RAM Settings

[SmiIingPerson]

I recently had to RMA my motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131163) due to a faulty connection and the new board they sent me had a new version of the Phoenix AWARD BIOS on it which has a new layout for RAM timings. This setup has the timings organized into 1st, 2nd and 3rd Information with obscure 3 or 4 letter names so I'm not sure which is which but I'm fairly certain that the RAM I have is not set to the proper settings. I'm currently using http://gadgets.softpedia.com/gadgets/Computer-Hardware/PNY-D22GX64XL-3-DDR2-memory-8803.html and would like to know what I should set as the timings to get the most out of this.

 

[Mondoman]

Memory modules vary, even under the same part number. Use CPU-Z to find out all the SPD and EPP profiles programmed into your specific modules. That should give you a reasonable idea of how to set your BIOS RAM settings. Just don't expect it to make a noticeable difference in performance -- only the CPU core speed and hard disk average transfer speed will do that.

 

[SmiIingPerson]

Wow, no noticeable difference? Right now the RAM is clocked at 5-5-5-15, which is significantly higher than their advertised 3-4-4-8 latencies.

 

[Mondoman]

Yep, no noticeable difference. CL3, CL4, CL5, it's all essentially the same performance-wise in the real world. You've got plenty of bandwidth, and the stuff where latency would make a difference tends to be found in the CPU cache, which is *very* low latency, so main RAM latency doesn't matter so much these days.

 

[SmiIingPerson]

Good to know, thanks for the info