amd's 990fxa mem channel ?

[walldow]

hey guys just upgraded to msi's gd80 v2 damn thing has a meen overclock got it to boot at 3125mhz nb/ht unstable but booted, runs great at 2800mhz nb/ht no glictchs or hickups wich is very nice over my ddr2 setup in sig below. anywho im having problems with my mem channel on the board it wants to boot in single channel mode? then i can hit restart in windows and when it roboots somtime its in duel channel mode then other times it stays in single channel! i always have to check in cpuz to see if its in single or duel channel which is a hastle. also noted when running sisoft sandra insingle channel mode im geting 12bg sec bandwith @85% eficiency and in duel channel mode im getting 17gb/s bandwith with like 59% eficiency?

amd 1100t, msi gd80v2, gskill ripjaws f3-17000cl9 2x4gb

 

[trents]

Is there a more recent bios that you could update with?

 

[walldow]

Is there a more recent bios that you could update with?

na it come loaded up with 11.9 -3/27/12 ive checked, no new updates as of yet? just wondering if maybe anyone else had a simal problem kinda odd to me thow. might get on msi's sight see if they have a forum pop the question there. just fustrating the board is actualy flawless sept for that. hoping its just a bios issue myself i passed up the v1 board because people were having problems with them and i figured the v2 would be worth the wait?

 

[RGone]

Have you checked to see if swapping memory slots will help? That would accomplish a reseat of the ram anyway. I had the hardest time getting brand new ram into the tight tight ram slots on my CHV board. Sounds like it could be a connection issue.

 

[walldow]

Have you checked to see if swapping memory slots will help? That would accomplish a reseat of the ram anyway. I had the hardest time getting brand new ram into the tight tight ram slots on my CHV board. Sounds like it could be a connection issue.

yes i gave that a shot still same thing. first boot is single channel mode sisoft sandra shows it as 8 gig like it should but shows it as bank 8-9. when i reboot and it goes into duel channel mode it shows it as 8 gig but it on banks 0-1 & 8-9 instead of just 8-9? also noticed when in bios it gives me the option of dram timing mode "link" - "unlink". in "link" mode it sets both moduels to the same timings but stays in single channle mode no matter what i do (rebooted 6 times and stays in single channel). only way i can get duel channel mode is to set dram timing mode to "unlink" and manualy set each modules timing then boot up into windows. on first boot its always single channle then reboot it goes to duel.

 

[RGone]

instead of just 8-9 =I don't see how it could show bank 8/9 with 4 sticks even the banks would only be possible to go to 6/7 as I understand it since they would start at 0. It is really acting strangely.

I would see if the ram is on the manufacturer's supported ram list as that could have some bearing on the situation with some ram.

I think I would also clock the ram down in bios and see if it is recognized accurately then. If the ram is 1.5V ram it will not hurt it to raise that voltage to 1.55 just to make sure there is if enough voltage there. If nothing helps, then it seems you have a bad board.

EDIT:
I just went back and read that last paragraph, you wrote, again and it surely seems like that board hates that ram.
END EDIT.

 

[bulldog1963]

11.12 is the most current bios. i have the same board.

You may be having memory problems because the board only takes up to 1600 NATIVE. you can OC to 2133. The CPU only is rated NATIVE DDR3-1333. I have found, that the max I can stick in the board is a 1600. I have an FX, which ALSO is 1333 max Native control. I can OC my 1600 running at 1333 up to 1600. Beyond that, kaput - BSOD for me because I wont screw with memory voltages. For higher speeds sticks you WILL have to fiddle with memory timings AND voltages until you get it to work. Theres a nifty guide to do this http://sites.amd.com/us/Documents/AMD_FX_Performance_Tuning_Guide.pdf.

Running in unganged mode is normal for that board (it is really designed for bulldozers), but your Phenoms can be chosen to go ganged or unganged via BIOS setting. It is there.
If you are are wondering about ganged (dual channel) not working, you need to MANUALLY set it in BIOS. This is not the LINKED -UNLINKED setting (this is for setting all your memory modifications exactly to all your sticks).

Finally, although I consider this obvious, the memory slots are color coded. Those of the same color and the lowest slot number (0) must be filled first and together to get ganged operation. Otherwise it will default to unganged.

 

[walldow]

k I'll try the newer bios thought I checked the sight the other day might have just over looked it n yes the dims are color coated got them in the 1 3 slot think also I'll set to ganged manually . think it's set to auto by default. ram is set to 1333 then oc to 1600. when I first got the board couple weeks ago I started at 1600 but couldn't get HT/NB over 2000 without crashing ! I was like wtf thought these things done 2600-3000. then I dropped here down to 1333 n clocked her up! the board really runs great have no problems running the phenom or the ram it's just the single channel vs duel. im sure it's somthing small gona do the bios tommarow. very nice stable board I'm very impressed with it. love the click bios so many options for the tweeker! and yes I said the linked unlinked is for seting timing on both dims sep or simotamiously. ht at 2800 now 24/7 got it up to 3125 but could do anything. really don't think it's a ram or board issue cause it's not crashing and it does run duel channel I just have to yank it around lol.

 

[bulldog1963]

you know it is an extremely capable board. the fact it lets you run sli or crossfire dual in (x16) both is nice. The mem native cap is obviously just there until they release later piledriver cpus which should handle faster memory than 1333 (oc 1600). Intel people bash the crap out of AMD, but when it comes down to it, AMD are innovators and Intel just finely tunes the tech that AMD comes up with. Sure Intel is faster, but it is nothing new. These MSI boards (and all the 990 chipsets as far as I know) are ready for the first of the Piledrivers next quarter. The intel people believe that putting a Piledriver into the board that runs phenoms and athlons and bulldozers is hampering the Piledriver, whenthe fact is the board was built to run the Piledriver, not the athlon.

I really like the board and the click-bios, but they gave up some features/controls when they moved away from the dos-based bios control screen to the graphics one.

If you put an FX CPU in the board, it disables ganging entirely. The bullzozer and other8(-ish) core/ 8-thread chips run better/faster/more efficiently unganged by design so they dont even let it be done (AMD's explanation, not mine).

To me the board will be around for a while. If I get bored with my gtx 480's SLI, i'l go to something single-slot and run 4x sli or 4x xfire.

 

[walldow]

ok i looked up ganged and unganged and this is the best depiction i could find,


It is amd's version of Nvidia's Locked vs unlocked architecture.

basically allowing you to use your ram in dual channel vs single channel.

Ganged = dual channel mode for ram. All cores get access to 100% of the ram.

unganged = single channel. Each core gets access to a stick of ram.

In theory, the unganged mode is better as each core will get access to data quicker. In theory.

Some limitations apply... and i dont know muchelse.

Edit: sorry, it also alows you to control the clocks indipendantly from eachother.



k the ram is set to dct mode unganged "enabled" by bios default on the board. i set it to "disable" wich puts the meory in ganged mode. cpuz picked it up as dual chaneel and ganged right on first boot no hickups! but heres the catch. like the guy says above ungaged actualy runs btter or more bandwidth. when in ganged mode dual chanel sandra is giving me 12gbs. i set it back to "enable" unganged and rebooted at first like before it comes up in single channle mode but when i reboot from the single channel unganged mode it puts me into dual channel ungaged mode via cpuz stating it! and sandra gives me 17gbs bandwith. so im geting 12gbs in dual channel ganged, and 17gbs in dual channel unganged! but in order to get the dual channel unganged im having to still reboot evan after flashing the newest bios?

 

[bulldog1963]

I sm not quite sure...you are a few versions behind. you should be able to find a chart that lists all the changes in each update of the BiOS. try the AMI or the MSI site. I think I ended up going through AMI cuz the link to the bios in MSI's list didn't work.