ST20G5 Low sandra memory results

[th3_soul]

When running Sandra on my ST20G5 I am seeing unusually low memory benchmark scores:

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 2205 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 2186 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Other comparable Intel / AMD systems are up well above 4000 MB/s. I am running 2 x 512MB CorsairTwinX-XL PC3200 and have configured the ram with the following timings 2-2-2-5 1T.

Is anyone experiencing similar issues with the ST20G5 or can offer any advice?


------------------
ST20G5
AMD 4200 X2
2 x 512 CorsairTwinX-XL PC3200
250GB MAXTOR SATA
USB Liteon DVD-RW 1653SX

[Jonny]

I know this doesn't really help you, but I have the same RAM, at 2-3-2-6, and 223Mhz. It comes up near the top of the table in Sandra.
I can check scores if you want, but I'm just saying you're right in those scores being low.

[killie99]

have you tried setting the bios to use the values programmed into the DIMMs to see if that give you a better score?

[th3_soul]

THe big selling point of the Corsair TwinX-XL PC3200 was the fact that they run at 2-2-2-5. The following is from the Scan product page:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=118550

Tested at Xtra-Low latency settings (2-2-2-5) for optimal memory bus speed
Test voltage: 2.75V Plug-n-FragTM Auto-Configuration that boots automatically using the Xtra-Low latency values of 2-2-2-5

I have tried manually setting the values in the BIOS as well as using the defaults that it detects from the memory.

[killie99]

Does Sandra report the memory settings correctly (bus speed and latency?) Can you post the output from Sandra for the memory check?

[th3_soul]

Everything appears to be reported correctly (the below results were collected when running using 2T from memory but when set to 1T made little difference to results) below is the complete output from Sandra.

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 2205 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 2186 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Int Buff'd iSSE2 (Integer STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 2198MB/s
Scaling : 2215MB/s
Addition : 2205MB/s
Triad : 2205MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 137% (estimated)

Float Buff'd iSSE2 (Float STREAM) Results Breakdown
Assignment : 2200MB/s
Scaling : 2201MB/s
Addition : 2177MB/s
Triad : 2169MB/s
Data Item Size : 16 byte(s)
Buffering Used : Yes
Offset Displacement Used : Yes
Bandwidth Efficiency : 136% (estimated)

Performance Test Status
Run ID : WINDOWS on 09 August 2005 at 00:39:05
Memory Used by Test : 447MB
NUMA Support : No
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
Multi-Core Test : Yes
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : P0C0T0
Page Size : 4kB
Use Large Memory Pages : No

Chipset 1
Model : Holco Ent Co Ltd/Shuttle Computer ??? (5950)
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 8-bit / 8-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 804MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Channels : 1
Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)
Width : 32-bit
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 1608MB/s (estimated)

Chipset 2
Model : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 / Opteron
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)
In/Out Width : 8-bit / 8-bit
Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 804MB/s (estimated)

Logical/Chipset 2 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 2.0-2-2-5 2CMD
Bank 1 : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 2.0-2-2-5 2CMD
Channels : 1
Bank Interleave : 2-way
Speed : 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)
Width : 128-bit
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 6432MB/s (estimated)

Features
(W)MMX Technology : Yes
SSE Technology : Yes
SSE2 Technology : Yes
SSE3 Technology : Yes
EMMX - Extended MMX Technology : Yes
HTT - Hyper-Threading Technology : No

Performance Tips
Notice 5008 : To change benchmarks, click Options.
Notice 5004 : Synthetic benchmark. May not tally with 'real-life' performance.
Notice 5006 : Only compare the results with ones obtained using the
same version!
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for
more information about the tip.

[killie99]

Hmmm, nothing jumps out. At work at the moment so I'll have a closer look when I get home tonight. You are running the latest version of sandra?

[th3_soul]

Thanks killie99, yeah running latest version of Sandra only downloaded a fornight or so ago.

Have also gone back to Scan & posted question on Corsair's Support Forum so will feed back anything I get back in here.

[killie99]

welll.....my 1.73Mhz centrino with 1gig of memory is giving better results than you're getting (although it is DDR2). Don't know why the in/out width is 8 bit though on your machine maybe someone else can answer that.

[th3_soul]

Well it seams I accidently solved the problem, playing around with the BIOS settings I raised the memory speed from 200mhz -> 250mhz which stopped the machine from going through post. I pressed the CMOS clear button on the back of the shuttle and re-entered the values (from what I can understand the same as previous) and booted into Windows.

After running Sandra again I am now getting the following results:

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 4817 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 4799 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

This has also fixed the problem that I was having using 32bit mode in Windows. Thanks Killie99 for your help during the day.