2-2-2-11 is faster

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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I was reading on amdmb.com about memory timings and saw that several people there were running 2-2-2-11 or at least the last digit was an 11. They said it was faster and the benchmarks backed it up. I gave it a try on my setup and it was true! I got an additional 50MB/sec read and 12MB/sec write @ 200mhz in AIDA.

EDIT: If this is old news to some of you 1337 people, sorry... but I'd only seen people bragging about 2-2-2-5 or 2-2-2-6.
 

sman789

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May 6, 2003
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the max(now slowest) timing i can put are 3-4-4-8
:(
i wish i could make my xms 2-3-3-11 on my ic7
 

lchyi

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May 1, 2003
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Hrmm, I'll go home tonight and try the tRas theory on my mobo, since I have maximum of 8 also, I'll check if our dinosaur motherboards (only a year old) benefit also.
 

pspada

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Dec 23, 2002
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11 is much slower than 8 on my box. UT 2003 get's jerky, too. I suspect the reason some see a performance improvement is due to the particular type of video card in the machine.
 

lchyi

Senior member
May 1, 2003
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That's strange, you won't visibly see the difference. They're just timings, you SiSandra scores might fluxuate about 40 points but that's it. If it gets jerky on you, you're having either stability issues or bad RAM, or something.
 

infinite012

Senior member
Apr 23, 2003
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Tras 11 should only apply to nforce2 chipsets. If you have a 865 or 875 board then ignore it as you will be slower (more than likely to happen, but I have no proof of it)
 

infinite012

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Apr 23, 2003
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Interesting...my computer got better when I set it to 11...but then again.......if it doesn't work for you then don't use it.
 

pspada

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Dec 23, 2002
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Originally posted by: lchyi
That's strange, you won't visibly see the difference. They're just timings, you SiSandra scores might fluxuate about 40 points but that's it. If it gets jerky on you, you're having either stability issues or bad RAM, or something.

My OCZ performance series will run at up to 494Mhz @ CL2, but is at 2-3-3-8 at 400Mhz
My 3000+ is running 11.5x200fsb
8RDA+
Ti 4600 running stock

Solid as a rock.

Change 8 to 11, performance dips. And there is readily visible frame drop running UT2003. No stability problems, just sucky performance.

Change 11 back to 8, everything is once again groovy.

Bad ram or stability problems? No, me thinks it's a stoopid setting of '11'.

 

rogue1979

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Mar 14, 2001
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I think the Tras timing at 11 is faster for the ram on an nForce2 chipset. If anyone has jerky or slower performance I think it is because the ram is actually unstable or unable to perform at the 11 settings. I had to lower my fsb down 4MHz when going from 8 to 11, but my computer is just as fast if not faster using the Tras 11 at a slower fsb.
 
Apr 17, 2003
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damn, i tried 11 again and i got to the windows screen where the blue bar is scrolling and it scrolled for about 2 minutes without going into windows
 

Overkiller

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Feb 22, 2003
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this has been discussed here recently. i forgot the exact reason but the setting of 11 makes it so that one part of ur RAM isn't faster thant he other. sometimes w. a setting of 2-2-2-5 or 2-2-2-6 one part is much faster than the other so a bottleneck sort of exists. the -11 setting helps to alleviate this in some systems..

once again. if it ain't broke...:p
 

pspada

Platinum Member
Dec 23, 2002
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Originally posted by: rogue1979
I think the Tras timing at 11 is faster for the ram on an nForce2 chipset. If anyone has jerky or slower performance I think it is because the ram is actually unstable or unable to perform at the 11 settings. I had to lower my fsb down 4MHz when going from 8 to 11, but my computer is just as fast if not faster using the Tras 11 at a slower fsb.

Yea, I'm sure that if I run my FSB at 100Mhz instead of 400Mhz that tras 11 would make my machine faster. However, I think I'll stay with the 400, thank you very much.

 

Fallengod

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
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Originally posted by: batmizang
yeah, the highest timings i can put are 3-4-4-8. :(

That sucks : /. Im in dual channel mode with my hyperx 3500 and can do 2-3-3-8 easy.
 

sman789

Banned
May 6, 2003
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Originally posted by: modempower
Originally posted by: batmizang
yeah, the highest timings i can put are 3-4-4-8. :(

That sucks : /. Im in dual channel mode with my hyperx 3500 and can do 2-3-3-8 easy.

no, we mean thats the max slowest we can do...mine are at 2-3-3-6

we are trying to get the 6 to 11 but cant
 

CuteHamster

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Jul 27, 2003
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i have corsairXMS 3500(3502v1.1), 2 sticks.

My normal overclock and memory timing@ 5-2-2-2(or 6-2-2-2) is about the same as 11-2-2-2. 11-2-2-2 setting gave me no improvement. The 3dmark score stayed the same. im using the nforce2 board.
 

Frazas

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Jun 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: wixt0r
AFAIK, this only happens with the nForce2 on synthetic benchmark.

I got better score in synthetic benches and real world apps (games in this case...)

Prime got an improvement of around 5%.
 

maluckey

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2003
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After almost two weeks of research, I'm of the opinion that it MAY be faster in the Nvidia boards to set tRAS to 11, BUT, on the Via boards, and maybe Intel boards, it does not necessarily apply, and sometimes hurts performance.

I see repeatable gains at lower settings on my Via board with faster settings, but a few reputable people have shown, that with Nvidia boards, slight, but repeatable gains, esp. in dual channel mode can be had by raising the tRAS settings.

Thats right! It's kind of an apology I'm making. Kinda not. I'm saying that with Via boards, don't go higher, and with Nvidia, which a certain poster used as the test rig, do.

 

pspada

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Dec 23, 2002
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My board is an nForce2 (8RDA+), and 11 makes my machine much slower. Of course, my ram is really good stuff, maybe 11 is a better setting for crappy ram?
 

beatle

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2001
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FWIW, I don't notice a giant difference in speeds. Board is an NF7-S v2.0.