Patriot (Extreme Performance) on Intel 975X

[Steve Mavronis]

I have an Intel 975X Motherboard OEMD975XBGG1 with a Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU. My CPU-Z report file has more detailed info HERE.

I just installed 4x1GB Patriot Extreme Peformance PDC22G5300LLK memory DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 with advertised timings of 4-4-4-12 at 1.8V.

Initially I had instability problems with these recommended timings, so I had to let my BIOS SDRAM control setting "automatically detect" timings of 5-5-5-12 at 1.8V and its has been stable for days now. But my performance is no better than with my old standard DDR2 memory. I would really like to improve the speed of this memory and get a CL of 4 instead of 5.

Some people have suggested trying 4-4-4-15 for more tRAS stability and others have suggested increasing the voltage. I'm new at messing with memory timings so I need some guidance here.

One thing I want to know is how do you measure what MHz you increase the memory speed to? CPU-Z says 333MHz and my BIOS says 667MHz. I'm assuming it's doubling it somewhere. If I increase the voltage I'm guessing the MHz will increase as well. How will I tell what it's changing to as I'm testing? According to Gateway's FX530S specs, it is supposed to have a 1066MHz FSB so does that give me options from this BIOS memory performance screen?


What I'm really hoping for to save me some trail and error by having to possible reset my BIOS in case it locks up trying to change settings back, is that someone visiting here has a Gateway FX530 already using this popular Patriot memory that all reviews are saying is very overclockable with great performance. But that probably is wishfull thinking on my part!

 

[Steve Mavronis]

I have some memory timing test results and I seem to be in a little better shape now:

These are all at 667MHz at 1.8V and it seems stable so far. I haven't tried stress testing it. I was surprised at first that 4-4-4-15 seemed stable until I tried Internet Explorer 7 and it gave me a "stopped working" error every time I tried to launch it, but it worked fine with all other 4-X-X combinations.

Right now I'm using 4-4-5-15 since it has the best Super PI 1M times. I'm reading the first two CL and RCD values are the most performance related. All the timing combinations using a CL of 4 improved my Vista Windows Experience Index from 5.4 to 5.5

Next I was wondering if I experiment raising the voltage to overclock it, when should I jump the memory frequency from 667MHz to 800MHz because my BIOS actually has a selection box for that? I don't want to blow out my motherboard memory slot bus, or damage my Q6600 processor since I'm locked out from making any CPU related changes with my BIOS. Here is my CPUID CPU-Z Report.

I hope this discussion helps anyone else with a similar Intel 975X motherboard.

[EDIT] - Also in my BIOS below the timing values, it shows the memory detected in each bank. They say 5.0-4-4-12 and I tried that to match it, still getting a 5.5 Windows Experience Index which surprised me, and the best SuperPI 1M score but the program seemed unstable "not responding" intermittently during multiple runs. Maybe I should also test 5-4-4-15 at 1.8V because I'd probably also get a 5.5 Windows Experience Index but you'd think it would be best to stick with the lowest CL possible like the 4-5-5-15 I'm using now, although both the CL and RCD affect performance.

 

[Cromewell]

If you or anyone else wants to incease their windows score, upping the frequency of your RAM is the best way. As you can see in the chart above, adjusing the timings has very little impact.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

Refer to this BIOS example of the Memory Performance screen like on my system as you reas below.

My BIOS does have a memory frequency selection to go from 333mhz, 400mhz, 533mhz, 667mhz, and up to 800mhz. But I'm afraid to try 800mhz there because my motherboard is supposed to only support 667mhz memory and my new 4x1gb Patriot extreme performance memory is 667mhz, or am I thinking the wrong thing? What if I would have bought 2x2gb patriot Viper 800mhz memory? I know it will clock down to 667mhz fine, but there is still the unknown of what would happen if the memory frequency was changed to 800mhz in BIOS?

And I can't even try to change the FSB because that performance setting screen has been locked out with the Gateway BIOS so they can only overclock processors. Maybe I could ask if they would sell me a copy of their not locked out BIOS but they will probably say that would void my warranty and I have a year in a half to go. I got a 3 year warranty in case my then $600 Nvidia 8800GTX 768mb graphics card would go up they would have to replace it for me.

The other thing that I'm curious about is my new memory is rated at 4-4-4-12 at 1.8v (which is unstable for me) and in my BIOS it shows the memory pairs in each slot as 5.0-4-4-12 so why is that? Right now I'm using the highlighted setting on my chart of 4-5-5-15 at 1.8v which is real stable on my system.

 

[Cromewell]

I know it will clock down to 667mhz fine, but there is still the unknown of what would happen if the memory frequency was changed to 800mhz in BIOS?

If the option is there I'd assume it works if not it's a bug. Really though there is only 1 way to find out

and in my BIOS it shows the memory pairs in each slot as 5.0-4-4-12 so why is that?

That probably means the SPD is programmed to set the timings that way.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

The specs for my FX530S says it has a 1066mhz FSB. But it also says it takes 667mhz DDR2 memory. Can I overclock this memory to 800mhz (by increasing the memory voltage and selecting the 800mhz choice) because of the FSB, or are they not related? I'm not even gonna ask Gateway because they are morons when you want to change settings other than factory set.

 

[Cromewell]

Can I overclock this memory to 800mhz (by increasing the memory voltage and selecting the 800mhz choice) because of the FSB, or are they not related?

The FSB should not have any effect on the RAM speed if you are just changing the speed selection.

Note that if you adjust your FSB manually the RAM speed you select will change though. For example if you chnage your FSB to 1333 selecting 800MHz RAM speed will actually mean you have 933MHz RAM.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

The FSB should not have any effect on the RAM speed if you are just changing the speed selection.

Thanks for your reply. So you are saying in my BIOS memory performance screen, even if I were to change the memory frequency from 667mhz to 800mhz and raise the voltage to 2.1v it would not make my memory any faster or change the memory speed it shows in CPU-Z after doing that?

For example at 667mhz it shows my DDR2 memory DRAM frequency at 333.4mhz and FSBRAM at 4:5.

If that is true then there is nothing I can do to overclock this 667mhz memory at all (besides slight effects from timing adjustments) unless I were able to alter the FSB speed. Are you saying that a 1066mhz FSB can only handle a maximum of 667mhz memory throughput?

 

[Cromewell]

So you are saying in my BIOS memory performance screen, even if I were to change the memory frequency from 667mhz to 800mhz and raise the voltage to 2.1v it would not make my memory any faster or change the memory speed it shows in CPU-Z after doing that?

I think I wrote something while thinking about writing it a different way. Let me try again...

If you leave everything alone and just change the memory speed selection your RAM frequency will change to whatever speed you selected. Your FSB however, will stay the same.

Are you saying that a 1066mhz FSB can only handle a maximum of 667mhz memory throughput?

Yes and no. Running your RAM faster than your FSB doesn't give you much improvement. So dual channel 533MHz will get your RAM speed to be roughly equal to your FSB.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

I was reading this 2006 article about the memory I bought. I'll link the last Verdict page for a moment. I want to make sure I didn't read what he's doing the wrong way. It appears to me he only raised the memory voltage for the tight timings and changed the frequency from 667mhz to 800mhz and kept the FSB at 1066mhz. This is before he played with altering the FSB and CPU multipliers to go further to 907mhz. On page 5 he writes:

We are showing you the results today in threefold.

Performance at default 667 MHz 4-4-4-12 1T
Performance with a 800 MHz memory bus 4-5-5-12 1T
Performance once overclocked (907 MHz), FSB is raised thus CPU is overclocked also (4-5-5-12 2T).
What you need to understand is that the first two performance measurements (667/800) did not have the CPU overclocked. Yet still there is a massive performance difference as we where able to uphold a T1 command rate at 800 MHz !, really lovely.

On page 3 he writes:

First, we will set the memory at it's normal 667 MHz operation, then 800 & will look if it can go higher in MHz with the help of the BIOS memory dividers and frequency.

Sorry for stepping you backwards through his article. I cannot alter the CPU or FSB because its locked out in my BIOS, But based on his testing do you think I can (would it be called overclocking?) get 800mhz performance out of this memory (like he did) from my BIOS' memory performance screen by changing the DDR2 frequency option from 667mhz to 800mhz and adjusting memory voltage and timings?

 

[Cromewell]

Sorry for stepping you backwards through his article. I cannot alter the CPU or FSB because its locked out in my BIOS, But based on his testing do you think I can (would it be called overclocking?) get 800mhz performance out of this memory (like he did) from my BIOS' memory performance screen by changing the DDR2 frequency option from 667mhz to 800mhz and adjusting memory voltage and timings?

It's possible. I can't say for sure as there's no way to tell just be looking at it, you have to try and see what happens.