Is my PC133 RAM a bottleneck?

DesertSnake · Feb 20, 2003

Please see my setup below. I was wondering if upgrading to PC150 would let me increase the FSB any more; or, how do I tell if the memory is crashing at high FSB or the other devices. Right now, my system will boot with FSBs around 108-109, but when I run Prime95, i get an instant BSOD. Thanks.

Sn0rKy · Feb 20, 2003

the kt7-raid only supports pc133 i thought..

clash · Feb 20, 2003

umm, short answer.... YES

eobard · Feb 20, 2003

Ignore this, I had a suggestion that was based on inaccurate info. Garbage In, Garbage Out.

GotNoRice · Feb 20, 2003

errr... if you are talking about an FSB of 108-109, then you aren't even reaching pc133 speeds.

DesertSnake · Feb 20, 2003

GotNoRice said:
errr... if you are talking about an FSB of 108-109, then you aren't even reaching pc133 speeds.

Sorry, with my board, there is a memory speed option of FSB+PCI, so its 108+33 = 141, etc.

MarMacMan · Feb 20, 2003

That board was completely not designed to run an Athlon XP processor.

It doesn't even have the option of running the FSB at 133 MHz.

Faster RAM won't help one bit. If you could get your hands on a KT133A chipset based motherboard you could run the processor&RAM at 133MHz with a multiplier of 17.5 and have way better benchmarking results.

eobard · Feb 21, 2003

Parts of Abit's site say it's KT133, other places in their site state that it's KT133A. I don't have one myself, I'd like to know, which is it? Maybe my previous advice that I didn't give would have been useful afterall.

DesertSnake · Feb 21, 2003

MarMacMan said:
That board was completely not designed to run an Athlon XP processor.

It doesn't even have the option of running the FSB at 133 MHz.

Dude, that wasn't my question. I'm running an Athlon XP at 22x107, it works! What I want to know is: is my RAM causing me to crash when I up the FSB, or another component?

eobard Parts of Abit's site say it's KT133, other places in their site state that it's KT133A. I don't have one myself, I'd like to know, which is it? Maybe my previous advice that I didn't give would have been useful afterall.

It's a KT133.

Thanks

eobard · Feb 21, 2003

Ok. I suggest you lower the multiple (assuming it's unlocked) and up the FSB so that the total speed is the same. This'll help to eliminate the processor's top speed as the cause of the problem.

Also, most KT133 (non-A's) can't handle FSB speeds above about 110-112mhz. My motherboard has a max speed of 117mhz but the manual only documents up to 110mhz, I assume this is because anything above that is too unreliable to put in writing. If you board is crapping out at 108-109 it could be that your specific board has a reliability limit that just a few mhz lower than the average.

Also, have you tried lowering your timings for your memory?

DesertSnake · Feb 21, 2003

eobard said:
Ok. I suggest you lower the multiple (assuming it's unlocked) and up the FSB so that the total speed is the same. This'll help to eliminate the processor's top speed as the cause of the problem.

Also, most KT133 (non-A's) can't handle FSB speeds above about 110-112mhz. My motherboard has a max speed of 117mhz but the manual only documents up to 110mhz, I assume this is because anything above that is too unreliable to put in writing. If you board is crapping out at 108-109 it could be that your specific board has a reliability limit that just a few mhz lower than the average.

Also, have you tried lowering your timings for your memory?

My memory settings are at the slowest (Normal, cas3). How would I differentiate between the mobo and memory as the cause of the Prime95 crash. The system loads windows and can run IE, etc, but when I run Prime95, I get BSOD and reboot.

PS Neophyte in another thread is running his KT7 at FSB 118x19=2242!

eobard · Feb 21, 2003

Lower your clock multiple by one point, set your memory to = FSB instead of FSB+PCI then up your FSB to 110-115mhz and see if it runs stable. The drop in multiple will offset the increase in FSB, thus eliminating the CPU as a potential problem. The memory will be running much slower but the FSB will be running faster, if it crashes under these circumstances the you know it's not the memory, and the chipset is the limiter. If it does run then you know the chipset isn't the limiter, and the memory is probably responsible.

Papa_Legba · Feb 21, 2003

Sorry, with my board, there is a memory speed option of FSB+PCI, so its 108+33 = 141, etc

On the KT7 there is an option in the Softmenu where you set FSB and whatnot called DRAM Clock. This can be set to HostClock or HostClock+PCI. If you think your memory is holding you back, run just the HostClock. This will allow your memory to run in sync with the processor at 108. Then try upping the FSB. I don't think you'll go very far though since the KT7's KT133 chipset couldn't reach 133 FSB like it was supposed to. My KT7A-Raid can do 133 but not above since it's version 1.0. Fricken VIA.

EDIT: Well, eobard, you beat me to it, and you said it better

DesertSnake · Feb 21, 2003

Cool, thanks eobard and papa, I figured it would be something like that. Well, I'll try it tomorrow, I've booted this thing up enough for one day. :bang head

By the way, I did end up buying a 512MB Crucial pc133 cas 2. Hopefully I'll have all this figured out by then.

[xeno]neophyte · Feb 21, 2003

I raised the 3.3V to 3.4V and its given me more stability with my memory.

Is my PC133 RAM a bottleneck?

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