8-8-8-24 bought - 9-9-9-24 running?

[Attila the Bun]

I'm a bit puzzled. I was running CPUZ and some other diagnostic stuff last night because I wanted to see what sort of loads and temps were caused by playing AVP at the highest settings on stock cooling.

Whilst doing this I noticed that the RAM timings were at 9-9-9-24.
Now I know I bought 8-8-8-24 RAM and I was under the impression that these are the settings that should have been picked up.

Am I wrong in this assumption? Do I have to go and manually set the RAM to 8-8-8-24?

I have googled this but found nothing specific, although I have found some interesting articles about overclocking RAM that I will peruse at a later date.

As always, any advice is gratefully received.

[Mossy]

You should set your timings manually in your Bios otherwise they will be set to automatic settings.

[Attila the Bun]

You should set your timings manually in your Bios otherwise they will be set to automatic settings.

Thanks Paul. Time to check the manual again. Does this mean that the RAM / Mobo etc will have no problem with the timings at 8-8-8-24? Or will I have to be careful about instability?

[jim]

The RAM will happily run at the speed (in MHz) and the latency as stated on the packet/web. If it doesn't, it's faulty, and you should send it back.

If you want to overclock, you'll probably increase the speed in MHz, and thus you may need to increase the latency to compensate. Else you could run into stability issues.

Hopefully that makes sense!

[kalniel]

I'm a bit puzzled. I was running CPUZ and some other diagnostic stuff last night because I wanted to see what sort of loads and temps were caused by playing AVP at the highest settings on stock cooling.

Whilst doing this I noticed that the RAM timings were at 9-9-9-24.
Now I know I bought 8-8-8-24 RAM and I was under the impression that these are the settings that should have been picked up.

Am I wrong in this assumption? Do I have to go and manually set the RAM to 8-8-8-24?

I have googled this but found nothing specific, although I have found some interesting articles about overclocking RAM that I will peruse at a later date.

As always, any advice is gratefully received.

JEDEC specify standard timings for each speed of RAM at a particular voltage. Motherboards will look up the JEDEC spec carried on the RAMs SPD chip and set timings accordingly. However RAM manufacturers often release RAM that can run faster than JEDEC spec, or run otherwise out of spec for example using higher voltage or different sub-timings. To utilise those you either need a system of communicating non-JEDEC spec settings, such as XMP from Intel, or just manually set it in BIOS/EFI.

If you download CPUz and run it it can show you the stored SPD values from your chip.

[Attila the Bun]

The RAM will happily run at the speed (in MHz) and the latency as stated on the packet/web. If it doesn't, it's faulty, and you should send it back.

If you want to overclock, you'll probably increase the speed in MHz, and thus you may need to increase the latency to compensate. Else you could run into stability issues.

Hopefully that makes sense!

Yep...that makes sense...3 months ago I would be scratching my head...but hanging around here teaches you lots.

[Attila the Bun]

JEDEC specify standard timings for each speed of RAM at a particular voltage. Motherboards will look up the JEDEC spec carried on the RAMs SPD chip and set timings accordingly. However RAM manufacturers often release RAM that can run faster than JEDEC spec, or run otherwise out of spec for example using higher voltage or different sub-timings. To utilise those you either need a system of communicating non-JEDEC spec settings, such as XMP from Intel, or just manually set it in BIOS/EFI.

I've got the BEMP RAM which is the AMD equivilent of the XMP from Intel. At least that is what I understood it to be from the product ad and the reason I bought it. I thought the BEMP would allow the mobo to pick up the 8-8-8-24 settings automatically.

If you download CPUz and run it it can show you the stored SPD values from your chip.

This is where I noticed the SPD settings last night. Which prompted my question today.

[jim]

I've never actually had automatic RAM timings work properly, always had to do it manually

[kalniel]

I've got the BEMP RAM which is the AMD equivilent of the XMP from Intel. At least that is what I understood it to be from the product ad and the reason I bought it. I thought the BEMP would allow the mobo to pick up the 8-8-8-24 settings automatically.

Does your motherboard specifically support BEMP and that RAM set in particular? You might need a BIOS update.

I must admit XMP went beautifully for me - I checked the mobo/RAM combination compatibility first, then just picked the equivalent of 'use XMP' in BIOS and it auto detected and tuned first time.

[Attila the Bun]

Does your motherboard specifically support BEMP and that RAM set in particular? You might need a BIOS update.

I must admit XMP went beautifully for me - I checked the mobo/RAM combination compatibility first, then just picked the equivalent of 'use XMP' in BIOS and it auto detected and tuned first time.

The mobo has the latest bios as I updated that myself. As to compatibility, I don't know...I've just checked Corsair and they don't even list my mobo in their Memory Configurator so probably not.
Checked ASUS only to find I am going to be downloading their compatability list for about the next 3 hours

[Sputnik]

Like the others have said, Just read the timings and Voltage for your memory and set it manually in the BIOS.

I run my memory a little lower on the Voltage as 2.2v seems high and it runs 100% stable at 2.0v .

[Attila the Bun]

Well after much reading up last night following your helpful comments, my RAM appears to be running at 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 1T...how I check the benefits of this tweaking I have no idea but at least it's running as it should.

Oh and can anyone tell me what the NB Frequency denotes in CPU-Z please.

[Sputnik]

Oh and can anyone tell me what the NB Frequency denotes in CPU-Z please.

It shows the Hypertransport link speed.

[Attila the Bun]

It shows the Hypertransport link speed.

Thanks Sputnik