RAM speed missing on P4G8X

I just got a P4 2.66GHZ(SL6EH) to replace the 2.8GHZ i had...

and I switched from Abit to Asus P4G8X for dual channel.

i just noticed that in the BIOS there is nothing about actual RAM speed or ratio with CPU. and......now the WCPUID's memory speed second is empty, that's something I've never seen before. So now I don't even know what exectly the memory speed is...(well with Abit's CPU : RAM ratio, everything is very clearly)

I threw in 2 x 512MB Corsair PC3200 with dual channel set up. well now the FSB is 156MHZ, cannot go higher.

after doing some tests, I found when I took one stick out, on PCmark2002 it gives me only 6100 points on RAM, then put back in 1 stick as dual channel it gives around 7300 points on memory. CPU scores are the same, both around 7600 points...
see dual channel set up here
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm=1231532
(ignore the video card, my 9700Pro is still on RMA)

that's strange...

take a look at the resault of my P4 2.8GHZ with 1 stick of DDR433 running at around 400MHZ speed
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm=1049442

that's 3 : 4 ratio with 152FSB, which memory was running at a little above 400MHZ(152MHZ / 3 x 4 x 2)


after all, it shows with the same 156FSB on P4G8X, dual channel set up gives 1200 more points than single channel DDR.
but how come on BD7II, with only 400MHZ memory speed, it can get a score of 7586 points on memory which is higher than the dual set up.(without the BISO clearly showing, even it's running at PC2100 speed, dual channel set up should give 2x speed in theroy which should be something around 533MHZ bandwidth.
unless it's using PC1600....so dual channel should be 100MHZ x 2 x 2 which about the same as the other one...

who can explain that? and help me point out the actual memory speed on P4G8X I am running.

as i metioned before, now the dual channel set up system is on 156FSB, memory timing 2-3-3-5-16T- turbo (no ratio or anything clear like abit's mobos)

(another little thing, PCmark always read 50MHZ less on CPU speed before with Abit boards, now it reads 70MHZ less on P4G8X)

the problem you are having is that the ram simply isn't running fast enough. bandwidth is all nice and good but ram running at 156mhz (x2) simply cant compete in gaming with ram running 200mhz (x2)

the bigtime gain with bandwidth is when you are doing long processes. gaming is always changing so the memory hits are quick and different. chewing on a divx file for 4 hours is where the dual channel will really show up.

if the memory speed is 1 : 1 to FSB, then isn't dual channel DDR should be 156MHZ x 4?

that's a problem of P4G8X, there is no option of 3:4 or 3:5 ratio like Abit BD7II and BE7 have. as I mentioned in the first message, there is nothing can show me the real memory speed on this board...not even WCPUID can...it just show blank there

There is definately something off, as switching from single channel to dual channel should have a much better affect on memory scores.

Run Sandra mem bandwidth test with 1 stick and then 2, and post your results.

I dont know much about how the p4 chipset utilizes the 128-bit bandwidth, but if you get those scores and tell me some info on the chipset name, some specs, ect, I can try to help out. I know DDR very well.

It could just be that the chipset sucks, I know Maximum PC's reviews and benches on them were terrible. They said they were expecting much much more from the dualDDR chipset.

the board is Asus P4G8X, got it with $197

i am running the tests you want now. brb

ok the tests are done...if we just simply compare 1 stick to 2 sticks dual on this system, then we may think everything is ok....or at least normal on this system. but if compare to the other system i had with 1 stick...

check them out
1. 156FSB single channel DDR with [email protected] on Asus P4G8X
6129 memory score on PCmark

2. 156FSB dual channel DDR with [email protected] on Asus P4G8X
7451 memory score on PCmark


3. 150FSB 3:4(CPU : RAM) ratio single channel DDR with [email protected] on Abit BD7II
7586 memory score on PCmark


so, if we just look at the Sandra resault of the first 2, that on the same system dual channel DDR gets much higher score than single channel DDR.

BUT, if we use the dual channel compare to the other system I had which was only single channel, how can we explain this? is the other system doing extremly well, or the dual channel rig is doing extremly poor? Both Sandra and PCmark2002 shows the other system has very close score to my new dual channel set up.

.....

so what's the big idea? hope you guys understand what I am talking about

also note the third test which is the system I had before with [email protected] with 3:4 ratio, that RAM speed is 405MHZ(152FSB x 4/3 x 2)

another set up I had was [email protected], 3:4 ratio as well, which 150FSB x 4/3 x 2 = 400MHZ DDR

so these two set up should have very similar memory score, but the second one gives me 6679 memory score on PCmark

what makes such big difference( about 1000 points) while they are 405MHZ : 400MHZ?

all these tests don't make sense while compare them all together

well I flashed a tweak BIOS which fixed the memory timing. Now here is the resault of running on 160FSB with 2-2-2-5-16T timing. It improved over 600 points on memory score in PCmark2002 by just 4MHZ FSB increase and fast memory timing. It's not a bad score any more...still not impressive enough compare to someone's nearly 10,000 memory mark I saw a few days ago.

Also I still don't understand why the [email protected] got so much higher memory score and bandwidth than [email protected] while both have very very close FSB.

And the link to the tweaked bios is where???

here you go

There is no need for flash utilite, because for Asus P4G8X, when the system boots, just press "Alt + F2", it will lead you to flash BIOS.