4x512 = DDR333 only?

[Serpentor]

Planning to upgrade to 2GBs for BF2 like everyone else.. I know I'm forced to eat a few % with going from 1T to 2T. However, I checked my mobo's manual (MSI Neo4-F) and it states that if all banks are occupied with double-sided RAM (the 512s) then the system will run at DDR333 instead of DDR400. Is that true? I thought 2T was the only drawback of 4x512.

Edit - I suppose the manual was written prior to the release of the Venice/San Diego cores. If I'm not mistaken, those cores/mem controllers should have no problem with 4x512 @ DDR400?

 

[JohnAn2112]

Clawhammers, Newcastles, and Winchesters will drop down to 333 MHZ at 2T. Venice, San Diego, Toledo and Manchester cores will be able to run 4 sticks at 400 MHZ at 2T.

 

[evilharp]

Originally posted by: Serpentor
Planning to upgrade to 2GBs for BF2 like everyone else.. I know I'm forced to eat a few % with going from 1T to 2T. However, I checked my mobo's manual (MSI Neo4-F) and it states that if all banks are occupied with double-sided RAM (the 512s) then the system will run at DDR333 instead of DDR400. Is that true? I thought 2T was the only drawback of 4x512.

Edit - I suppose the manual was written prior to the release of the Venice/San Diego cores. If I'm not mistaken, those cores/mem controllers should have no problem with 4x512 @ DDR400?

DDR333 with Double-Sided RAM @ 2T is a restriction based on the CPU and the Motherboard. Unless the bios is updated to allow Venice/San Diego/Manchester/Toledo to run 4 DS at DDR400, it will revert to DDR333.

It sucks, but that is the reality.

 

[stevty2889]

Venice and San Diego can run 4 sticks at DDR400 2T. If it does revert back to DDR333 when you add the new sticks, you can change it manualy to DDR400 in the BIOS. Then just run memtest to make sure it's stable.

 

[crazylegs]

Just read an interesting article over @ www.dfi-street.com !!! It basically suggests that the hit encountered from moving to T2 is not nearly as bad as some ppl make out...

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31584

probably worth a look

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: crazylegs
Just read an interesting article over @ www.dfi-street.com !!! It basically suggests that the hit encountered from moving to T2 is not nearly as bad as some ppl make out...

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31584

probably worth a look

There was a very long thread in these forums that lasted well over a month speaking of the fact that there is no difference between 1T and 2T.

 

[wseyller]

Maybe it depends what your running, but I tested sandra with T1 and T2 and I saw a huge difference on my AMD64 3200+ system.

Sandra Memory Benchmark

T1 DDR400 Speed - approx 2,900 MB/s

T2 DDR400 Speed - approx 1,400 MB/s

I had 1gb stick and 2 - 512 sticks. with 3 slots

I just took one of the 512 sticks out and running 1.5gb instead of 2gb.

1.5gb is seems sufficient for BF2


Actually I would rather drop back to 333mhz then I would drop to T2. You wouldn't lose much performance on A64 systems running 333mhz.

 

[kamranziadar]

I see the same thing with Opteron 144, but i was going to change it in the BIOS to see if it can run at 400mhz.

 

[JohnAn2112]

Originally posted by: wseyller
Maybe it depends what your running, but I tested sandra with T1 and T2 and I saw a huge difference on my AMD64 3200+ system.

Sandra Memory Benchmark

T1 DDR400 Speed - approx 2,900 MB/s

T2 DDR400 Speed - approx 1,400 MB/s

I had 1gb stick and 2 - 512 sticks. with 3 slots

I just took one of the 512 sticks out and running 1.5gb instead of 2gb.

1.5gb is seems sufficient for BF2


Actually I would rather drop back to 333mhz then I would drop to T2. You wouldn't lose much performance on A64 systems running 333mhz.

Sandra is a synthetic piece of software that does not measure the true difference between 1T and 2T. Check out the 1T vs 2T thread here and check out the results with real world applications. Not much of a difference at all.

 

[crazylegs]

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112

Originally posted by: wseyller
Maybe it depends what your running, but I tested sandra with T1 and T2 and I saw a huge difference on my AMD64 3200+ system.

Sandra Memory Benchmark

T1 DDR400 Speed - approx 2,900 MB/s

T2 DDR400 Speed - approx 1,400 MB/s

I had 1gb stick and 2 - 512 sticks. with 3 slots

I just took one of the 512 sticks out and running 1.5gb instead of 2gb.

1.5gb is seems sufficient for BF2


Actually I would rather drop back to 333mhz then I would drop to T2. You wouldn't lose much performance on A64 systems running 333mhz.

Sandra is a synthetic piece of software that does not measure the true difference between 1T and 2T. Check out the 1T vs 2T thread here and check out the results with real world applications. Not much of a difference at all.

Yeh i'd like to 2nd that!!! Even with my limited PC experience i would doubt the real-world difference... even given the Sandra stats... isn't 1400MB/s FAST ENOUGH to make something else limit the system speed..?!?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: wseyller
Maybe it depends what your running, but I tested sandra with T1 and T2 and I saw a huge difference on my AMD64 3200+ system.

Sandra Memory Benchmark

T1 DDR400 Speed - approx 2,900 MB/s

T2 DDR400 Speed - approx 1,400 MB/s

I had 1gb stick and 2 - 512 sticks. with 3 slots

I just took one of the 512 sticks out and running 1.5gb instead of 2gb.

1.5gb is seems sufficient for BF2


Actually I would rather drop back to 333mhz then I would drop to T2. You wouldn't lose much performance on A64 systems running 333mhz.

That configuration would also drop it from dual channel to single channel, not just change it from 1T to 2T..

 

[Serpentor]

Thanks for the all the replies. Sounds like I should be fine going with 4x512 Corsair VS. I'd hate to go to all the hassle of ebaying the current 512s and dropping $200 on 2x1GB for the benefit of basically one game (which I already had to ditch my Ti4200 for, thanks to nVidia & EA's private handshake).

I guess it's also questionable whether corsair value 1GB sticks can run at my current speeds anyway. I lucked out to a degree with my current value RAM hitting 228. Although if my second batch of 2x512 come with a much lower tolerance, then I'm in the same unfortunate position..

 

[kamranziadar]

Ok i resolved the issue with my computer. I am using Opteron 144 with 4X512MB rams, i just changed the seeting in BIOS from PC333 to PC400 and it is working fine.
The Motherboard is ASROCK DUAL SATAII

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: crazylegs
Just read an interesting article over @ www.dfi-street.com !!! It basically suggests that the hit encountered from moving to T2 is not nearly as bad as some ppl make out...

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31584

probably worth a look

There was a very long thread in these forums that lasted well over a month speaking of the fact that there is no difference between 1T and 2T.

I think there are some members who think the hit from 2T is more significant than a small drop in bandwidth.

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112
Clawhammers, Newcastles, and Winchesters will drop down to 333 MHZ at 2T. Venice, San Diego, Toledo and Manchester cores will be able to run 4 sticks at 400 MHZ at 2T.

So can Winnies, but only if it's single-sided.

there was a huge bruehaha over this a while back

so I built my friend's computer, with 4x256mb Geil Value. single-sided sticks. my old Winnie 3200+ on MSI K8N Neo-4F.

booted up and right there in front of me, DDR400, by default. 2t of course.

so Winnies CAN, in fact, run 4 sticks of single-sided RAM @DDR400. just not double-sided.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112
Clawhammers, Newcastles, and Winchesters will drop down to 333 MHZ at 2T. Venice, San Diego, Toledo and Manchester cores will be able to run 4 sticks at 400 MHZ at 2T.

What about Venus (single-core Socket 939 Opterons)?

What happens if you overclock and use a memory divider to downclock the RAM anyway? I mean, suppose that I had planned to have my memory going at 333 (because of the faster FSB)? Would I still suffer a little performance loss by having 4 x 512 instead of just 2 x 512?

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Serpentor
Thanks for the all the replies. Sounds like I should be fine going with 4x512 Corsair VS. I'd hate to go to all the hassle of ebaying the current 512s and dropping $200 on 2x1GB for the benefit of basically one game (which I already had to ditch my Ti4200 for, thanks to nVidia & EA's private handshake).

I guess it's also questionable whether corsair value 1GB sticks can run at my current speeds anyway. I lucked out to a degree with my current value RAM hitting 228. Although if my second batch of 2x512 come with a much lower tolerance, then I'm in the same unfortunate position..

Your Mem OC will likely be worse running 4 sticks just to let you know. More sticks means more load on the memory bus and your original 2 sticks may not run at the same speed they did when they were by themselves. I am doing 4 512MB sticks on my Neo 2 and I can only get around 180Mhz(they are PC2700 though, but should be good for 200Mhz if they were not in this configuration).