Anandtech's "Bandwidth" tRas 11 for nF2

[Splash]

Maybe I have been living in a bunker for several years, and can't overclock to the max worth snot. I do distributed computing via BOINC (SETI, Einstien, ClimatePrediction) so stability matters on my farm of 9 computers, consisting of 1 266fsb nF1, 1 nF2 200mhz single-channel, 3 200fsb nF2 dual-channel, 2 Via Kt-600's at 166 and 200 FSB, a Tyan tiger AMD 762 dual cpu board, and a lonely 910mhz P3, soon to be given away to the kid's day care center as a game/first computer machine (anyone have a freebie modern Japanese OS?).

My normal overclock efforts start at boosting cpu multiplier, finding stable, then back down and do minor adjustments to the RAM FSB. Obviously a poor low-hanging-fruit approach, given a test of Anandtech's mention of using memtest86's bandwidth test and concluding tRas 11-12 is "optimal" for nF2 boards, which indicates I could do much higher FSB speeds and lower multipliers by "loosening the RAM timings" from 3-3-3-8 to get the same "CPU speed in MHZ". Tried it on one A7n8X-X board single-channel, and watched the Einstien "time to completion" indicator steadily drop. My my, 'tis faster.

Several questions. Is Anandtech close to correct in scrapping tight mem timings, which back in the days of P3 overclocking with Crucial 2-2-2-5 PC133SDRAM used to be important? Whut da fook is bandwidth, and why should I care for my applications, which are large, exceeding L2 cache, running in memory, and swapped in/out as necessary every hour or so? Should FSB be upped on all boards/lower multipiers to get better performance? What tRas settings are you folks using, stable?

Thanks

 

[kukyfrope]

I've recently switched from a 6 tRas to an 11 tRas and that alone increased my memory bandwidth on my dual-channel board. How memory bandwidth will affect your programs I'm not sure as I don't use them. Just letting you know that indeed, an 11 or 12 tRas will allow you to go higher and still remain stable

 

[Quentin]

I agree. Going from 8 to 11 (2.5T-3-3-11) has improved overall performance and allowed a higher FSB. That along with flashing to a modded BIOS by Trats got my A7N8X Deluxes from 205 to 235! For day to day I run them at 217x11 - a nice increase over the previous 200x11.5 I used before.

 

[Hamm3r]

Hmm i got tRas 8, but when I change it to 11 my performance slightly drop - around 50MB/s less in sandra, with the rig in sig
BTW Splash this is a nice farm you got there, keep Boincing

 

[Ultra.DR]

i would say most will notice increase (slight) with 11 value.. wether it will allow further overclcok is up to your ram ..

the socket A's really cramp rams performance... yes they were good for the time but if you take your current ram and pair it with a A64 your gonna get alot more out of it 99% of the time..

its real hard to tell how some of these baords will do with any given ram .. you have to mod the crap out of it to really get nice results ..

 

[Quentin]

Hmm i got tRas 8, but when I change it to 11 my performance slightly drop - around 50MB/s less in sandra, with the rig in sig
BTW Splash this is a nice farm you got there, keep Boincing

That's probably true staying at the same FSB. But I think you'll find in Memtest that you can take the FSB up higher with no errors (going from 8 to 11). It sure works for me.

 

[CanadianTSi]

When in changed my Tras to 11 it allowed me to tigthen my other timings alot. I was running 3-4-4-8 at 190FSB but now I can do 2-2-2-11 at 200FSB (this is on PC2700 ram BTW)

 

[speed bump]

Well I never tested mine in Sandra but I know in 3dmark01 I got alittle bit more(30 points) by running it at 6 but then I couldn't get over 209 at 2.5,2,2,2,6 I might have to try 2,2,2,2,11. and see if I can get any better.
I do remember a big thread about running at 11 though.

 

[austinbmxnig]

hmmm, anybody think i should use my unlocked desktop 2700 instead of this superlocked 3200 and use a low multiplier and let the g.skill have at it?!?!?

 

[kukyfrope]

austinbmxnig, DO IT!
My 2700 hit 200 recently and I'm still testing it higher. You can hit 3200 speeds with that ram and your HS/F for sure! Test it out and post your results please

 

[MameXP]

oh you guys still joining the 200 club? I quitted that club long time ago with gold jacket




About the tRas that surprise me 11 give you more bandwidth. I may try that too..

 

[Splash]

BTW Splash this is a nice farm you got there, keep Boincing

Hmm, some 45,000 classic since May, 2000. Suppose I will. Keeps the office warm and toasty this winter, ***** in the summer though.