A64 3000+ 90nm Help!!!!!

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

Hi, I'm building a PC for a friend, he was looking into something new and cheap and that it was easily upgradeable in the future, he doesnt do much gaming, it's just to work office stuff. I got him the following:

Athlon 64 3000+ 90nm 939
Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
Corsair Value Select 256MBx2 DDR400
Hitachi 160GB SATA
ASUS V9400 64MB Geforce4 MX4000
Antec SmartPower 350W

The PROBLEM is the computer is stable, but I ran Sandra and I got like around 2000 for the memory bandwidth and like around 6000 for the CPU Multimedia Benchmark. The PC is runing on Dual Channel and 400MHz, it has all the latest drivers. Also on Super Pi 1M it does it on 1.54 mins, I'm all confused because those numbers are so extreme for this kind of computer.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!

Osirus · Nov 12, 2004

Damn, thats hella slow.
are you SURE the memory is running in dual channel?
Those are numbers of Single Channel.

Just to give you an idea - in Sandra I hit 7gb bandwidth and 91% efficency.

I dont know what chipset the board is, but are you sure you are using the latest drivers from there site?

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

Yes, and the Board is Nforce3 Ultra, and when I turn on the PC it says Dual Channel Enabled, so I dont really know whats happening

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

also it has the latest bios too, everything is so weird

Osirus · Nov 12, 2004

Are you using the nforce drivers from nvidia? the latest ones? (just to make sure)

did you try to swap the memory around?

Did you try the other slots on the board?

hitechjb1 · Nov 12, 2004

Download CPUID, or CPU-Z, or GCPUID and to find out what frequencies the CPU, memory, HTT (FSB) are running.

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

Ok I got everything you asked

CPU ID
201.0MHz, CPU/9.0, 2.5, 3,8,11,16
Channels Dual

Sandra
2314/2274
Bandwitdh Efficiency 36%

I downloaded all the drivers just now out of Nvidia's Website.

I didnt try switching the memory, and I first try the other two slots and I kept getting the blue screen so I had to switched to the first 2 slots.

One thing that I'm curious, I installed NFSU 2 and I started playing it and It didnt give me any problems and it wasnt slow either.

I hope this info helps at all.

Osirus · Nov 12, 2004

your timings are 2.5-3-8-11?

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

yes that is what CPU ID shows

Osirus · Nov 12, 2004

those are really loose timings, can you try 2.5-4-4-7 ?

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

Ok I try that CPU ID posts 2.5,4,4,7,11,16, ran sandra again and I got 2234/2197 35% efficiency

do you think I should change something else, or maybe push the RAM more?

another thing on the bios I got this options in the timings and it has the following values

Cas latency
trc
trfc
trcd
trrd
tras
trp
twr
twrt
trwt
tref
enable 2t timings is right now Auto

should I change some of the other values too? and should I push the ram to lower timings? thanks by the way

hitechjb1 · Nov 12, 2004

It looks like somehow you are getting single channel bandwidth performance for a dual channel CPU/motherboard, hence such a low memory bandwidth efficiency (under 40%).

The bandwidth efficiency should be about 90% for 939 (dual channel) and 95% for 754 (single channel) running 1T. Even with 2T, those efficiency numbers should be above 70%.

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

Yeah I assumed that somehow the memory is not runing dual channel the problem is that it says it does, but what can I do to solve that problem, I ran PCMark04 and Aquamark to see what I could get

PCMark04 1490
CPU 1528
Memory 2090
Graphics 604
HDD 3188

Aquamark3 Triscore 1024x768x32 AAoff Aniso 4x Details Very High
GFX 423
CPU 4242

I hope those numbers help, I appreciate all your help, thanks, if you have a clue of whats happening let me know, the computer is stable I've been playing NFSU 2 for around 6 hours and no problems at all.

AEsnowboarding · Nov 12, 2004

Try enabling 1T for your ram. Made a huge difference for me.

Osirus · Nov 12, 2004

I dont think 1T will make that much of a difference, he cant even run in dual channel.

Xchus · Nov 12, 2004

ok I have try everything, different timings, switching slots, lowering the HTT and nothing I keep getting 36% efficiency, the computer posts as Dual Channel when the computer turns on, also I was looking at nvsystemutility and the voltage of the CPU goes up and down between .9V to 1.55V I dont know if that is normal, the other thing is that it doesn't show any voltage for the RAM, and like I say the computer is stable I've been playing NFSU 2 for hours non-stop, but I'm worried about the low values for the cpu and memory on Sandra, should I return the memory? or the CPU? or the mobo? or everything?

thanks.

hitechjb1 · Nov 12, 2004

Have you disabled the Cool and Quiet in the bios? If not, try that.

Such a VDD fluctuation points to the CPU is switching between low power and regular states.

Xchus · Nov 13, 2004

Ok i got some more information, I ran memtest86 and did 1 pass i got 0 errors but the interesting part is that memtest gives me the following information

Memtest86 3.2
Athlon 64 1808MHz
L1 128K 14820 MB/s
L2 512K 3682 MB/s
Memory 512MB 1963MB/s
Chipset Nforce3 250
RAM 200MHz DDR 401 CAS 2.5-3-3-9 Dual Channel (128 bits)

Maybe the problem is that the mobo post as a Nforce3 250 and that is a single channel mobo, I dont know if it makes sense or not, but thats the only thing it makes sense until now, well just with the memory because the CPU scores are too low too on Sandra but I doubt it has something to do with the memory or does it?

I also try disabling the CPU Throttle, and Disabling 2T timings, I guess if I disable it should work on 1T right? I couldnt find the Cool n Quiet on the BIOS and the computer still shows fluctuations in the CPU voltage

I got nothing yet, computer still stable.

I appreciate all your help, thanks.

Osirus · Nov 13, 2004

the s939 chips have the dual channel support enabled. I'm almost positive its not a nForce3 250 board. how many ram slots do you have?
If it has 4, its a dual channel board,
If it has 3, its a single channel board.

hitechjb1 · Nov 13, 2004

Sure your CPU is a 939 and motherboard is a Nforce3 Ultra dual channel.

Also memory is not the problem, regardless whether it is running 1T or 2T.

Somehow your system is running at low power state and low CPU frequency, hence low CPU score, low memory bandwidth, wild swing in VDD. Look for Cool and Quiet and disable it to make it runs in regular power state. Check your CPU frequency using CPUID, CPU-Z or GCPUID.

A64 3000+ 90nm Help!!!!!

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