Athlon X2 and dualchannel

[Philippart]

Does an Athlon X2 processor support 4 identical Ram in dual channel without any loss in performance? Or can I only run them in single channel or at DDR333?
Thanks

 

[hennethannun]

sounds like a motherboard problem. what is your system board brand and model. I know that MSI s939 boards can't run 4 sticks of dual-channel RAM at DDR 400...

 

[PingSpike]

Newer Athlon processors (all of the dual cores?) can run dual channel ddr400 with 4 memory sticks because the on die memory controller has been improved. However, you almost always have to run 2t instead of 1t in this configuration, which has a small impact on performance.

 

[Philippart]

it's a MSI socket 939 nforce 3 250gb (K8N Neo2 Platinum)

 

[Furen]

As long as your motherboard supports it you will run at DDR 400 (X2s are rev Es, after all). You will need 2T command rate, though, which is a 1-3% performance penalty (worth it if you're doubling your RAM capacity, IMO). If your motherboard does not support DDR400 on 4 slots you may still be able to set it manually.

 

[hennethannun]

all of the 90nm AMd cores can handle 4 sticks of DDR400, Winchester, San Diego, Venice, Windsor, Toledo etc. so your processor can defnitely handle it.

sounds like the MSI board it the problem. you should double check the manual to confirm it, but i am 90% positive that the MSI boards won't run 4 sticks of DDR 400 in dual channel UNLESS the sticks are single sided (which most ram modules aren't)

 

[Alch]

anybody know if a DFI LanParty UT can run 4 sticks?

 

[Furen]

Originally posted by: hennethannun
all of the 90nm AMd cores can handle 4 sticks of DDR400, Winchester, San Diego, Venice, Windsor, Toledo etc. so your processor can defnitely handle it.

sounds like the MSI board it the problem. you should double check the manual to confirm it, but i am 90% positive that the MSI boards won't run 4 sticks of DDR 400 in dual channel UNLESS the sticks are single sided (which most ram modules aren't)

Winchester can't, actually (but this does not apply to him). Also, there's NO PROBLEM YET, he's asking if its possible to run 4 DIMMs in dual-channel DDR 400 mode.

 

[Philippart]

the manual says that it only supports 4 sticks in ddr333, however the manual was written when the board did´t even support venices and x2s. the support of those cpus was only added by bios update.

but the memory controller is in the cpu, does the board matter?

 

[gobucks]

i think it should support 4 single-sided sticks at DDR400 @ 1T, or 4 dual-sided sticks of DDR400 @ 2T.

In most cases, the board shouldn't matter because the controller is on-chip. unless the board is buggy in its memory support, which i suppose is possible, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[Alch]

ok, thanks for the feedback on the DFI board.

 

[Pederv]

Originally posted by: Philippart
it's a MSI socket 939 nforce 3 250gb (K8N Neo2 Platinum)

Theoretically it's all in the CPU. When I put my system together last year, with a 3800, I didn't want to take the chance and just picked up 2-1GB sticks.

 

[formulav8]

There is a DFI board that CAN run 4x double-sided sticks of memory at 1T Timings. IT is the only one I am aware of that is tweaked for that.


Jason

 

[aka1nas]

The Neo 2 can handle 4 sticks @DDR400 with a Revision E K8 chip. You will have to set it manually IIRC as the board isn't smart enough to know that it can do so. You will NOT be able to run a 1T command rate with 4 sticks though.