[SOLVED] Team Dark DDR3 1600 RAM running slow, OC help!

[hildebranddj]

Hello gang, didn't realize id been away so long.. apparently I am an Ancient Now! HA anyway still tinkering away with my old beast, done some upgrades, and realized my Team Ram Dark 1600 is running way to slow with factory clocks.. 16GB total, Dual channel 4x4GB Dimms DDR3 seeing 1300ish in my Bios..

Computer Specs

Mother Board Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Rev 4 with F3 Bios
AMD FX-8350 Black running Factory Voltage and Clocks
Cooler Master Evo 212 CPU Cooler
MSI Radeon RX580 8GB GPU again Factory Clocks, running in Game Mode, not OC Mode
8 GB Team Dark DDR3 1600 4x4GB Dual Channel
256 GB Samsung EVO Pro SSD
1 TB WD Blue 3.5 7200 RPM HDD
1 TB WD Caviar Green 5000 RPM HDD
650W Corsair HX650 PSU
Wireless Network Card
1 Blue Ray Drive
1 Lightscribe/ DVD Burner
29" LG LED TV as monitor (hooked to XB1 as well)
Corsair Mechanical Keyboard (sorry only RED LED... no RGB for me lol)
Cougar Challenger case with 3 extra fans, two top, one back, main front fan and isolated PSU fan with bottom in and back out..
Filters all clean, case temp sits about 85 Degrees in a 72 degree room..

Anyway chatting with a tech from Team he told me the 1600 RAM is Overclockable to almost 1800 with the correct clocks. The factory clocks are 9-9-9-24 and 1.5v. Voltage is stable, but they will say the chips are good for it, and will do it and will warranty if a failure happens, but not give the right clocks to make it happen. Anytime I even remotely mess with the clocks, I get my dual BIOS boot. It tries to start, shuts down and restarts on BIOS 2, back with factory clocks. even messed up bad enough I had to totally reset my RAM as it was in an endless loop of reboot..

As of this week I put in the RX580 this week, and it really sped things up, but now my ram seems to be my bottleneck and seeing it running at 1333 max, and I can't see why. CPUID oddly wont show this ram. CPU-Z shows a bit of info.

https://valid.x86.fr/d8ccdc

I have also noted running a few basic benchmarks that in total my entire system seems a bit slower than the average for similar builds. I don't know if I've literally found my systems max now or if something is throttling.. temps are all good and plenty of padding resource wise. and not much other than windows processes in the background.

Has anyone played with Team Dark ram and successfully overclocked it??

I'm no high end gamer, this system has been bulletproof for me, yeah its a bit out of date, but it does what I need it to do. so I've only done generational upgrades as I see fit, just cant afford to start from scratch right now. Honestly if I can get the RAM a bit happier speed wise, it should last me many more years.. As always Thanks!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Just run them at the XMP profile of 1600mhz with the XMP timings. Overclocking is a waste of your time, especially just going from 1600mhz to 1866mhz. There is way too much potential for data corruption unless you are willing to go through the VERY extensive trail and error and repetitive testing procedures REQUIRED if you want to run your memory at any speed or timing that is different from the profile.

If you do, you can read this to figure out how to do the testing.

Spoiler: Memory testing procedure for overclocking stability or troubleshooting

Memtest86


Go to the Passmark software website and download the USB Memtest86 free version. You can do the optical disk version too if for some reason you cannot use a bootable USB flash drive.

Create bootable media using the downloaded Memtest86 (NOT Memtest86+, that is a different, older version and is outdated). Once you have done that, go into your BIOS and configure the system to boot to the USB drive that contains the Memtest86 USB media or the optical drive if using that option.


Click here to download Memtest86 USB package

Create a bootable USB Flash drive:

1. Download the Windows MemTest86 USB image.

2. Right click on the downloaded file and select the "Extract to Here" option. This places the USB image and imaging tool into the current folder.

3. Run the included imageUSB tool, it should already have the image file selected and you just need to choose which connected USB drive to turn into a bootable drive. Note that this will erase all data on the drive.


No memory should ever fail to pass Memtest86 when it is at the default configuration that the system sets it at when you start out or do a clear CMOS by removing the CMOS battery for five minutes.

Best method for testing memory is to first run four passes of Memtest86, all 11 tests, WITH the memory at the default configuration. This should be done BEFORE setting the memory to the XMP profile settings. The paid version has 13 tests but the free version only has tests 1-10 and test 13. So run full passes of all 11 tests. Be sure to download the latest version of Memtest86. Memtest86+ has not been updated in MANY years. It is NO-WISE as good as regular Memtest86 from Passmark software.

If there are ANY errors, at all, then the memory configuration is not stable. Bumping the DRAM voltage up slightly may resolve that OR you may need to make adjustments to the primary timings. There are very few secondary or tertiary timings that should be altered. I can tell you about those if you are trying to tighten your memory timings.

If you cannot pass Memtest86 with the memory at the XMP configuration settings then I would recommend restoring the memory to the default JEDEC SPD of 1333/2133mhz (Depending on your platform and memory type) with everything left on the auto/default configuration and running Memtest86 over again. If it completes the four full passes without error you can try again with the XMP settings but first try bumping the DRAM voltage up once again by whatever small increment the motherboard will allow you to increase it by. If it passes, great, move on to the Prime95 testing.

If it still fails, try once again bumping the voltage if you are still within the maximum allowable voltage for your memory type and test again. If it still fails, you are likely going to need more advanced help with configuring your primary timings and should return the memory to the default configuration until you can sort it out.

If the memory will not pass Memtest86 for four passes when it IS at the stock default non-XMP configuration, even after a minor bump in voltage, then there is likely something physically wrong with one or more of the memory modules and I'd recommend running Memtest on each individual module, separately, to determine which module is causing the issue. If you find a single module that is faulty you should contact the seller or the memory manufacturer and have them replace the memory as a SET. Memory comes matched for a reason as I made clear earlier and if you let them replace only one module rather than the entire set you are back to using unmatched memory which is an open door for problems with incompatible memory.

Be aware that you SHOULD run Memtest86 to test the memory at the default, non-XMP or custom profile settings BEFORE ever making any changes to the memory configuration so that you will know if the problem is a setting or is a physical problem with the memory.

After your memory will pass Memtest for 4 full passes, it is still not necessarily stable, but it is a good start and you should move on the the last phase of testing using Prime95. See, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel.




Final testing with Prime95

It is highly advisable that you do a final test using Prime95 version 26.6 (And ONLY version 26.6 except as noted below) choosing the Custom test. You can also use the Blend mode option but after a fair amount of personal testing, asking questions from some long time members with engineering level degrees that have forgotten more about memory architectures than you or I will ever know, and gathering opinions from a wide array of memory enthusiasts around the web, I'm pretty confident that the custom option is a lot more likely to find errors with the memory configuration, and faster, if there are any to be found.

Please note as this is rather important, if you prefer, or have problems running version 26.6 because you have a newer platform that doesn't want to play nice with version 26.6, you can use the latest version of Prime95 with the Custom test selected but you will need to make the following change.

If you wish to use a newer version than 26.6 make the following edit to the "local.txt" file located in the Prime95 folder.

Find the line value that specifies CpuSupportsAVX=1, and change it to CpuSupportsAVX=0

Then click File-->Save, and then close the document.

Now open Prime95.

Click on "Custom". Input a value of 512k in the minimum FFT size field. Leave the maximum FFT size field at 4096k. In the "Memory to use" field you should take a look at your current memory allocation in either HWinfo or system resource monitor. Whatever "free" memory is available, input approximately 75% of that amount. So if you currently have 16GB of installed memory, and approximately 3GB are in use or reserved leaving somewhere in the neighborhood of 13GB free, then enter something close to 75% of that amount.

So if you have 13GB free, or something reasonably close to that, then 75% of THAT would be 9.75GB, which, when multiplies times 1024 will roughly equal about 9984MB. You can average things out by simply selecting the closest multiple of 1024 to that amount just to keep it simple, so we'll say 10 x 1024= 10240mb and enter that amount in the field for "Memory to use (MB)". We are still well within the 13GB of unused memory BUT we have left enough memory unused so that if Windows decides to load some other process or background program, or an already loaded one suddenly needs more, we won't run into a situation where the system errors out due to lack of memory because we've dedicated it all to testing.

I've experienced false errors and system freezes during this test from over allocating memory, so stick to the method above and you should be ok.


Moving right along, do not change the time to run each FFT size.Leave that set to 15 minutes.

Click run and run the Custom test for 8 hours. If it passed Memtest86 and it passes 8 hours of the Custom test, the memory is 100% stable, or as close to it as you are ever likely to get but a lot of experts in the area of memory configuration suggest that running the extended Windows memory diagnostic test is also a pretty good idea too.

If you get errors, (and you will want to run HWinfo alongside Prime95 so you can periodically monitor each thread as Prime will not stop running just because one worker drops out, so you need to watch HWinfo to see if there are any threads not showing 100% usage which means one of the workers errored and was dropped) then you need to either change the timings, change the DRAM voltage or change the DRAM termination voltage, which should be approximately half of the full DRAM voltage.

There are also other bios settings that can affect the memory configuration AND stability, such as the VCCIO and system agent voltages, so if you have problems with stability at higher clock speeds you might want to look at increasing those slightly. Usually, for Intel at least, something in the neighborhood of 1.1v on both those is pretty safe. There are a substantial number of guides out there covering those two settings, but most of them are found within CPU overclocking guides so look there in guides relevant to your platform.

As a further measure of assurance that your WHOLE configuration is stable, you can download and run Realbench for 8 hours. If the system freezes or fails when running Realbench with your full memory amount set, try running it again but select only half your amount of installed memory.

Hopefully by now you have memory that is working correctly, in the full amount you purchased, and at the advertised speed and timings. I am certainly no expert in the area of memory architectures or very advanced configurations, but hopefully this has helped you to some degree and if there are questions I might be able to answer that were not addressed here, feel free to start a thread and PM me with a link to your question. Good luck and happy gaming, or whatever it is you do on your machine.

And I'd recommend reading this before trying to overclock the memory or make any changes to timings.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/26096937-post1.html


If any part of either of those is too complex, then you don't want to start messing around with the memory configuration beyond simply basic settings and XMP profile configuration.

 

[hildebranddj]

Thanks Dark Breeze, ill pop back into my BIOS and see if I can find that profile.. I have only seen the 1 Profile I created and AUTO. Don't think I've seen XMP.. I don't need crazy speed, just a bump to make it run where it is designed would be nice.


Edit found and enabled!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Nice. Good job.

 

[hildebranddj]

Again many thanks Dark Breeze, after cleaning up some rogue processes and killing all the gamer programs that the Video Card added. It's running real good and 3D Mark puts it right at a decent low high end gaming unit running Sky Diver. Running Time Spy before the XMP change I was in the low 20s FPS now I'm at about 32-35 FPS. 12 FPS on the CPU test.

I don't think there is much more I can do with this old girl now other than enjoy it. Taken close to 8 years slowly building it to this level. Granted it is no Ryzen Powered monster but this FX8350 seems really decent. But a disabled man's budget only goes so far. Lol

Unless someone has some suggestions what would help it more I am open to suggestions. I am however ordering one more fan to put on the bottom in front of the PSU to pull a bit more room air in and might slide in a fan controller to the last available slot on the front as I'm out of fan taps, if not I'll just split the rear case fan lead and run the new fan off it. Or ill double up on top fans and split that output. Case temps went from 78F in a 68-70 degree room to a hair under 90, with the new GPU. It sits at about 85 at idle with no fans running on the card.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What resolution are you testing at? What settings?

Those FPS are very low, even for your hardware. With the FX-8350 and RX 580, you should be doing at least somewhat better than that unless you are at 1440p or 4k and running higher than medium settings.

I would highly recommend that you install the latest motherboard BIOS if there is a newer one than you currently have installed, and also do a clean install of the graphics card drivers using the Display driver uninstaller, in safe mode.

How To - How to perform a CLEAN install of your video card drivers.

Updated 9-19-19 How to do a CLEAN install of your graphics card drivers using the Wagnard tools Display Driver Uninstaller A major issue on many systems is the presence of multiple graphics card drivers or drivers that have been incompletely uninstalled followed by the installation of...

forums.tomshardware.com

What Windows version are you running?

Please also COMPLETELY outline your current cooling system including case model, number of fans, where each fan is located, what orientation (intake or exhaust) each fan is configured for and whether you have the CPU cooler oriented as a front to back (vertical) or bottom to top (horizontal) orientation?

 

[hildebranddj]

Latest BIOS is installed, F3 Bios, for the REV 4 Boards, been looking at a custom BIOS thats far newer but never messed with Custom BIOS before. Since its just the free Demo test Time Spy is running in 2560x1440, unable to change it due to the demo, also running to a 720 TV in place of a monitor, budget warranted a TV more than a Monitor currently. Ill try the safe mode clean install anyway, since I had a R7/360 with current drivers, I did uninstall before the swap but it just reloaded the same June Drivers back in..

Windows 10 Pro with the latest Spring Update, Build 1903 I believe

I started a new thread on the cooling item, and outlined it there, I have an extra fan arriving today to put in the bottom to bring in some more cool air, with a cable splitter.

 

[Darkbreeze]

At 1440p, with Ultra settings, those FPS were probably about right. The RX 580 is a pretty capable 1080p card, and can do 1440p well enough if you drop a few sliders to the left, but at Ultra 1440p it's probably not going to do 60fps on anything really demanding. I'd still do the clean install. Might pick up a few more FPS at the least.

 

[hildebranddj]

Clean install done, honestly I never intend to pass 1080p with this setup, AutoCad seems happy running 720 or 1080. If budget allows soon, i may upgrade to a 2K monitor, but i doubt it will be anytime soon. I pretty much snagged the 580 just for the price ($179 with a $20 rebate at Fry's) and should I ever want to play something newer game wise i have the capability now. Newest game on this computer is probably the Original Skyrim with the Upgraded texture pack, and D3.. LOL. I am more of an old school gamer, my internet connection here in the boonies, prohibit game streaming, even WOW was getting impossible to play on a 7 Mbps connection. But AutoCad will now keep me busy as I design stuff for a friend with a 3D Printer.

After the clean install I am no longer getting the error I was in Wattman as well..

 

[Darkbreeze]

Nice. Little improvements start adding up over time.