manually. Foz likes to mess with ram timings, but I prefer my PC to not asplode (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbzone.html) so I change as little as possible. ;)

[Ryun]

Not sure who recommended 1066 ram, but it was unnecessary to exceed 800 speeds. :(

So, anything above DDR2-800 isn't worth buying then? Also, is there a huge difference between DDR2-667 and DDR2-800? (I read somewhere that the gain wasn't worth the extra money)

And since it's on topic, would there be a noticeable difference in RAM at 3-3-3-8 then 4-4-4-12?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I was thinking about this earlier today :)

[rabb1t]

I think there are threads around that talk about ram details. I don't know a whole lot about it.

From what I know, going above DDR2-800 would only be a benefit if you planned on overclocking the board to match the faster ram speeds. From what I understand the more you OC the board the more you miss the target in regards to timing. So, if say you wanted to go for like DDR2-1000 speeds, you would have an 'easier time' getting there from DDR2-1066 than going all the way up from DDR2-800.

Would you see a noticeable difference in a few clicks on timing? Well, consider that even if you saw a huge increase of like 10%, that would transfer to what maybe 6 FPS faster on a 60 FPS game, and like closer to 3 FPS faster on average? With a 5% gain that would be 3 FPS faster on a 60 FPS game or 1.5 FPS on a 30 FPS game.

IMO, as I think I said above, I don't really feel the timings are worth fiddling with for just a couple of FPS faster. Particularly since you really have to know what you are doing or you risk stability.

[Ryun]

Gotcha. Thanks rabb1t, I'll look around the boards for more info.

[Nikkoli]

Ok, so by setting the cpu to 9x which brings it to the 2.4GHz that it is supposed to run at, my score is now 8389. Better, but I still wonder about the Ram.

My board can handle the 1066, and the reason I got the Dominator ram was because it was supposed to be capable of both the 800MHz and the 1066. I dont care which it runs at personally, but I think that since the ram's website says it should be 4-4-4-12 and the mobo is putting it at 5-5-5 instead I think that is part of the loss. Only issue is when I say for it to go to 4-4-4-12 windows says it cant find a config file and cant boot. I guess its time to go to the motherboard mfg and find out why they cant clock 4-4-4-12?

[Nikkoli]

it turns out that there was a setting in the bios to tell the computer that the ram is SLI ready ram. This made the auto settings go to 4-4-4-12 on its own =o) my benchmark is still less than 9000 but I dont think it will go higher without overclocking

[rabb1t]

Yeeeeaa free EPP boost.

With the 800 vs. 1066 are you sure someone wasn't referencing that there were 2 different models of Dominator ram?

DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 timing (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145168)

DDR2-1066 @ 5-5-5-15 timing (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145043)

Heh, actually looks like NewEgg has 4 types of Dominator now. (Other 2 are DDR2-1111 and DDR2-1142.)

[Fozzik]

The numbers for RAM timings that are usually quoted are -

CAS - Column access strobe - this is the most often quoted and probably most important timing. It comes into play on almost every memory access.

tRCD - time for RAS to CAS delay

tRP - time for RAS precharge

tRAS - Row access strobe - This one is a little tricky, because lower timings are not necessarily better. This one depends very heavily on the motherboard chipset and the memory controller.

Command rate - 1T/2T - This one is very significant also. A 1T command rate means the RAM goes right ahead and executes its instructions when it gets them. A 2T command rate means the RAM waits after each instruction to make sure it heard right...so it's more stable but slower.

CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS, and then command rate. (I sometimes get the order of the middle two numbers mixed up, but those four are the ones you want to change if you are adjusting).

The numbers are listed in the number of clock cycles it takes to perform. So, 4-4-4-15 1T is less clock cycles, or faster, than 5-5-5-15 2T.

The main thing, if you are upping the timings, is to make sure the voltage is set correctly. A lot of motherboards will default to 1.8v, which is the original spec for DDR2. Most higher-speed DDR2 memory runs at higher than 1.8v...so you may have to set that manually to get the timings to work.

Sounds like the motherboard automatically corrected things when you set the EPP on, so no big deal. Keep in mind that most of the differences we're talking about here are only going to show up in synthetic benchmarks. The difference between 4-4-4 timings and 5-5-5 in the real world (in actual games) would most likely be completely unnoticeable.

On the Core 2 Duo platform, the difference between DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 is almost non-existant. There is a difference between the 800 speed and 1066, but that is an overclock and probably not worth it in real games.

[JDFors]

If you post your question in the Corsair forums on their site, they will answer your question. It will either run at those setting or they will RMA your RAM.