Zambezi IMC clock speeds?

[KetoSoi]

What kind of OC'd RAM speeds have have you guys seen out of the Zambezi based CPU's?

I've got some part swapping between PC's I'm going to do later this week, and have some new PC-19200 (DDR3-2400) RAM I'm going to pop in my FX-4170 based system (in sig). I know the CPU in stock form is capable of 1866 with 2 sticks. I'm wondering how far I might be able to get the RAM to clock given the CPU limitation.

 

[RGone]

You can probably get DDR3-2400 to run alright enough but if it is some 11, 12, 11 stuff it probably will not help all.

it is a tight-rope act to get anymore out of ram much faster than DDR3-2133. I have run upwards of DDR3-2200 speeds and the timings are still the "big deal". Tight for AMD still.

There is one fly in the ointment though. Before someone says BS RGone. If you are up in the 5.2Ghz range or greater and running CPU_NB above 2700Mhz, then the benches of the cpu show a small increase. Again it is still the tight timings. That is why some of the "helpers" in here that are benching also, have gone to 2x2Gig kits to get tighter timings on FASTer ram.
RGone...

 

[KetoSoi]

I had a feeling you'd reply Rgone Thanks

Not sure what I want to do yet, but I figured it'd be fun to mess with. With my current config:
4x4GB @ 1800, IIRC timing I'm running is triple 10 and 30
HT @ 2700
FSB 225
CPU @ a pinch over 4.7

CPU will pretty much stay where it is, its happy as a clam there and temps are great under load.

The new ram is Team Xtreme 2x8GB 10-12-12-31 @ 2400, IIRC (dont have it here with me). Got it very cheap, so I cant complain.

Even if I can get the clock on the ram higher, seems like I will have to give up FSB and HT to make it happen. I'm wondering what the trade-off will yield on the benchmarks.

So, I take it I will need to knock the CPU-NB voltage up a bit, and probably loosen the timing on the ram as well?

 

[Johan45]

Here's a couple of screens you can compare the memory is the same but the cpus' and bus peeds are different.





The ram is G.Skill sniper 2133 cl 11 and running 2519 10-12-11 The higher NB improves the latency
EDIT the ram is running at 2510 in the second pic

 

[KetoSoi]

Ah, cool! Thanks Johan

What kind of voltage are you running on the CPU/NB, NB, HT settings in the BIOS?

 

[Johan45]

My CPU_NB voltage was above 1.4 in both those shots. The 9370 just has an easier time scaling that high I have had it to nearly 3100 with 1.425v. The 8350 NB will run over 3000 but it take 1.5v+ which I wouldn't run. The FSB NB AND HT settings and CPU volts are visible in the CPU-z shots.

 

[KetoSoi]

My CPU_NB voltage was above 1.4 in both those shots. The 9370 just has an easier time scaling that high I have had it to nearly 3100 with 1.425v. The 8350 NB will run over 3000 but it take 1.5v+ which I wouldn't run. The FSB NB AND HT settings and CPU volts are visible in the CPU-z shots.

Oops, sorry. Didnt word that well, lol. Only meant the voltage settings for the NB/HT stuff.

So CPU-NB was fine at 1.4+ ? That surprises me.

Thanks

 

[Johan45]

You have to keep in mind thid id going to add dome heat. How much I can't say but it will.

 

[RGone]

Here's a couple of screens you can compare the memory is the same but the cpus' and bus peeds are different.

View attachment 137306

View attachment 137307

The ram is G.Skill sniper 2133 cl 11 and running 2519 10-12-11 The higher NB improves the latency
EDIT the ram is running at 2510 in the second pic

But what does the Xtree ram speed do for say Cinebench CPU score or otherwise? Inquiring minds want to know. Hehehe.
Bobert...sterzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Johan45]

Honestly the majority of the benches score better with a high NB and the ram between 1600 and 2000. Like Cinebench R11.5 this is my best score. Notice the ram is at 1800 7-9-8-24 this is still the snipers.





There's a few that have done better with higher speed but not many, the only one I could find a pic of is PCMark05, but some 3D benches do like fast ram.

 

[Woomack]

Memory clock above 1866 is generally not helping much in anything including most benchmarks ( exception can be SuperPi or something similar ).
Optimal is something 1866-2133 and tighter timings as CPU-NB clock is limiting max bandwidth anyway.
Most CPUs will give up at about 2700MHz CPU-NB. 3000+ is quite rare.
When I had FX8120/8320 then they were running all the time at about 1.35-1.4V CPU-NB but both CPUs didn't like anything above 1.55V ( maybe board's issue, hard to say ).

Other thing is that most FX CPUs won't run fully stable above ~2133. It may pass 12h Prime95 but you may notice random blue screens at higher memory clock. I have no idea why but it happens.
I was able to pass 3150 memory clock on FX8120 but it was never stable above 2400.

 

[KetoSoi]

Finally had chance to install the RAM and tweak a little bit thanks to Johans info. Didnt require much voltage at all, and temps are well within limits. Not too bad for a moderately OC'd 4170....

What do you guys think?

 

[Dr. McCoy]

Memory clock above 1866 is generally not helping much in anything including most benchmarks ( exception can be SuperPi or something similar ).
Optimal is something 1866-2133 and tighter timings as CPU-NB clock is limiting max bandwidth anyway.
Most CPUs will give up at about 2700MHz CPU-NB. 3000+ is quite rare.
When I had FX8120/8320 then they were running all the time at about 1.35-1.4V CPU-NB but both CPUs didn't like anything above 1.55V ( maybe board's issue, hard to say ).

I didn't notice a differencial between the two FX models so I'm saying this about it.

Actually it depends on whether it's a Zambezi or a Vishera being used - Most Zambezi's are well capable of 3000 with good cooling but the Vishy's are the chips that have a hard time reaching much over 2700.
My FX 4100 for example can top 2800 with ease on water or top 3000 with other forms of cooling and have some good RAM speeds behind it in both cases. The other two FX chips I have (Vishy's) don't like going too far above 2700 but I've hit at least 2900 with my 4300 chip, the 8320 seems to top out around 2800 or so, both being reached with better than air or regular watercooling.
AMD's are partial to tighter timings vs higher RAM speeds, that's how they are and it's best to tweak them in the way they want to run. However if you can get both, speed with tight timings that's great and works to your advantage - That is if you can get it.

 

[Johan45]

Finally had chance to install the RAM and tweak a little bit thanks to Johans info. Didnt require much voltage at all, and temps are well within limits. Not too bad for a moderately OC'd 4170....

What do you guys think?

Looks good Keto, you should do some ram testing along with prime to find your "optimum"

However if you can get both, speed with tight timings that's great and works to your advantage - That is if you can get it.

That's where I agree, I kick the crap out of these things and only use those speeds for benching. Daily I run 2500 HT/NB and 2000 ram. That's my stability clock for F@H or anything you don't want to start over.

 

[RGone]

Daily I run 2500 HT/NB and 2000 ram. That's my stability clock for F@H or anything you don't want to start over.

That don't want to start over and do again is key to me. Because for the last 2.5 days, this CHV and DDR3-2292 sumbeech has been kicking my booty. I primed it with my aircooler to 4.7Ghz and thought, well ain't this sum fine shett. Open mouth and insert one's own foot. Hehehe.

I probably should add here that the ram is G Skill DDR3-2133 and I added 8 gigs in two sticks for a total of 16gigs ram. I am pretty sure upping the IMC load for 16gigs is the likely culprit in the mess but heck what's a few more gigs between buds? Hehehe.

To cut to the chase my P95-ing had me all primed to finish up some Win 7 cutdowns I was into and off I went, until the right front wheel fell off. Was trying to coast her to a stop when the left rear axle broke clean into and that wheel fell off as well. Now I know what those axle retainers are for.

2.5 days later am back up and runnging. 78 bios flashes later am back up and running. Flash up. Flash back. Flashing all around. Trying to keep the wheels on and the ends not dragging the ground.

Had to just start over. You know that thing you do when everything else you plug in is just crap. REmove some ram. Flash all those bioses and then begin tweaking that 16gigs all over again. Finally cleared up all the garbled screens and got the ram at DDR3-2200 now or about DDR 100 slower. Running 4.6Ghz or thereto a 100mhz slower.

I had seen such up and down bios flashing reported by others but had steered mostly clear and kept the wheels on but I guess the heavy workload overclocked at what I felt was stable (well it was) just was not as stable as once thought. Had tweak the crap out of the ram to run the 16gigs on up there. But seems maybe done, hopefully this time at DDR3-2200. At the first sign of sag on one side or the other...going back down to my normal DDR3-2000 for work numbers.

Once again it seems have been caught by the difference between benching, stressing and then doing work. Shett shett.
RGone...

 

[KetoSoi]

Looks good Keto, you should do some ram testing along with prime to find your "optimum"

Thanks Johan I use AgentGod's IBT for testing, I've never had good luck with P95. Ran IBT, 25 cycles on 'high', several times now, its stable after a little more voltage tweaking on the NB stuff. Temps have been very well behaved.

 

[KetoSoi]

...until the right front wheel fell off. Was trying to coast her to a stop when the left rear axle broke clean into and that wheel fell off as well. Now I know what those axle retainers are for.

LOL