RAM help pls!

[whc.demo]

Hi, I dont know much about ram and have a few questions

i currently have

s478 3.4E HT 800fsb
gigabyte ga-8ig1000pro-g
x800xt
2 x 512mb ddr400 in dual channel (value/generic ram?)

firstly what is a good app to benchmark ram??

secondly i have noticed that when i lower my latencies from 3-3-3-8 to 2.5-3-3-7 that my bandwidth gets slightly lower according to RMMA (Right mark memory analysis) does that sound right?

what are the benefits of lower latencies?? and would the benefit of lower latencies outweigh the slight loss of bandwidth?

and then in the gigabyte BIOS in the hidden options it has a few tweaks for ram again, particularly being MIB(memory intelligence booster) psb parking, fast chip select and another option i cant remember without rebooting and having a look

anyway i enabled these tweaks and the ram timings are the same but the Read latency in RMMA has dropped quit a bit, and bandwidth has dropped again with the exception of READ bandwidth which actually got a fair boost

here are my results from RMMA with ram at 3-3-3-8 and all the gigabyte mobo memory enhancments turned on, i have no idea if this good, bad or average....


Synthetic tests:

Real read bandwidth - Average 5249 - Maximum 6091 MB/s
Real write bandwidth- Average 1907 - Maximum 4248 MB/s

Read latency - Average 49 - Minimum 47 - Maximum 68 ns

Performance tests:

Real RAM bandwidth - Average 2635 - Maximum 2979 MB/s


so is that good or bad for ddr400 in dual channel??

should i try to lower the latencies more or should i try get more bandwidth?

cheers

 

[Deleted member 3]

The maximum theoretical bandwidth for DDR400 is 3.2GB/s (hence PC3200), dual channel would be 6.4GB/s. So we can conclude that your scores are good

Lower latencies should actually increase bandwidth. Are the modules rated at lower latencies?

 

[whc.demo]

thanks for the swift reply

im unsure if they are rated at lower latencies... lol

but in the spd chart it states "supported CAS# 2 , 2.5 , 3 (is that what you mean?)


i just ran another test at 2.5-3-3-7 with the gigabyte mobo featues turned on and this is what i got..


Synthetic tests:

Real read bandwidth - Average 5259 - Maximum 6151 MB/s
Real write bandwidth- Average 1845 - Maximum 4272 MB/s

Read latency - Average 49 - Minimum 46 - Maximum 57 ns

Performance tests:

Real RAM bandwidth - Average 2835 - Maximum 3193 MB/s

so lowering the latencies from 3-3-3-8 to 2.5-3-37 did slightly increase bandwith and dropped the read latency by 11

so i guess ill leave it how it is now, 2.5-3-3-7 with the gigabyte options ON

ill run a stability test and see how it goes


in theory should this configuration have quicker load times than at default 3-3-3-8?