Ram slot placement question

Fadardo

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Jun 10, 2007
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On the 3dmark site top scorers put the ram sticks in the 1st and 3rd slot, I heard that disables dualchannel capabilities...

Is that so they are farther apart and can be cooled better?

I usually have my ram in the same PAIR of slots eg(#1 & #2) or (#3 & #4)
 

ryderOCZ

Senior member
Feb 2, 2005
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The slots that enable Dual Channel will vary from board to board.

Typically if all 4 slots are all spaced the same distance apart, then slots 1 and 2 will be Dual Channel and will be marked accordingly (same color, although some MSI boards do not color them the same color).
If the slots are grouped into 2 pairs separated by a larger gap, then 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 are Dual Channel and will be colored accordingly.

Do you follow what I mean?

The top benchers are always going Dual Channel, it adds performance and score.
 

Fadardo

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Jun 10, 2007
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I follow what you are saying... so the particular mobos the top benchers have allowes them to go dual channel by inserting the ramsticks into the #1st and #3rd slot?

I'm guessing mine isn't capable of that.
For me the 1st and 2nd slots are both orange & close together. And the 3rd and 4th slots are both purple and close together.

For about the last month I have had the ram sticks in the 1st and 3rd slots, since I upped my voltage a bit and raise my memory speed 85mhz to 885mhz
I thought the space between the sticks would help them not overheat.

But I'm guessing I'm disabling dual channeling by doing that?

Hey thanks for your help BTW :)
 

ryderOCZ

Senior member
Feb 2, 2005
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Open CPU-z, select the memory tab, does it say Dual or Single Channel in the upper right corner?
Get CPU-z here: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

From your description, yes you are disabling Dual Channel, but as I said, some MSI boards you put the ram in 2 different color slots.

The system will also tell you Single or Dual at boot (displayed in the text on the screen)
 

Fadardo

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Jun 10, 2007
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Well according to cpu-z I'm in dual channel mode.

I'm just wondering cuz been getting some pretty crappy scores on certain tests on CPUMARK.

Compared to some of the built in baselines on CPUMARK i'm slower on the CPU integer test by a factor of 2.5x compared to a core2 e6700 @ 2.66ghz.

In crysis my fps are ~15 on veryhigh settings @1650x1080 compared to some people with weaker systems (eg.8800gt @stock) getting 25-30fps average at the same settings.
 

gingerstewart55

Senior member
Sep 12, 2007
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The quickest way to find out what your motherboard manufacturer, like ryder said, is to READ your manual for your motherboard.

I actually did just that for your motherboard, your MSI P965 Platinum, and just like on many Gigabyte boards, color means nothing. On your board, according to the board's user's manual in Chapter 2, page 7, headed Hardware Setup, subheading Memory (who'd have thought they'd actually hide the information under something as obtuse at that?), Dual-Channel: Channel A in GREEN; Channel B in ORANGE....and that means you put one stick in a green slot, either slot 1 or slot 2, and then your matching stick in an orange slot, either slot 3 or slot 4, depending upon whether you are using slot #1 or slot #2 in the green.

So, if you use green slot #1, use orange #3 (counting from the top green slot downward)...or if you are using green slot #2, use orange slot #4 for dual channel function.

Putting your ram into both green slots or both orange slots does not give you dual channel function on your particular board, despite what cpu-z is telling you.


Follow the link below to download your user's manual, since you seem to not have one:
(I figure if you did have a user's manual for your board, you'd already know the answer to your question about RAM and slot population.)

http://global.msi.com.tw/index...incat_no=1&prod_no=266
 

Fadardo

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Jun 10, 2007
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Thank ginger, yeah I think my mobo manual was thrown out by accident a while ago, I have been searching Hi and low for it to no avail.

Thanks again for the link, I emailed the MSI techsupport months ago asking where I could get a new manual and they never replied back.
 

brencat

Platinum Member
Feb 26, 2007
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Fadardo, a couple of other things to check:

- Do you have the most up to date bios for your board?
- What brand, timings, and vDIMM are you using for your RAM?
- Have you ever run memtest86 to make sure your RAM is error free?

Reason I asked about timings is that some MSI mobos are finicky with RAM settings and tend to be less tweak friendly than other manufacturers.
 

Fadardo

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Jun 10, 2007
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NoI don't have the lastest bios, I downloaded the bios updater and when trying to udate I get an error message.

I am using somewhat cheap 2x1GB OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum rev.2 (rated at 4-4-4-4-15 but I loosened the timings to 5-5-5-5-15 so I could overclock it further to 885mhz 1.90v(+0.10v over stock)

I've run memtest86 on these current settings when booting from a Ubuntu install CD on 4 different occasions for about 8 hours each time.

Only once the 1st time did I get an error in a certain area of the memory, but I never was able to recreate the error again.

I've never encountered any problems with the videogames I play such as Crysis.
 

Fadardo

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Jun 10, 2007
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Originally posted by: brencat
Reason I asked about timings is that some MSI mobos are finicky with RAM settings and tend
to be less tweak friendly than other manufacturers.

Damn it... why did Tom's Hardware review of the board say it was great for overclocking and give it a gold editors choice award? Why wouldn't they bother mentioning reliablitily issues when overclocking memory?....

Payola?