# How to check you RAM timings?



## Eric3988 (May 21, 2006)

How do you do it? Should I just check the modules or use some kind of program I don't know about?


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## KennyT772 (May 21, 2006)

cpu-z has a tab with all the info on it.
just google and download.


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## Jimmy 2004 (May 21, 2006)

You can often find them through your bios.


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## Eric3988 (May 21, 2006)

*My Timings*

Okay I think my RAM is running at 3-3-8-11 at 199Mhz frequency.  And my command rate is 2T.
I have a feeling these timings are average.  Am I right here or what? Oh and while I'm at it, how much of a performance boost in games would I get if upgraded or tightened my timings?


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## Jimmy 2004 (May 22, 2006)

I think the 8 and 11 may be wrong, it would be unusual for the third number to be as high as 8. I'm assuming the frequency is 400MHz DDR which is ok. Have a look here.


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## Eric3988 (May 22, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:
			
		

> I think the 8 and 11 may be wrong, it would be unusual for the third number to be as high as 8. I'm assuming the frequency is 400MHz DDR which is ok. Have a look here.



Okay I think I my have it now.... 3-3-3-8.   It also says the frequency is 199Mhz.

CAS# Latency       3
RAS# to CAS#       3
RAS# Percentage   3
TRAS#                 8


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## Urlyin (May 22, 2006)

You can also use SysTool and change em on the fly as well ...


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## Jimmy 2004 (May 22, 2006)

Eric3988 said:
			
		

> Okay I think I my have it now.... 3-3-3-8.   It also says the frequency is 199Mhz.
> 
> CAS# Latency       3
> RAS# to CAS#       3
> ...



Yeah that sounds more likely. DDR means that the ram actually works at twice the frequency that it normally shows... 200MHz ram like yours is actually 400MHz. It would be very slow ram if it's true speed was 199MHz.


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## Tatty_One (May 22, 2006)

Eric3988 said:
			
		

> Okay I think I my have it now.... 3-3-3-8.   It also says the frequency is 199Mhz.
> 
> CAS# Latency       3
> RAS# to CAS#       3
> ...



Try 2.5-3-3-6 but one at a time not all together!, the middle 3's are the least likely to come down (but they might) by doing one change at a time you know exactly where the problem is if you fail to boot and those tighter timings will give you about a 10%-15% memory performance increase and near to a 5% overall system performance increase.  Make sure you are at "2T" when you tweak and once done try running at "1T" afterwards, your memory is slightly underclocked so you should get some decent results even with the value ram (see my specs).


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## Ketxxx (May 22, 2006)

another option is A64Info. and yes, changing to some performance memory will improve performance and overclockability.


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## Aevum (May 23, 2006)

that sounds like el cheap´o ram, he should pull a stick out and see whats written on the chips before actually trying to overclock.


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## Kcptech (May 23, 2006)

Eric, Sounds like Kingston Value Ram (Hynix, Micron, Samsung, etc.). 3-3-3-8 is a basic timing that is safe for any default configuration. However, memory that is usually C3, doesn't usually overclock to well and gets warm when either overclocked or latencies lowered without underclocking. A key to getting really fast latencies (lower timings) is to get memory that is faster; it's actually cheaper too. ie DDR-466 with a CAS of 3 when clocked down to DDR-400 will also have its Latencies dropped (faster). It sometimes safer to go this way too. A CAS of 0.5 is equal to about 50 MHz on average. But don't expect your CAS to reach 2.0. It's not too well supported by most CPUs.

Just to correct the meaning of the term DDR-400. The memory does run at 200 MHz, not 400. DDR memory can transfer two data words per clock cycle at the I/O pins or perform one read and one write per clock cycle. It therefore has a theoretical (or sometimes called Effective) bandwidth of 400 MHz. The memory's FSB for DDR-400 is still 200 unless under or overclocked. 

If you want to hammer your Memory's FSB up to around 400, you'll need to do the following;
1.) Use DDR-600 memory that can handle around 3.8 to 4.1 volts.
2.) Liquid Refrigerant Cooling on Chipset, CPU, Memory, and Backside of Mobo.
3.) Increase Voltage on CPU to help prevent Timing Failures.

But, I would not recommend you do this, as extreme overclocking can destroy your hardware faster than it can power off.

The same type of speed stamping is used by Video Card Memory Speeds. The 7900 GTX's don't really have their memory running at +1600 MHz. It can't. The memchips are only designed to handle a clock of 880 MHz (Some companies push beyond the limit). But the memory GDDR3 (Graphics Double Data Rate version 3) is DDR2. GDDR3 memory transfers 4 bits of data per pin in 2 clock cycles.

GDDR3 memory fast but expensive. The GDDR3 memory on a 7900 GTX would be like DDR2-3600

So DDR-400, DDR2-800, and DDR3-1600 all have a clock of 200MHz. 

DDR3 Prefetch Buffer width is 8 bit, whereas DDR2 is 4 bit, and DDR is 2 bit.

GDDR4 will be used in nVidia GeForce 8 series multicore GPU where the memory will have clocks as high as 1.6 GHz (3.2 GHz Effectively).

So DDR-400, DDR2-800, and DDR3-1600 all have a clock of 200MHz.

Higher level DDR would therefore have higher clocks.


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## Alec§taar (May 23, 2006)

Urlyin said:
			
		

> You can also use SysTool and change em on the fly as well ...



Say, that's a decent "All in 1 stop shopping" type of tool... I just took a peek @ the page url you posted for it & its screenshots.

Looks user-friendly enough, & very flexible/capable-featureset-laden, etc./et all...

Who coded it? 

(One of the forums' folks here??)



* Just curious...

APK


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## Jimmy 2004 (May 23, 2006)

Alec§taar said:
			
		

> Who coded it?
> 
> (One of the forums' folks here??)



I think it would probably have been W1zzard. He's the guy that made this site. And ATITool. You owe everything to him...


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## Alec§taar (May 23, 2006)

Jimmy 2004 said:
			
		

> I think it would probably have been W1zzard. He's the guy that made this site. And ATITool. You owe everything to him...



Ah, 

I used to use ATITool 2001-2003 (iirc on exact dates of use that is) when I used an ATI 9800XT Pro board!

(& that's a very decent tool that worked VERY well no less!)



* Good to see there are coders here too...

APK


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