2T or not 2T, that is question?

[gvguy39]

I have 2 questions:

1) Command Rate... options 1T and 2T, which is better and why?

2) CL and timing? which is better and why?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010170147%201052430325%201052315794&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=N82E16820227293%2CN82E16820227336

Both are the same brand with remarkably different CL and timing.
Reaper CL 6 timing 6-6-6-20
Fatal1ty CL 9 timing 9-9-9-20 (cost 50% more???)
For the sake of argument, let's ignore the high heatsink of the reaper, I know that it might not fit with some CPU heatsink combinations.

[Rich'[ard]]

1) 2T or not 2T is usually decided by looking at your kit's size. 2gb or smaller kits usually use 1T. 2T is used by 4gb kits etc. i don't actually know what it does.
sometimes you see 2gb kits using 2T to keep a stable OC.

2) CL is just the first timing. as you can see the Reapers have CL6, which is the first number of 6-6-6-20
the lower the timings, the better. out of the Reapers and Fatal1ty you listed, the Reapers are wayy faster. CL 6 means your ram takes 6ms for the memory controller to tell the memory module to do something.

i'm guessing the Fatal1ty's are so expensive purely because they wanna rip you off...because of it's name. that's about it. i don't see why they'd be worth more than the Reapers (which are very good kits).
the Fatal1ty has that 'professional gaming' and 'used by Jason waht's his name' tag to it but everybody knows it's bs :santa:

[gvguy39]

Thanks for the quick reply... that's what I was thinking on both ?'s. Why would you spend more for higher timings? Plus, $26 price difference is about 1/3 of a 1TB harddrive!

[NovoRei]

;6157737"] CL 6 means your ram takes 6ms for the memory controller to tell the memory module to do something.


Hopefully our processors and memory are ghz and not some hertz, lol. CL6 would be 6 clocks of memory to do something.

Hijacking the topic, CL6 would have an better PL on 775, more bandwidth. Does 1366 is affected somehow or doesn't matter?

[Bobnova]

1T gives each command a single clock cycle to be understood in ram.
2T leaves each signal on for two clock cycles, to give a stronger signal that is more easily detected by the ram.

As such, compared to 2T, 1T is the same as having all your timings one clock shorter (4cas instead of 5cas, etc).

[Rich'[ard]]

As such, compared to 2T, 1T is the same as having all your timings one clock shorter (4cas instead of 5cas, etc).

whoa, now THAT is interesting! never knew that. :)

before i just thought smaller kits could use 1T while larger kits used 2T just for the sake of it, and for stabilty.

[freeagent]

thats pretty neat.. when i was on amd, i used to use 1t. its interesting that they use 1t for 2gb kits, and 2 for 4. what happens if you have 4gb and run it on 1t? those 1366 guys also like their 1t timeing i think.. i have the option in my bios, but it doesnt work heh.

[Bobnova]

It's a duration of signal thing, giving the signal 2 clocks makes it stronger and easier for the ram to detect.

[Rich'[ard]]

thats pretty neat.. when i was on amd, i used to use 1t. its interesting that they use 1t for 2gb kits, and 2 for 4. what happens if you have 4gb and run it on 1t? those 1366 guys also like their 1t timeing i think.. i have the option in my bios, but it doesnt work heh.
i think you can, as long as your normal timings aren't all that tight, and you pump heaps of voltage through your kit.

i've seem some review sites test the max bandwidth of some 2gb kits by loosening to 2T timings. i think you can get more MHz outta your 2gb kit if you use 2T timings...but i dunno what effect that has on performance.

[Cuiiey]

well more mhz would certainly help with Overclocking!

[Blazing fire]

You may wish to read this up: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/AMD/memory/131/2


Command Rate: Also called CPC (Command Per Clock). The amount of time in cycles when the chip select is executed and the commands can be issued. The lower (1T) the faster the performance, but 2T is used to maintain system stability. On Intel based machines, 1T is always used where the number of banks per channel are limited to 4.


Getting stable with 1T is quite hard, especially with your 4GB RAM. Most of the time, it requires you to change a lot of settings to be stable.