RAM stability

Hey its skept!k,
I have a couple question about RAM and stability. I read and looked for a fast stable RAM that I could use on my winchester 3500+ build (abit AV8 mobo) with a 6800 GT, antec treu 480W psu, 74GB raptor.
I wanted it to be fast and stable and what I came up with was the Corsair XMS xtra low latency model (2X512) at 2-2-2-5 timings. I am not overclocked right now and I can run anything without a crash except guild wars and CS:S. What happens when I play most games is my CPU usage goes up to 100% and I'm thinkin its because my RAM is not there to take any of the responsiblity....I don't know I can't decide...The other issue is in prime 95 it halts after nearly a few minutes and I can't get it to run any further. 3dmark01se,03, and 05 are all ok and do not have any crashing issues. I have stable voltages as I'm not currently overclocked, but I wanna be able to get stable at stock timings in EVERYTHING before I OC. Also I believe that this RAM is TCCD, and I was wodnering if AMD based systems and my mobo have any problems with that. Besides that what would you recomend or think is wrong with my problem?

Also if I am looking to upgrade my RAM anyways, to 2GB because its gettin so cheap for what its worth. I'd like to know if you think its the RAM and also what you would recomend upgrading to for my system.

edit: apparently my RAM is TCCD this is the exact product, except when I bought it they came packaged with two: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145520

Thanks,
Skept!k

I have that same memory.

it's fair.

back off the timing to like 2-2-2-8 & try again.

Give MemTest a run too.

will do I'm going to try it now

What happens when I play most games is my CPU usage goes up to 100% and I'm thinkin its because my RAM is not there to take any of the responsiblity....

Click to expand...

Your CPU useage going to 100% when you run your games is completley normal, more memory won't change that. So long as your games are running smoothly and stably, you're all good in that respect .

Also if I am looking to upgrade my RAM anyways, to 2GB because its gettin so cheap for what its worth. I'd like to know if you think its the RAM and also what you would recomend upgrading to for my system.

Click to expand...

I would stick to your Gigabyte of RAM for now, 2 Gigs is serious overkill for gaming, and will also make overclocking more difficult. I don't want to say it's a waste of money, but since it will adversely affect memory overclocking, and not do too much for performance, I would stick with what you've got right now.

The other issue is in prime 95 it halts after nearly a few minutes and I can't get it to run any further. 3dmark01se,03, and 05 are all ok and do not have any crashing issues.

Click to expand...

Does Prime95 give you an error message, or a warning message? What is your CPU Vcore voltage set to, and are you using the stock AMD aircooler? What is your CPU temperature, under a workload (Prime95, or one of your games for example)?

Your memory should run and overclock just fine with that motherboard and processor, I find it unlikely that the memory is the source of the problem. To be safe however, you might want to run through memtest86 on your computer. It is a fairly thorough memory stress tester, and an excellent tool to use both when overclocking your memory, and testing for memory/memory subsystem stability.

You can download memtest86 here: http://www.memtest.org/

And HERE is a set of guidelines on stability testing that I wrote, there's a section in the second post about how to use memtest86 and Prime95 to their maximum effectiveness .

Ya
Thanks for the collaboration, i ran memtest86 and went through one pass with 10 errors, all of the errors were on test #5 if that means anything....
Any more ideas as to what may be my problem....
Ill post exactly what prime95 says to me when it halts

What vdimm are you running? I had to raise my default 2.6v to 2.7v so my ocz tccd would run 2-2-2-5 correctly at stock fsb.

ya, mine was running 2.7 so i upped to 2.8 and everything seems to be good now, I think

Im gonna run some tests overnight I'll post back tomorrow

More RAM won't reduce your CPU usuage becuase it can't do the same thing as the CPU. However, if you you're a serious RAM hog (like me) it will reduce swapfile usage. I doubt you need 2GB right now though. If you do, you'll notice the disk running while your games stutter or grind to a halt. That's windows swapping memory to the pagefile.

I know more RAM won't reduce my usage i was wondering is non TCCD RAM would be good.....

Anywho! I got evenything working and my RAM is running 2-2-2-5 at 2.8V .
Also, I ran 2 passes of memtest86 w/o any errors and 3dmark01se is still running flawlessly.

Thanks everyone who contributed
Skept!k

skept!k said:

I know more RAM won't reduce my usage i was wondering is non TCCD RAM would be good.....

Anywho! I got evenything working and my RAM is running 2-2-2-5 at 2.8V .
Also, I ran 2 passes of memtest86 w/o any errors and 3dmark01se is still running flawlessly.

Thanks everyone who contributed
Skept!k

Click to expand...

I would go for 12 hours of memtesting, just to be sure. But, I am one of those people that swear behind prime/memtesting.