Faulty RAM ports, how much does it affect games?

[weford]

Hi all,

I've got no idea how RMA works, but I no longer have the packaging for it and I cannot seem to find any x58 motherboards locally these days!

I've only played The Old Republic which I didn't have prior to my ports failing. My video card is a bit dated for that game, but I also heard others with 570/80's etc have performance hits.

My question is, will this have a real performance hit towards games?

Anyway - my issue at hand, it is running at single channel instead of tripple, I've got 18GB installed to facilitate 6GB. I only used to have a 6GB set.


Specs:
-CPU: i7 960
-RAM: DDR3 1600Mhz Corsair Vengeance -3x2GB and 3x4GB Sticks installed -
-Motherboard: ASUS x58 Sabertooth
-Graphics: GTX 295

 

[geofelt]

Nehalem cpus are largely insensitive to ram speeds, or single/dual/triple channel operation. As a rule more ram is better than faster ram.

RMA stands for Return Merchandise Authorization. It is the process by which you return a defective product for repair or replacement.

I suggest you properly check out your ram, and the ram slots.

Use memtest86+ You should get NO failures.

Read your X58 motherboard manual. There will be specific slots where the differing size ram sticks need to be installed to get dual or triple channel.

You may have caused an issue if the sticks are mismatched, particularly for voltage. If so, just install the 6gb kit in the correct slots, and you should get triple channel operation.

If you get a failure, test the sticks individually to find the good/defective ones.

Then test, using a known good stick in each of the slots to check for good/bad slots.
This may not be possible on your board, since early X58 motherboards were somewhat restrictive on which slots needed to be filled if you used less than the max.

 

[jemm]

RMA depend on the motherboard manufactuer -- each of them have their own RMA policy. ASUS offers 3 years warranty.

I really didn´t get what the problem is with your motherboard. You said you have a faulty ram port, but you have all the 6 ram slots populated. How much memory ram your system read? 18GB?

You can game with single, dual or tripple channels without a problem. The only issue is that with faulty channel or a slot you won´t be able to use the ram at its full capability.

See a film I recorded while playing with only 2 channels on a X58 plataform http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0CwdG8c67Q

 

[weford]

Hi - Thanks for replying, will look more into it after work!

My issue with the motherboard is that it no longer reads the correct amount of memory and uses single channel instead of triple.

I have been using it for over a year, I was using 6GB installed to 2,4,6 channels I think they are called? Anyway, it was no problems - everything was good. I was able to change the speed in bios etc (nothing fancy, just the premade options)

But after my removals, I noticed it was only reading 2GB. I tried to re-seat, but same issue. So I bought a 12gb kit and that was only reading 4GB. So I added the rest, which totals it to 18GB - from that, it was reading 6GB!

When I open CPU-Z it detects I have 18GB installed, when I open like CCleaner or during bootup, it detects 6GB. And CPU-Z says its on single channel.

I'm glad to hear that RAM isn't causing as big of an issue as I thought.

Hopefully that clarifies it a bit!

 

[jemm]

You have a faulty mobo -- you can follow the geofelt (post above) advises to find out which slots are working and those that don´t. However if it is still under warranty, then the best thing to do is to open a RMA.