Really Bad RAM Performance

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bobafett573

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ok i have been having a horrible time with RAM performance. I have 1gb of RAM in my computer right now (2 x 256mb PNY Optimum PC2700 RAM and 1 x 512mb forget the brand PC3200 RAM). I play a lot of RAM intensive MMORPG games like Star Wars Galaxies and Planetside. I got the extra 512mb stick of RAM about a month ago in hopes of boosting my lacking performance in these games. As I was talking to people that had a gig of RAM, they were saying how they had all the options turned up to the highest and how great of a framerate they were getting blah blah blah. I always asked for their specs and everything and usually mine were the same, if not better. I have been distraught over why i got such bad performance. I ALWAYS virus scan and adware scan at least once a week, if not more. I defrag a lot and do proper maintenance and nothing ever turns up wrong. Then today I was curious about RAM timings, as I was thinking of purchasing some nice Corsair XMS memory to see if that would make a difference. I checked my BIOS and here is what I saw for my stats:
Memory CLK: 200Mhz
CAS Latency: 3.0
DRAM RAS TO CAS Delay: 3 CLK
DRAM Active Time: 8 CLK
DRAM RAS PRECHANGE Time: 3 CLK
I know that 3-3-3-8 is pretty good timing but when I saw my memory clk speed, I was shocked! I know that the RAM will only go as fast as the slowest stick, which in this case was 333Mhz, but it didn't even come close to that! I borrowed another 512mb PC3200 stick from my other computer (so i had 2 x 512mb PC3200 sticks) and I consulted my motherboard manual and made sure that I had my DIMMs set up in the right slots and everything checked out perfect except my memory clk was still 200Mhz. I have no idea how to fix it. My computer stats are in my sig if you need 'em. Also, there were 2 other options in my BIOS in the RAM section that i'm not sure if they would help. The two options are:
1T/2T Timing: Auto
Master ECC Enable: Disabled
I'm not sure if either of those 2 options would affect performance or not. Plz someone help me with this problem!
 
That 200MHz actually means 400 dude since it's Double Data Rate and all you gotta multiply it by 2........soooo oddly enough your PC2700 is running at DDR400 speeds I guess.

Download CPU-Z and see what it says under the memory tab, if it still says frequency is 200MHz then yeah it definitely is running DDR400 speeds.

3-3-3-8 is valueRAM timings so really it's not 'pretty good' it's just at valueRAM specs although I have seen someone on here post some geil valueRAM specs at like 2.5-4-4-8 which REALLY sucks........

Anywho, you really aren't going to notice a difference going from 3-3-3-8 to 2-2-2-5 timings.

High performance RAM is only worth the price because they can be overclocked to high hell....soooo if you want to dive into overclocking then by all means go for it, but chances are you aren't going to notice a huge increase in speed just from that.

Make sure your RAM is indeed being read as 1gb, CPU-Z will tell you that and of course simply right clicking on my computer and going to properties would tell you too, just incase. I've had sticks in there before and I had to reseat it so it'd notice it all.

if anything just grab abother 512mb valueRAM stick of PC3200 in there and you should be good to go.

use memtest86+ to test and make sure your RAM isnt giving you errors either by the way
 
Ditto to exactly what nubius said

The "DUAL DATA RATE" means 200 * 2, info sent on every rise and peak of a cycle, comapred to "SINGLE DATA" (SD" it is sent on every rise
 
uh-oh guys. here's what my CPU-Z said about my computer. It seems to say it's only single-channeled and at 167.5Mhz! I need a little more help!
ram.png
 
Yeah it's single channel for 2 reasons

K8N-E is single channel

You need 2 or 4 pairs of the same size ram for dual channel
 
woo woo woo slow up here. so what is it really being clocked at? am i at 333Mhz or 167.5Mhz? since it is DDR RAM, I assume the number is doubled. i know it's not dual channeled but it is DDR. am i right on this? so are my RAM speeds working correctly?
 
you'll never see exact numbers, but yes it's showing the actual frequency before being doubled. 166 = 333 = PC2700 so your RAM is running at what it should.

As chris pointed out, dual channel is only when using two sticks of the same size and make (before you other people starting whining) Yes you can sometimes get lucky and have two different sticks of same speeds and latencies and get dual channel two.

Sometimes you can run 2x256 in slots 1 and 2 and then an identicle 512 in slot 3 and sometimes obtain dual channel.

Chris says your board doesn't even support dual channel but even if it did 2x256 of PC2700 and 1 stick of 512 PC3200 isn't gonna run Dual channel that's for sure.

Your system looks fine to me, but that PC2700 is more than likely whats holding you back the most thus far, especially considering your CPU is meant for pc3200.
 
bobafett573 said:
woo woo woo slow up here. so what is it really being clocked at? am i at 333Mhz or 167.5Mhz? since it is DDR RAM, I assume the number is doubled.

You are "clocked" at 167.5 MHz. Similarly, DDR400 is clocked at 200 MHz. Personally, I hate this convention. But, the design gurus at the semiconductor companies wanted this, so who are we to argue :) Hope it wasn't the damn marketting people :mad: ..

This is how the #'s work. I'll take DDR400 for example:
The ACTUAL clock rate = 200 MHz
"Effective clock rate" = 400 MHz

The "Effective clock rate" exists b/c DDR transfers stuff both on the rising and falling edges of the clock. This is in contrast to normal memory whch transfers stuff only on the rising edge - or falling edge depending on your point of view.

I haven't read the DDR spec yet. So I can't tell you more about "DDR" than from a "computer mechanic" viewpoint - as opposed to a design viewpoint. If you'd like, one question to research on would be, why they didn't just double the original normal clock rate and not have this "rising/falling edge" crap. And adjust the CPU multipliers accordingly of course.

Personally, I hate the "Effective clock rate" # as it just depends on the type of RAM - DDR in this case. It's so much easier for me to know the ACTUAL clock rate of 200 MHz for example.
 
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