GSkill F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK bandwidth lower than expected

[rnthorburn]

Benchmarking with MaxxMem2 shows memory score 7.3 GB/s.
Memory score seems approximately 14% below the expected 8.5 GB/s
for a single channel. But this is a dual channel setup, so
was expecting a memory score of 9 GB/s or more.

(I was expecting more because I have an older PC with dual channel
PC3200 and it gets a memory score of 4.36 GB/s - that's 36% greater
than the expected rate for single channel PC3200)

Can you please explain why the GSkill F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK memory score
is low?

System board: GIGA-BYTE GA-EP45-UD3L
Latest BIOS F9
BIOS set with factory defaults
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Memory : 4GB = 2 F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK (4 1GB sticks - dual channel)

CPUZ shows : FSB 333.7 MHz
Memory Frequency 533.9 MHz

Thank you.

[GSKILL TECH]

Post up some BIOS pictures. Some tweaking may be needed. A slight overclock to CPU will quickly take care of that.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[rnthorburn]

GIGA-BYTE GA-EP45-UD3L BIOS pictures

Please let me know if you need more or better pictures.

Thank you.

[GSKILL TECH]

Nothing is set, you'll want to do that first.

DRAM Frequency, timings, and voltage.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[rnthorburn]

Memory works great at 800, but not at 1066 (for me)

Other details I didn't previously mention:

the GIGA-BYTE GA-EP45-UD3L system board is version 1.0, and
the operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601).


ONE: Made the following BIOS changes:

Performance Enhance - Standard
DRAM Timing Selectabe - Manual
Systen Memory Multiplier - 3.20B
tCL - 5, tRCD - 5, tRP - 5, tRAS - 15, tRFC - 80, Command Rate - 2
DRAM Voltage - 2.1, MCH Core - 1.4

Trying to boot, got BSOD (Blue Screen OF Death) after windows
screen with bar but before background screen with icons
(That is, could not complete Window 7 initialization).

TWO: Made the following BIOS changes:

tCL - 6, tRCD - 6, tRP - 6, tRAS - 18

Windows 7 completed initialization.
Benchmark results with MaxxMem2: Bandwidth 6.82 GB/sec and Latency 87ns.
Ran Memtest86+ (v4.20) and got over 1000 errors within a few minutes.

THREE: Make the following BIOS changes:

Systen Memory Multiplier - 2.40B
tCL - 5, tRCD - 5, tRP - 5, tRAS - 15, tRFC - 68, Command Rate - 2
DRAM Voltage - 1.8, MCH Core - 1.1

Windows 7 completed initialization.
Benchmark results with MaxxMem2: Bandwidth 6.76 GB/sec and Latency 78.2ns.
Ran Memtest86+ (v4.20) for a while without errors.

COMCLUSION (so far):

2 pairs (4 sticks) of F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK memory in GA-EP45-UD3L board (v 1.0)
work very well where the memory is set like F2-6400CL5D-2GBPK. It's totally
stable. The dual channel bandwidth (6.76 GB/sec) exceeds spec 6.4 GB/sec of
a single stick. Also, able to use other BIOS performance improvements such as setting
CPU Intelligent Accelerator 2 to "Turbo" (increases CPU frequency by 15% to 17%) and
still totally stable.

On the other hand, trying to run the 2 pair of F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK memory at 1066 in the
GA-EP45-UD3L board (v 1.0) has never been stable for me. Over the past 2 years,
with the F7 BIOS, there was an annoying boot loop every few months. After upgrading
to the F9 BIOS, there was a BSOR one to three times a day. After these problems,
benchmarking the memory, it was found to be 14% below the expected bandwidth for a
single stick. I would ask Gigabyte about this, but no GSkill memory is in their
"Qualified Vendors List" for the board.

If you have any suggestions for running at 1066 where it is stable and the bandwidth
is over 8.5 GB/sec, I'll give it a try. Otherwise. I'm just going to run it at 800.

Thank you.