Need assistance in setting voltages for RAM

[i6pwr]

Now that I have my BIOS updated, I would like to get the Corsair RAM I have at advertised speed of 7-7-7-20.

I changed some settings and it worked for about a week until I got the good morning from the American Megatrends screen stating "Overclock Failed"

Seems the voltages were good but may need some tweaking. Since I have not done this yet, I ask for some assistance so I don't smoke anything.

Currently everything is at default, and RAM timings are currently 9-9-9-24.

RAM is Dominator 4x2 , CMD8GX3M4A1333C7

Being this is BEMP, what are some changes I can make to really match this RAM to my MB/CPU?

 

[trents]

It would be helpful to show us CPU-z tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD" . That will give us a lot of info about your hardware and bios settings.

 

[i6pwr]

Sorry....forgot that again.

 

[trents]

Look at the 'SPD" tab pic in your post. These are the recommended timings and voltages for your ram at different speeds. This info is encoded on the ram modules by the manufacturer. The timings you mentioned in your original post are close to what they would be if the ram speed was running at 533/1066 speeds. I would be surprised if those timings would work at 666/1333 however, in a stable fashion. Maybe with a bump in voltage, they would.

 

[i6pwr]

So along with voltages, I need to set dram freq to 518?

Sorry but I'm a noob to the oc world.......have alot of questions but will surely pick it up quick.

 

[trents]

Nothing wrong with beingh a noob. We've all been there. The only bad noob is the one who thinks he knows more than he actually does and so won't listen to advice. Obviously, you are not that kind.

To run at those tight 7 7 7 19 27 timings you would need to set the frequency at 518 or close to it. You might get away with tight timings and higher than 518 (at least a little) with more ram volts. Higher volts often will allow you to raise the stakes a little. The question you need to ask is, "What will give me the best performance? Tighter timings and lower frequencies or higher frequencies and looser timings?" That's the big picture here.

For what's its worth, many people feel that the sweet spot for memory bandwidth with the current generation of AMD CPUs is 1333 mhz. Why don't you try this: Set your memory frequency to 666/1333 but use the timings listed for JEDEC #3 and put the voltage to 1.55. That represents a compromise between bandwidth and timing and gives you some of both. It won't hurt anything to try.

 

[i6pwr]

I will try it.

Another poster mentioned in another thread to keep the voltages even with the nb, I may have had that off a bit.

Also it was mentioned to raise my memory controller voltage slightly bit I'm not sure if that's the CPU/NB offset or the 1.8 V.

 

[i6pwr]

Also, if the RAM is specd at 7-7-7-20, I assume to follow the table and change the 20 to 19?

I had originally changed the timings to 7-7-7-20 but left the freq @ 666...then after about 5 days that's when I received the error.

 

[trents]

I will try it.

Another poster mentioned in another thread to keep the voltages even with the nb, I may have had that off a bit.

Not so! RAM voltages need to be considerably higher than CPU-NB voltages. CPU-NB voltages should not exceed 1.3 and 1.235-1.25 is usually plenty. That would be way too low for RAM which is rated for 1.5+ volts.

Also it was mentioned to raise my memory controller voltage slightly bit I'm not sure if that's the CPU/NB offset or the 1.8 V.

Memory controller voltage would refer to the CPU-NB voltage. Try 1.235 for that.

 

[trents]

Also, if the RAM is specd at 7-7-7-20, I assume to follow the table and change the 20 to 19?

I had originally changed the timings to 7-7-7-20 but left the freq @ 666...then after about 5 days that's when I received the error.

Yes, that would be appropriate. The specs differ slightly from the timings in the JEDEC column because the specs refer to the memroy running at more common industry standard frequencies like 400, 533, 666, 800 which are a little higher or lower than what you see in the "SPD" tab JEDEC columns.

 

[i6pwr]

I'm fairly sure I know which ones to change, but here's how my BIOS is laid out so you can see how the wording differs slightly from what is being discussed.

This is a pic with the default settings.

 

[trents]

Whoa! Those pics were so huge I had to scroll clean into the next room of my house to see the entire image. You must have a high megapixel digital camera. You need to downsize them.

Could we try those pics again?

I think if you use the paper clip tool it will automatically size the pics appropriately for the forum post frames. If that doesn't work then download and isntall a freeware program called "Pixresizer".

 

[i6pwr]

Last time I posted them they didn't take the route for legally blind peeps

Yeah, those are somewhat large. paperclip did the same thing....I just went ahead and resized them.

 

[trents]

Terminology when trying to translate between CPU-z and your own bios can be challenging. Some of them are recognizable right off but others its hard to be certain. When uncertain make a tentative, experimental change in the "looser" direction (bigger number) in bios and then reboot, see what effect it had in the CPU-z "Memory" tab. If the change doesn't show up in CPU-z memory tab you picked the wrong one. Go back into bios and try again. By the way, you will notice that there are many more timing choices in bios than you see in CPU-z. Don't worry about it. The ones that aren't included in CPU-z are not important and should just be left on Auto.

 

[i6pwr]

How do I get the DRAM freq to 518?

I changed the DRAM from AUTO to 1333, in both cases cpuz still shows 666.

 

[trents]

There will not be a setting for 518 mhz. Just set it to 533. That may be close enough. In bios you will find industry standard ram speeds like 400/800, 533/1066 and 666/1333. For some reason we are begining to see ram manufacturers of late encoding odd JEDEC values in their ram modules.

CPU-z reports ram speed by the memory bus value instead of the DDR3 value. The DDR3 value will be twice what the bus value will be so just multiply by 2x to get the equivalent DDR3 speed.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

I find my ram likes 1.6 volts to 1.65 volts. That is G. Skill Ripjaws 1600@8x8x8x24x1t, G. Skill Trident 1600@9x9x9x24x2t, AData2000g@1732@8x8x24x2t. They all like 1.6v or higher. They won't get hot so give them volts and they will thank you for it. They always fail with too little volts.