ASUS A7V333: What is the RAM 'Optimal/Turbo' setting in the BIOS and why can't my system take it?

[theNEOone]

Running 2100+ and a corsair pc2700 512 XMS module. when I change the setting to Turbo, the comp blue screens before it gets into Windows. From what I hear the corsair should be able to handle turbo, it's supposedly one of the best ddr333 modules available. anyone know if this turbo setting has anything to do with increasing the voltage to the ram? i do know that asus has the voltage set pretty high as it is, but that there's a way to decrease it via jumpers, and maybe still get the benefit of turbo while increasing stability.

 

[IRJack]

Have you tried to run your ram at 266 in turbo mode? I'm running an A7V333 with 256mb pc2100 from Crucial and so far have no problems at 266 turbo. Not sure, but you may be able to manually set your ram timings too.

 

[theNEOone]

i have the timing set to 2-2-2-5. well, i don't really want to run the ram at 266, that would totally defeat the purpose of my buying ddr333 ram. would the perfomance gain from the turbo setting really warrant me running at 266?!?

 

[theNEOone]

i think i see the problem...corsair specifices the my module as being capable of 2-3-3-5 timing. i'm pushing it as it is. i think i'm asking too much when i push it to turbo. anyone know which will give me better performance?

turbo and 2-3-3-5
or
no turbo 2-2-2-5

 

[mechBgon]

Try 2226 with 1T Command at Auto. Also refer to onelin0's excellent writeup here, he delved into the memory timings thoroughly. This should also give a feel for what kind of performance increases to expect from DDR333 over DDR266.

Also, what video card do you have? You may want to try disabling UCSW mode, since it's one of the things enabled when you switch to Turbo. Put it back to UC and see if that helps. My own rig, for instance, will not boot to Windows if UCSW is enabled because my video card doesn't support it.

 

[theNEOone]

i don't know what ucsw is, but i'm running a ti4600. i'm guessing the card supports it, but who knows...

thx for the link. i'm running through it now.

 

[IRJack]

What theNEOone said. I'm running in turbo mode with a Gainward GF3, but didn't check the UC/UCSW. If it enables when you go to turbo mode, I'm apparently running in it. I thought UCSW was supposed to be some sort of cache-mode, but what does it do for you? Better performance?

 

[mechBgon]

I can't make heads or tails of what UCSW actually does... best guess from its name is that it's some kind of speculative pre-access thing. Both of your video cards are nice modern stuff and so that's probably not the problem in your cases. My TNT2 Vanta is fine for office work, but it's too old to do UCSW, I guess.

 

[onelin]

hey! almost missed seeing this thread I've done even more investigating (esp since I think I took down my chart with all the setting lists that did/did not boot windows from my post) and I think I have some better answers... to know for sure I need to test it out myself ...hopefully by mid afternoon/early evening PST. Net access is limited out here...

in the mean time, the best timings I got (as listed in the post I think) were 2-3-3-5 2T (auto) w/ the 4:5 divider (333mhz mem) & turbo settings... timings were done MANUALLY but like I said, it still makes a noticeable diff (200 3dmarks or somethin?)

also check this out, 'cuz it's important and may be the cause of the timings not running stable. You can search for other posts also, I couldn't dig up the exact one but I think the RAM guy himself may have said it also...
if you took off your JP1/JP2 on this board, I found this at Corsair's support boards saying to keep it on! They also have an excellent replacement policy direct from them... worth a look though:
link apparently the Lostcircuits & Mushkin pages aren't the best settings for ALL memory, just some. There's a thread or two about people thinking it's misinformation... I'll be testing it out myself so sit tight if you don't feel like it

 

[theNEOone]

you da man onelino.....
i haven't tried 2-3-3-5 w/ turbo, but on 2-2-2-5 i can't get into windows. i'll try your settings when i get home from work.
as for removing jp1 and jp2, i can tell you that it's not a good idea from my experience. i thought that maybe the turbo option juiced up the voltage to the ddr, so that with the high voltages already supplied by ASUS, it would put the module over the top and cause instabilty. i removed both jumpers to drop the voltage, turned on the turbo option and ended up with more problems than i wanted to deal with. even in optimal, i got tons of blue screens. so, with this in mind...DO NOT REMOVE JP1 AND JP2 IF YOU HAVE THE CORSAIR PC2700 XMS MODULES. i don't know if this goes for other modules also. can only speak from what i've seen.

edit: you didn't do any 2-2-2-5 tests. i was under the impression that 2-2-2-5 is faster than 2-3-3-5, but then again i don't know s**t. any comment....

 

[onelin]

Hrrm, I will check my .txt files to see if I have any lying around, but if I didn't do any 2-2-2-5 benchmarks it's because 2-2-2-5 wouldn't complete any tests without crashing or not even make it into windows, as I think is the case. I had a 2-paragraph listing of all settings that wouldn't work, but I thought it was my mem after all this time so I removed it. (I also did the JP1/JP2 thing though, that's what I'll reset today) but yes it is faster and my goal (or at least it was). also, what is your Cpu/Memory divider? I can't see if you stated it, and rom my experience, AUTO is a bad idea...set it to 1:1 or 4:5, and not sure if my post said it, but 1:1 was actually less stable than using the Corsair at it's stock speed (vs underclocked, which seems odd). I'm going to post in the Corsair forum for some more ideas, too.

edit: duh by 2100+ you meant Athlon XP...
and you're most certainly right, 2-2-2-5 is faster than 2-3-3-5 ... the problem was that it wouldn't load windows and/or complete a single benchmark if it actually made it in.

 

[onelin]

I set my JP1 & JP2 back to stock settings and guess what?
boots up and benches sandra, runs q3 timedemos fine...
at 4:5 2-3-3-5 1T (exact spec) ! woo I'm going to try for 2-2-2-5 but if it won't do it (or 2-2-2-6 1T on auto, that's a very good idea mechBgon ) then I'm happy with spec.

a few numbers for ya over the 2-3-3-5 2T ones,
sandra
int 2021
float 1941

Q3 @ 1024 had an avg of 186.7 fps but keep in mind this is on the new 29.42's, not the older 28.32's I had to use in my past benches.

float goes up by about 30 points going from 2T to 1T, not that significant but the greater 'victory' is getting it to run at full spec after these weird jumpers. now for more tests... and honestly the bigger issue holding me back is NeverWinter Nights can't pull myself away... now to see if I can push this baby further (the Corsair guy in their forums seems to think these should do 2-2-2 even tho it's not official)

edit: well, 2-2-2 still doesn't want to work, be it 2-2-2-5, 2-2-2-6, 1T or not. I'm happy with how it is...for reference, I did get 2-2-2-5 1T to post in windows, but when I ran Sandra my mouse died and 3dmark poofed on execution, as well as a bluescreen when I tried to reboot...
all for these silly numbers:
int 2044
float 1958

once I bumped it back up to 2-3-3-5 1T (STABLE), I immediately got:
int 2026
float 1945

it's just not worth the hassle, these chips are tested to run at their verified high speeds and nothing higher Samsung 6ns would work better, but you still wouldn't see much gain without overclocking and/or unlocking your athlon to really utilize 166/333. As you can see, these are barely above the PC2100 scores, if even that. real-world gain isn't much... video drivers do me more good hope that helps

 

[mechBgon]

Wow, good work onelin0! I'm going to try that on my board. Now it has three 256Mb PC2100 Crucial modules at stock speeds (office system) and it was not liking my attempts to scoot up the timings, but maybe with the extra skosh of voltage... I'll give it a whirl, anyway. I ordered the modules using Crucial's configurator so there can be no question of whether they're approved for the A7V333 in particular. If I have problems... lifetime warranty, here I come!

 

[onelin]

thanks btw, when I re-read the LostCircuits page, doesn't the guy say that all DIMMS self-regulate to 1.8V anyway? and something along the lines of all the extra juice will do is help timings or something anyway ... least that's what I dug out. GL w/ those sticks! let me know if it works w/ those too...