How do I speed up my memory bandwidth? (Essential when play Q3 or UT online)

[NucleusWDS]

How do I speed up my memory bandwidth? (Essential when play Q3 or UT online)

I currently have 2 x 128Mb PC133 Cas2
Sandra Pro 2000 only reports 370/390 ... any Tweaks available?

 

[Zeeliv]

Need more info, like your mobo.

The biggest changes are gonna come from settings in your BIOS.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Hmm memory bandwith has nothing to do with playing online.

 

[NucleusWDS]

Yes !! ... memory bandwith has everything to do with play Q3 and UT online ...
Cos most of the game is loaded on RAM ... however if you're unfortunate to only have 64Mb ram then your virutal memory kicks in (horibble S-L-O-W disk access !!!)
I have 256Mb PC133 SDRAM ... and I can tell you it does make a difference !!!

Currently my Asus A7V motherboard died ... the AGP port was going ... so,
I got myself a Soltek SL-75 KV+ ... BRILLIANT board

 

[fkloster]

I know one way to speed up memory bandwidth...

 

[Electric Amish]

Check out the bios of that board. There should be someway to set the RAM bus speed to 133. DO THAT!


Also, run CAS2, if possible.

Check the bios and see if you can do ram 4-way interleaving. Do that!

These are all things on my Abit KA7 motherboard.

457/532 are my memory marks in Sisoft Sandra using an Athlon classic at 740mhz...

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

I'm interested about this too because I get only 286/302 in Sandra2001.

 

[Electric Amish]

thEnEuRoMancER-

With your Abit KT7 you should have those settings I listed in the bios.

Set Ram speed to HstClk+PCI Clk (this is 133mhz)

Set timing to CAS 2

Set all ram slots to "Turbo"

Turn on 4-way Interleaving.
Mine went from this...To this

amish

 

[Imported]

Wouldn't overclocking work?

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

Amish, setting Ram speed to HstClk+PCI Clk causes major instability in Windows. With one of the configurations I somehow succeeded to run the memory test and get scores over 400 (over 30% boost), but then the 3D2000 test crashed the computer after 10 sec of testing.
Also, I can't find in BIOS any settings for CAS 2 timing. Setting RAM slots to anythin but 8/10 ns or Turbo doesn't get BIOS past memory count.
Any suggestions?

 

[Electric Amish]

Sounds like you don't have PC133 SDRAM. Take the opportunity now if you have $125 usd to get 256mb of decent PC133 SDRAM, or atleast 128mb for $60.

The CAS timing for the RAM is called something different in the bios like RAM Timing or something, I can't recall...

amish

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

Hmm, the computer store charged me for PC133 RAM and put a 'warranty void if removed' label over one screw so I can't really open the box and check the RAM. Is there a way to get information about RAM by using some software?

 

[Electric Amish]

I'm not sure if there is anyway without physically looking at it. Maybe someone else here knows...

Sorry.

amish

 

[ruckb]

Hi,

the only way to check the memory is to readout the SPD EEPROM. the German c't hat a big memory test in some of the last issues, that showed, that there is a lot of crap out there. They have written a utility to readout the SPD. All other utilitys I have seen so far where Intel based. I do not know about this one. But it decodes the information out of the SPD and gives good information.

the tool should be english too.

the download page is german, but you should be able do find the link named "Download ctspd.zip"

With this tool you can see how the manufacterer spec the DRAM. This are the slowest settings you shlould be able to run. You have to try whether you can use faster settings.

Bye

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

After setting DRAM clock to HstClk+PCI Clk and turning on 4 way DRAM bank interleave the system seems to be stable @ 399/475. This is quite an improvement and I better knock on wood the system doesn't crash.

ruckb, thank you for the information, the software says RAM seems to be PC133 after all.

Edit: sh!t, IE is crashing

 

[ruckb]

You found the tool ?

somehow i forgot the link ;-)

http://www.heise.de/ct/ftp/ctspd.shtml

and before saying "system is stable" try some memorytests like memtest86 or goldmem maybe with a little bit higher temp, to be sure to have some margins!


ruckb

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Hmm the fact that virtual memory kicks in has absolutely nothing to do with memory bandwith. Yes if you have 64 megs it will kick in but thats because you dont have enough ram it has nothing to do with bandwith.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Setting the memory to Turbo changes several different timing options. If your memory is generic PC133 and CAS3, then you may not be able to use Turbo. Try FAST or whatever the lower options are. Also you may try setting it to Turbo but use CAS3 settings (this may be listed as CL timing, CL clock, CAS latency, some other things, the manual should tell you). Or try setting it to CAS2 but with the lower memory timings like FAST or standard. Of course the only way to find out what works best is to reboot after making a SINGLE change (never make multiple changes between tests) and run your benchmark programs, then figure out which one worked best for you.

Interleaving is one of the single best ways of increasing performance. However with a single sided 64MB DIMM it's unlikely that you'll be able to turn on any kind of interleaving (you need either two modules or a double-sided module I think, and most 64MB dimm's are single sided).

Of course, as has been mentioned, the bandwidth may increase performance slightly, but more than likely not enough to notice, as the use of virtual memory will kill the increase from bandwidth. At the most you might get somewhat better looking graphics.

Pricewatch has had 256MB generic PC133 for 82 dollars all week. It is generic CAS3, but it's PC133, and more memory is what you need. You'll see a huge performance gain from that, and you may not want to pay for higher quality if you're low on cash.

 

[ruckb]

Hi Lord Evermore,

I had already seveal discussions, what the interleaving option of the VIA chipsets is doing. My conclusion was, that it is doing an interleaving of the 4 chip banks, and not of the DIMM banks. This would mean, that it is possible to activate interleaving on a single bank 64M module.
One of the guys here had tried the different interleaving optiones on a single bank DIMM and got somehow different bandwith resulsts!
NucleusWDS can you try this again and post the results ?

It is some time ago, so therefore I would have to check again if you want to discuss this topic!

ruckb

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

Explanation of the interleave mode, taken from the BIOS optimization guide

SDRAM Bank Interleave

Options : 2-Bank, 4-Bank, Disabled

This feature enables you to set the interleave mode of the SDRAM interface. Interleaving allows banks of SDRAM to alternate their refresh and access cycles. One bank will undergo its refresh cycle while another is being accessed. This improves performance of the SDRAM by masking its refresh time of each bank.

Each SDRAM DIMM consists of either 2 banks or 4 banks. 2-bank SDRAM DIMMs use 16Mbit SDRAM chips and are usually 32MB or less in size. 4-bank SDRAM DIMMs, on the other hand, usually use 64Mbit SDRAM chips though the SDRAM density may be up to 256Mbit per chip. All SDRAM DIMMs of at least 64MB in size or greater are 4-banked in nature.

If you are using a single 2-bank SDRAM DIMM, set this feature to 2-Bank. But if you have two 2-bank SDRAM DIMMs, you can use 4-Bank as well. If you are using 4-bank SDRAM DIMMs, you can set either 2-Bank or 4-Bank interleave.

Naturally, 4-bank interleave is better than 2-bank interleave so if possible, set it to 4-Bank. Use 2-Bank only if you are using a single 2-bank SDRAM DIMM. Note, however, that Award (now part of Phoenix Technologies) recommends that SDRAM bank interleaving be disabled if 16Mbit SDRAM DIMMs are used.

 

[ruckb]

HI,

thanks for the information.

This says, that first will be used the Chip banks, and that DIMM banks can be used too. As today normally 64M chips are used you can always activate 4bank interleave.
But then you can not do an additional DIMM bank interleave, what would be possible if you have the same kind of DIMMs in every slot!

I still have problems with the exact explanation.

The chipsets are arranging normally the linear address space in a way, that they are filling up the DRAM first down a Row (page mode). When the page is full, the next overflow is causing a switch to the next Chip bank. It depends how many banks you can open at the same time, to decide which kind of interleaving you can do.

As I know the datasheets from different chipsets i know only ONE chipset, that is using the CS addresses (DIMM bank addresses) as next higher address (after the chip bank addresses). But this is not the VIA chipset. For the VIA chipset I remember the option to set the interleaving mode, but I found no information, that this is having any influence on the addressing.

Maybe somebody has some usefull thoughts?

bye

ruckb

 

[Technonut]

Sandra 2001 Pro benchmarks:

T-Bird 800
Multiplier @ 850
FSB 112/37 + 1 = 113 FSB
RAM @ 150MHz (137 + 13 Host CLK + PCI CLK = 150MHz CAS2 Turbo)
WCPUID....962MHz

I removed 2 128MB sticks of my Mosel Vitelic PC133 (exactly the same as Mushkin High Performance Rev.2) leaving 1 128MB stick in DIMM slot 1.

All benchmarks conducted with a fresh reboot for each test, and all running programs shut down except for the one ran with all 3 sticks in. Some background programs were running then. I will test again to see if it goes higher.

Single 128MB stick in DIMM 1 (150MHz CAS2 Turbo)

Interleave Disabled....448/502

2 Way Interleave.......494/566

4 Way Interleave.......520/626

With all 3 128MB sticks installed with 4 way Interleave: 544/641

EDIT: Running the benchmark with all background programs closed with all 3 sticks was about the same as above. I really did not have much running in the background the first time to make a difference I guess.

 

[ruckb]

Hi Technonut

interesting results!

right now I do not know exactly how to interpret this, and before thinking about it I would have one question:
Is the 128M stick a one or two bank DIMM?
I don't think that you have x4 Devices on it so, if you have 8 (or 9) memory chips on it you have a 128MB DIMM based on 128Mb chips with one bank. If there are 16 (18) chips on it you have one based on 64Mb chips with 2 banks!
But I think you know this already ;-)

ruckb

 

[Technonut]

Quoted from the Mosel Vitelic tech doc:

High Performance 143/133/125 MHz
3.3 Volt 8M X 8 SDRAM
4 Banks X 2Mbit X 8

Operating the four memory banks in an interleaved fashion allows random access operation to occur at higher rate than is possible with standard DRAMS. A sequential and gapless data rate of up to 143 MHz (150MHz in my case, confirmed stable by many burn in loops of DocMemory)is possible depending on burst length, CAS latency and speed grade of the device.

 

[NucleusWDS]

How Do I enable this 4-way interleave ?