Curious about CAS 2 on MSI K7T Pro 2-A

[John]

<< However it is a Beta BIOS so you have to use at your own risk. I believe it will always be a Beta version because they are disabling 4-way interleave in overclocked condition on purpose for a reason, instability problems >>



Mushkintechs, I don't think I follow your train of thought. I am using a MSI Pro2 w/ V1.0B14 bios. I set the memory timing to SPD, 108MHZ FSB, and SANDRA reports 144MHz (133+8=142 though) w/ 4-way interleave.

 

[office boy]

John, Just FYI, it'd not +33Mhz, it's +33% so 108*1.33=143.64, or 144.

 

[Guilty]

That beta only enables 4way interleaving when you set the RAM timing to be read by the SPD, so those of us with older REV2 set to 333 can not use have both CAS2 and 4way interleaving. As stated, hopefully we will get a BIOS update that allows for manual forcing of interleaving and timings. I dont see what you mean by disabling 4-way for stability, it's a standard feature among KT133 boards and widly used without problems. I wonder if you mix a stick of REV2 set to 333 and REV2 set to 222, the bios would force both to 222? And enable 4way interleaving since you are letting it go by SPD? I want to add a second stick but crippling both because one is programmed to 333 is a waste.

 

[John]

office boy, thank you.

 

[MushkinTechs]

<< Mushkintechs, I don't think I follow your train of thought. I am using a MSI Pro2 w/ V1.0B14 bios. I set the memory timing to SPD, 108MHZ FSB, and SANDRA reports 144MHz (133+8=142 though) w/ 4-way interleave. >>



My train of thought is that I've noticed motherboards manufacturers disabling performance enhancement features such as 4-way interleave in overclocked conditions. For example, the highly acclaimed ASUS CUSL2 will set the memory latency timings to 3-3-3 even if the module is programmed for 2-2-2 at speeds above 140MHz. My belief is that they're disabling features like 4-way interleave in overclocked condition without notifying the user on purpose for a reason, instability problems or they want to make there motherboards more overclockable.

If you manually set the SPD timings without overclocking, does 4-way interleave still get disabled?

Another question, If someone has a 2-2-2 module installed on the MSI K7T Pro 2(-A), does it automatically rever to 3-3-3 at certain speeds?



<< I dont see what you mean by disabling 4-way for stability, it's a standard feature among KT133 boards and widly used without problems. >>



Apparently some motherboard manufacturers are having problems with the SDRAM Bank Interleave option because quite a few are disabling it at certain speeds or if the memory latencies are programmed manually. This has all become a huge mess and while sometimes a module programmed for 2-2-2 will help you avoid these wierd motherboard quirks like the MSI K7T PRO 2(-A) has, other times it won't. That's why I asked those two questions above.



<< I wonder if you mix a stick of REV2 set to 333 and REV2 set to 222, the bios would force both to 222? >>



I don't believe this will work but I don't know any of the rules on how the BIOS goes about reading the SPD.