Installed DDR-1600 Ram - Win Experience Score Drops?

[DonZ]

Win 7 x64 SP1, Gigabyte GA-870-UD3, AMD Phenom II 1045T, GSkill F3-12800-CL9D-8GBXL.

I just installed this DDR-1600 memory after upgrading my processor. After upgrading to 1045T processor, WIN experinece memory score with old DDR-1333 GSkill value ram - 4 sticks of 2GB was 7.5. After upgrading to DDR-1600 - 2 sticks of 4GB, my WIN Experience score dropped to 7.4. Go figure?

Timings on new DDR-1600 memory is recommended 9-9-9-24. Ran two passes of memtest 1.4 w/o errors. Everest benchmark scores in range of other test scores I have seen for DDR-1600.

So why the drop in WIN experience scores

[DonZ]

I will also add that the BIOS SDP and Auto settings for this DDR-1600 memory shows timings of 11-11-11-27. The 9-9-9-24 timings show as settings for 667Mhz on all utilities I have run including the old DDR-1333 memory I had installed.

[Tradesman]

WEI, to be quite honest is a joke, it doesn't tell you how well the DRAM actually rates but is based on total DRAM, number of sticks, base freq and a number of other factors grouped together in some mis-mash of different scenarios, that being said, it will more than likely go up when set correctly, with AMD you'll need to set up the sticks to 1600 manually, can find a couple of options you can use here:

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=7688

[DonZ]

I did set the BIOS memory multiplier to 8 from 6.66 to achieve the 1600 speed. As said previously, current timing is 9-9-9-24. System is rock stable so far. However, really haven't seen(felt) system is more responsive that when running the DDR-1333 memory.

Per your link eference, other recommendation is set this memory to DDR-1333 with 8-8-8-24 timing. Statement made is that performance is equal to DDR-1600 setting. If so, is this not a safer way to go since max. memory bus speed on all Phonem II processors is 1333 Mhz?

Is 1T setting possible and stable with DDR-1333 and 8-8-8-24 timing settings? I know the big jump in memory performance is going from 2T to 1T.

[Tradesman]

Performance should be NEAR the same as 1600 with 1333 and the tigter timings, the 1600 still has a higher higher bandwidth. And yes if you can go 1T vs 2T it will also help performance. May take a bit more voltage to DRAM or MC

[DonZ]

Thanks, for the advice. Will try this out sometime this week.

I did come across this link: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1616408 which if I had read prior to purchasing this DDR-1600, would have never done so. Appears the general consensus is the performance "bump" from 1333 to 1600 is negligible

[Tradesman]

Really depends on what you do, it can 'show' more in memory intensive use and Benchmarks, though the difference is a bit less than with an Intel CPU that has a much stronger MC (memory controller), keep us updated

[DonZ]

Set memory back to DDR-1333 with 8-8-8-24 2T timings.

Reran Everest benchmarks. Results are somewhat of a "mixed bag." Read speed was most affected and dropped 600; or approx. 6% from 8800 to 8200. Write speed increased and copy speed stayed about the same. Latency dropped 4 and tops anything from all canned Everest bencjmark scores.

PC does "feel" a bit faster.

Bottom line - I concur that DRR-1333 setting with tighter timings gives approx. performance of DDR-1600 setting at 9-9-9-24 setting. When I get time, I will experiement with changing command rate from 2T to 1T which should really perk up feel. Also running at DDR-1333 is within memory controller spec.

If I had to do it again, I would just keep the old DDR-1333 value ram which I believe are a hell of a deal. However for price and performance, these DDR-1600 Ripjaws are a good buy. At least now I can upgrade to 16 GB if I choose to.

[Tradesman]

Can try 1T, could also try 7-8-8-24 with a bit more DRAM and CPU/NB voltage

[DonZ]

Currently running as DDR-1333 at 8-8-8-24 1T. Everything is much snapper now that I went to 1T. PC stable as a rock so far. No change in other BIOS settings.

I have a question on what my other memory timings should be?

Below is what these current settings are on my PC and what SPD shows for 8-8-8-21 settings. I can't find any BIOS setting for FAW so I eliminated it. Also note the 160 setting for RFC. Appears that is totally out of line.

SPD RC=30 RFC=98 RRD=4 WR=10 WTR=5 RTP=5
@ 8-8-8-21

My PC RC=32 RFC=160? RRD=5 WR=12 WTR=6 RTP=6
@ 8-8-8-24

[Tradesman]

At the lower freq can try dropping the tRFC slowly (maybe 10-15 at a time) while maintaining stability. That timing can vary a fair amount from mobo to mobo and how they have the BIOS set up. Taking it a little high can set the stability and then gradually lower to hit the sweet spot.

[DonZ]

Oh, well.

Next lower RFC seting was 110 on this GA-870-UD3 board. It also appears to be the default setting since the two unpopulated dimm slots show that speed. Anyway when set to 110, I immediately blue screened booting into WIN 7.

I thought going from 160 to 110 was pushing it.

So leave as is?

[Tradesman]

Yep, should be fine