Why 2 profiles so close?

[geohei]

Hi.

Intel Core i7 3770K 4x 3.50GHz
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
G.SKILL Trident F3-2400-10D-16GTX (2x8GB)

I see 3 X.M.P. profiles in BIOS:
1. Disabled (9-9-9-24 1.50V)
2. Profile 1 (10-12-12-31 1.65V)
3. Profile 2 (10-12-12-31 1.65V)

Timing differences are tRRD, tWTR and tRTP. Only 1 cycle down each.

Speeds (memtest86) show:
1. Disabled - 17174 MB/s
2. Profile 1 - 24483 MB/s
3. Profile 2 - 24484 MB/s

(Newbie) questions.

a. Where do I find what's the difference between profile 1 and 2. I know where to find the values in the BIOS (see above), but I don't know why these 2 profiles are so close and which one I should/must/can use under which circumstances.

b. Which speed testing software can I use? Preferentially DOS based to avoid OS (like Linux, Windows, ...) interfering with speed measurement.

Thanks,

[Tradesman]

Generally it will be a profile for XMP 1.2 and another for ver 1.3 of XMP..or it could be for 2 different profiles based on either 2nd Gen CPU or 3rd Gen CPU i.e. 25, 26, 2700K are 2nd gen, 35, 3770K are 3rd Gen). I'd make sure you have the latest BIOS and start with Profile 2

[geohei]

Thanks for the explanation, but the purpose of the profiles must be mentioned somewhere on the manufacturer's site?! Didn't find anything though ... ;(

Yes, I do have the latest BIOS (F14) and Profile 2 works fine for me. Nevertheless I'd like to read somewhere what it's meant for.

[Tradesman]

Don't know of anyplace in particular they (or any other DRAM manufacturer) would post specifics on the XMP Profiles, here's a link to Intel that explains the purpose of XMP profiles

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...ofile-xmp.html