(best?) guide to determine ram speed/timings?

[funsoul]

Hi all

So...after benching for a bit it's very clear that ram matters A LOT. They way I've been figuring out how to overclock the ram and tighten timings is by googlin' the sticks and basically copying the settings that others have found to work.

This is not really ideal since not every stick has been fully tested and does not take into account better/worse binned sticks. I reckon the best and only way to know for sure is to figure out how to do it myself.

So...is there a good guide out there? Has Woomack the MemoryMagnificent ever written up how he does his magic (it'd be an awesome sticky!)?

Inquiring minds want to know! hehehe

tia (as always)

 

[EarthDog]

ram matters a lot in some tests.. nearly none in others.

AFAIK, he just tweaks and tests. He has a couple of threads around with suggestions, I would look at those while you wait for a better reply.

 

[Johan45]

I have found the Asus ROG site pretty informative. Doesn't matter if you have one of their boards the only difference might be naming. It will tell you in general how the timings interact with each other and some specifics about a certain platform. Here's the Maximus VI platform info
The best I've found is some in windows tweaking which can be done through AMD OD for AMD stuff and Asus Mem Tweakit but it doesn't work with the new Z87 chipset. It saves a lot of time if you can do it this way. From bios you need to make a change and then see if it boots/loads OS and so on. Takes some time to get things where you want it. I'm no expert by a long shot but have spent considersble amounts of time on this lately. I've been picking Woomacks brain off and on and he'll pop in sometimes with advice and set me back on the right track, He certainly is a great asset to the Forum.

 

[Woomack]

Here is basic guide made on IB platform but should work on other boards too:
http://www.overclockers.com/memory-overclocking-guide-ivy-bridge

I'm not making guides simply because every memory is acting in a different way so in most cases you have to test it on your own.
Basic info won't help you much and you can easily figure it out looking at other memory on similar IC like Hynix 2400 10-12-12 will make about the same as 2666 11-13-13 etc but how much above that you can make depends from too many things to write clear guide.
Tips regarding each IC are all over the forums ( you can use search option and my threads but other forum members also added some info ).

New high end boards have OC profiles so it's even easier to figure out how to tweak timings. You can load profile and compare timings that you have in BIOS. ASUS or Gigabyte boards have almost only tight timing profiles or high clock but ASRock OCF has also more standard/relaxed timings.
As an example , if you have average IC then you can load 2800 profile and check if these settings are working at 2600 on your memory.

You can also look at my memory test list, find similar memory/IC and compare timings ... or simply ask about something in these threads. There are almost no comments, only from time to time I see "thanks".

Regarding that IB guide. I made it mainly for benching team but later some members asked me to make front page article and guess what ... on next hwbot competitions I saw only our opponents who were using my memory settings , not our team members ...