Curious about best ram settings for FX-60

[R-T-B]

I've got an AMD FX-60 I recently aquired in place of my old Opteron 185 for a very fair price. I've gotten it up to 3.0Ghz stable using a 15x multiplier, 1.5 volts, and 200Mhz FSB, but I'm curious about how to best configure my ram. My ram is the stuff you see in my spec sheet. It's really low latency stuff 2-3-2-5 latency DDR400. That's what I have it at right now, but my windows experience index shows the ram bottlenecking me at 5.0. Would it help to run the ram at DDR500 speeds? I have to loosen the latencies to 3-3-3-8, but I get a better experience index. I hear that lower latencies are better on Socket 939 hardware. Is this true, and the Windows Index is misleading me? If so, please let me know.

Thanks in advance! Any other advice appreciated!

 

[panchoman]

generally, if i'm not mistaken, the general trend is that amd processors prefer tighter timings (lower latency) and intel cpus prefer higher speeds. What you want to do is use benchmarking software such as sisoft sandra to find the equillibrium in your ram between latency and speed so that you get the best performance.

 

[sneekypeet]

On average this is true, but I always found that 3-3-3-8 was better at 260-270MHz than a divider and tight timings at 200MHz.

The best ram for 939 is TCCD or BH5..because both can be made to run in the 240-250Mhz range , and be able to hanle the voltage to keep low latencies as well. Good luck finding it tho as most manufacturers no longer make either any longer!

 

[R-T-B]

On average this is true, but I always found that 3-3-3-8 was better at 260-270MHz than a divider and tight timings at 200MHz.

The best ram for 939 is TCCD or BH5..because both can be made to run in the 240-250Mhz range , and be able to hanle the voltage to keep low latencies as well. Good luck finding it tho as most manufacturers no longer make either any longer!

Better than this OCZ stuff I have? It's pretty sweet, or so I thought. I don't know if I can push it that far though.

 

[erocker]

You may even be able to run you RAM overclocked at 2.5 3-3-8. Don't use Windows Experience Index to measure anything, use a quality benchmark like 3dMark for better real-world results. Try 3 3-3-8 to be on the safer sider 1st though, and make sure you have plenty of airflow in your case.

 

[sneekypeet]

Better than this OCZ stuff I have? It's pretty sweet, or so I thought. I don't know if I can push it that far though.

your ram is enhanced latency?...I say OCZ made good DDR. it is possible you have good IC's. I agree you need active cooling to push ram to its fullest safely.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah it's Enhanced Latency, but I don't think I have the best overclocking motherboard. It's not bad, just not great. FSB overclocking seems to be it's weak spot, which is why I did a full multiplier overclock.

I'll give it a try though.

 

[sneekypeet]

is there a setting in ram speed setting where it can be set to boot at 225 or 250 when the bus is at 200Mhz? been too long since my 939 Abit.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah, you can. That's what I'm thinking of trying.

 

[R-T-B]

Ok, that works at 250Mhz. But am I really gaining anything since I didn't overclock my FSB in the least?

 

[sneekypeet]

run SuperPi 1.5 both ways and see the difference in 1M tests! You are gaining 100MHz and bandwidth!

 

[erocker]

I think you should increase the FSB to it's highest most stable setting as well, and adjust the memory divider accordingly. Just remember to lower the HTT link.