RAM causing stuttering?

[Poseign]

/This post relates to model #F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH.

I recently built a rig using this RAM kit, and at first everything seemed okay, until I decided to test multiplayer gaming.

In all games that I have tested, my computer experiences a microstudder/choppy movement. Everything is fine when standing still in game, but as soon as I move my mouse the stutter/choppiness shows itself. However, this does not happen in single player modes of any of the games.


The reason I'm coming to you with this is I swapped out the GSKILL sticks with two older 2gb OCZ sticks I had laying around from a previous build, and switching out the sticks seemed to have eliminated most of the issue. Is it possible that one or both of the sticks could be defective, however only so much that it causes a stutter like this under this specific circumstance? I just find it funny that a RAM swap fixed an issue like that.


MEMTEST Didn't show any issues with memory after 2 cycles. nor did prime 95 after almost 8hrs of testing.

GFX is not the issue here. I am running a GeForce GTX580 (and have tried swapping this out for an older 260 that I know works) and this issue presents itself regardless of graphics settings.

Im running an ASUS P8z68 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel i7 2600k processor, and the above kit. I have tried running the GSKILL ram at both stock and Overclocked speeds under the XMP settings with the same results.

Any advice would be helpful, I'd like to weigh in all my options before requesting an RMA, it's too close to BF3 beta :P

[Tradesman]

Do you have the latest BIOS? Also might look to run Memtest on each stick individually to see if either is bad.

[GSKILL TECH]

XMP should work, so sounds like you'll need to send them in for RMA.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Poseign]

I have not tried the latest bios yet, that's what I'm intending on doing when I get home tonight. I don't like updating BIOS so i was saving that for last.

I just find it weird that RAM could cause a problem like that. Granted, I work with computer hardware all the time at my job and I've seen RAM be the issue for a lot of funky things...

[Tradesman]

Thing with newer mobos, like Z68, is they are often rushed to market to gain market share, so BIOS updates are often soon to follow, especially to correct DRAM issues (and w/ the Z68 - video and SSD)

[Poseign]

True, I was also figuring if the BIOS not being updated was the issue, somewhere out there in Google-land someone would have posted about roughly the same problem, however I havent seen much of anything out there about RAM being the culprit. Who knows, I guess I'll know in a few hours!

[~LL~]

Given you've increased your RAM from 4GB to 8GB and with high capacity modules you may need to increase your QPI/DRAM (QPI/VTT)voltage a notch or two.

[Poseign]

hmm I could try this as well, the only thing about that is what GSKILL TECH had to say about XMP settings and how they should work regardless, and they dont seem to be, at least not on the 3d graphics side of things.

[~LL~]

hmm I could try this as well, the only thing about that is what GSKILL TECH had to say about XMP settings and how they should work regardless, and they dont seem to be, at least not on the 3d graphics side of things.

If you are using manual settings for your voltages it's probably all the more reason why you should increase your QPI/DRAM(QPI/VTT), being the memory controller both your RAM and your Graphics are making high demands on it. Just make sure that when you adjust your QPI/VTT voltage that you keep it within 0.5V of your VDIMM.

Putting your memory into XMP will not adjust your QPI/VTT volatge.

I'm not an expert here but do know as I increase both oc's on either my CPU or my HD6970's I have to increase my QPI/VTT.

With 16GB of ram on board I had my 2 cards oc'd to 1000/1510 and CPU at 5.205GHz last night and required a QPI/VTT of 1.22v to get rid of the microstutter when running 3dMark11. At 4GHz my QPI is at 1.16v

I hope this helps.