Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UDP5 & G.Skill F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH - UPDATE

[Stu ST200]

Hi all, I have looked for my other posts on this issue but they seem to be lost amongst all the others somewhere and I know this information is going to be of some use to quite a few of you with the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UDP5 motherboard and in particular the G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH memory so I thought I would drop a new one here, hope thats ok.

After building my new system consisting of the mentioned motherboard and memory I was rather annoyed to find the the memory would not run at the stated 7-7-7-24-2T speeds @ 1600Mhz so I contacted and contacted Gigabyte with this information and rasied the issue 3-4 times as I wanted something sorted, well I think they have done it!

I have just updated my bios to the latest beta bios on their site, the F8C dated 2009/11/03 for the GA-MA790FXT-UDP5 motherboard, now I waited a while as this didn't mention anything to do with the memory issues being addressed, but I thought I'd check it out anyway ... and to my surprise I am sitting here typing this with my memort running at 7-7-7-24-2T @ 1600Mhz ... I am well happy, finally it is operating at the speed it was designed to, well done Gigabyte!

So if you have this board and memory combination it might be worth updating your bios as it has certainly solved the issue for me

Stu

[GSKILL TECH]

Thank you for the update. Glad to hear another BIOS has been revised to accomodate CL7 for AMD platforms. Hopefully other motherboards will continue to follow.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[rthaney]

You are the Man Stu

I had forgotten about this and had relagated myself to mear CL8. It makes a world of difference.

Also you can disable or enable two of the cores now. Not sure why they did this.

Thanks Again.

[Stu ST200]

Also you can disable or enable two of the cores now. Not sure why they did this.

Thanks Again.

Oh I never spotted that setting, are they all enabled by default?

Stu

[deanlewandowski]

Im having a (somewhat) similar issue.
Ive got the Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H motherboard.
Using the Ripjaw F3-1200CL7-2GBRM memory.
I can not get the RAM to run at 800Mhz on any timings.
Motherboard automatically detects them as DDR3-1333 RAM and gets errors on any settings I have tried as DDR-1600.

Im running the most recent BIOS f4b available on the Gigabyte site.
Have contacted them but not gotten any reply.
If anyone can help with this it is greatly appreciated.

[rthaney]

Mine were not. When I ran Prime 95 it showed only two cores running but my CPU meter showed 100%. I checked CPUz and there were only tow cores there. I went into the BIOS and had to enable them again.

Better check. Go to the ACC settings and you will see what I mean.

[Stu ST200]

After I updated the bios the first thing I did was apply optimal settings, that gives in my opinions a good base to work from.

I checked my cores and all 4 were enabled so no issues there at all.

deanlewandowski, the only thing I can say really after my experience with this ram is that it is more than likely a bios issue, this certainly was the case for myself and rthaney.

Without a bios supporting the RAM at 1600Mhz @ CL7 you have VERY LITTLE chance of getting it to work, try some other settings such as 8-7-7-24-2T @ 1600Mhz, if that doesn't work, then loosen the timings even more so.

With a bios not supporting CL7 @ 1600Mhz to get as close to this is then a matter of trial and error but with the help of this site and so on you'll get there.

Stu

[deanlewandowski]

Ive tried 8-7-7-24-2T @ 1600Mhz
8-8-8-24-2T
8-7-6-15
7-7-7-18
7-7-7-24
7-7-7-20
8-7-7-24

and a few other timings that I saw discussed on other boards.
None have worked so far...

[Stu ST200]

Ive tried 8-7-7-24-2T @ 1600Mhz
8-8-8-24-2T
8-7-6-15
7-7-7-18
7-7-7-24
7-7-7-20
8-7-7-24

and a few other timings that I saw discussed on other boards.
None have worked so far...

You might have to loosen your timings a little more so much as 9-7-7-24 or even 9-8-8-24, try changing to CL9, also what voltage are you running the ram at, it will work at looser timings at 1.60v but I'd put it at 1.65v which is the stated running voltage for these modules.

Stu

[Stu ST200]

rthaney, what timings do you have you RAM set at out of interest?

Mine is currently running no problem at the following:

7
7
7
24
2T
5T
110ns
110ns
110ns
110ns
10T
5T
33T
4T

That is all @ 1600Mhz @ 1.65v and as smooth as, are yours any different as I'm just curious about the settings after the last 110ns.

Stu

[deanlewandowski]

9-7-7-24
and
9-8-8-24
both fail to boot at 1.65v

[Stu ST200]

Ok, how about trying 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1600Mhz @ 1.65v ... see how you get on with that one.

Although I have read somewhere that the Phenom's are better with a lower memory speed and tighter timings than a higher clock and looser timings.

I know that is no help towards sorting your issues out which I am pretty certain is a bios related one however if you are not able to get it running at 1600Mhz it is something to consider if you find you can't operate above 1333Mhz.

Stu

[deanlewandowski]

9-9-9-24 wont boot
tried 10-9-9-24 that wont boot either...
Im starting to think that there is no way to get this to run at 1600Mhz...

Idk if i should return this RAM?
Im going to see what I can find about your suggestion of lower seed/tighter timings.
I can run this at 1333Mhz 7-8-7-24 but idk if that is better performance than 1600Mhz 9-something...

[Stu ST200]

How many sticks of RAM are you running? If you are running 2 sticks have you tried just one of them at the various timings, then taken it out and replaced it with the other stick as one could be defective? If not this is something to try, its a nuisance I know but sometimes the only way to find out if there are faults with a particular stick.

Also have you tried them in the other DIMM slots?

Stu

[deanlewandowski]

ok so 1 stick will boot into Windows at the 800Mhz setting before I get a BSOD.
The other will not pass the POST at 800Mhz in any slot.

Does this mean one stick is malfunctioning?