RAM overclocking guide

[Nerror]

Found a nice guide that provides a good introduction to RAM overclocking: http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t286070.html

Something to toy around with if you aren't afraid of voiding warranties and want to get a little higher FPS in games.

EDIT: And a more general overclocking guide for newbies: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2188777,00.asp

EDIT2: Once you get past the basics, this guide (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3184&p=1) is a must read, at least for intel based systems!

[8igdave]

Personaly cant see the poit in overclocking ram. You wont notice any difference in gaming. Plus ram overclocking tends to be a second thought after cpu overclocking, which is wher ethe real differences are made.

Some good info there though. For some reason my ram doesn't want to run at 4-4-4-12 even though its at its stock speed and have 2v goin through it. I gave up a while back as its not gona be makign a differences when im at 4gb really.

[zer]

You wont see much of a performance gain in games. Winrawr or enconding are the application that will benefit the most from memory tweak for the avg. user. Its not a big real world dif. either!

[Nerror]

Personaly cant see the poit in overclocking ram. You wont notice any difference in gaming. Plus ram overclocking tends to be a second thought after cpu overclocking, which is wher ethe real differences are made.

Some good info there though. For some reason my ram doesn't want to run at 4-4-4-12 even though its at its stock speed and have 2v goin through it. I gave up a while back as its not gona be makign a differences when im at 4gb really.

Yes and no about gaming gain. It doesn't make as big a difference as cpu and gpu no, but it can make a small one, albeit sometimes negligible (a couple FPS at most) if it's just the ram overclock alone.

Much more importantly, however, is that sometimes to get the best CPU and bandwidth overclock, you have to change the voltage, timings and/or divider of the RAM, unless the mobo supports separate RAM and CPU overclocking. That means that if you've hit the max stable CPU overclock without touching the RAM, you can sometimes increase it further by changing the RAM's voltage, timings and/or divider.

EDIT: I will say though, no one should spend money on really expensive RAM just for gaming. Spending that money on the GPU or CPU instead will give much more bang for your buck. However, decent RAM can directly affect how well the system overclocks, so don't necessarily go for the cheapest noname budget RAM.

[Aaronthethird]

I would second Nerror's point on RAM expense. I personally have never found the really expensive "gaming" RAM to be cost effective. I have been buying the Gskill stuff you can find for cheap on newegg.com and it works just as well as the far more pricey Kingston HyperX, or Crucial Batistics, or Corsair XMS sticks that I've tried over the years. So for anyone buying RAM, get the cheap stuff and spend the extra money on a better video card or processor.

[Nerror]

I would second Nerror's point on RAM expense. I personally have never found the really expensive "gaming" RAM to be cost effective. I have been buying the Gskill stuff you can find for cheap on newegg.com and it works just as well as the far more pricey Kingston HyperX, or Crucial Batistics, or Corsair XMS sticks that I've tried over the years. So for anyone buying RAM, get the cheap stuff and spend the extra money on a better video card or processor.

Yeah G.Skill makes good ram at a good price. I am looking at getting their 2x2GB PC8000 sticks atm.

[zer]

I would second Nerror's point on RAM expense. I personally have never found the really expensive "gaming" RAM to be cost effective. I have been buying the Gskill stuff you can find for cheap on newegg.com and it works just as well as the far more pricey Kingston HyperX, or Crucial Batistics, or Corsair XMS sticks that I've tried over the years. So for anyone buying RAM, get the cheap stuff and spend the extra money on a better video card or processor.

I will disagree on getting cheap RAM for a the simple reason that the slightly more expensive kits, Ill take the Crucial Ballistix RAM since I now have a set, are far more flexible and allow for better system overclocking in general. Ive had cheap stick before and while they do serve their purpose, they were soo damn limiting in configurations that it litteraly made system tweaking a real PITA.

Now just to put this in perspective, the first set of mid range RAM was Corsair XMS2 stuff using stupid crappy Promos ICs, I couldnt get them past 867ish Mhz for the love of me!!! Thoses fing sticks cost me $200, for $80 more I could of gotten the much better Dominators series with Micron D9Gxx ICs, saving me alot of trouble. 5 months laters I broke down and bought a kit of Crucial Ballistix for $120. Thoses D9GMH ICs, just rocked my socks... I can configure my system in several different ways and the RAM is not the limiting factor in pretty much any case! Also, I can run them at ridiculous speeds/timming below recommended voltages... That imo is impressive and worth buying!!!

However, if your not overclocking, some decent not so "dirt cheap" ram DIMMs will suit most users just fine. Just stick with a knowned brand with good warranties:P

[Ragenrok]

I find corsairs XMS2 impressive. I have a set of 2x1gig of XMS2 5400 and it was able to boot and orthos at 900mhz 5-5-5-15 with 2.1V which wasn't bad for a cheap set of ram. I got it for $120 bout a year ago when this ram was around $150 most of the time lol.

I now use my G.Skill 8500 kit and its very good for overclocking my e8400. When ever I get the chance Im either going to try dropping my multi and running my ram at stock or higher or leaving the multi at 9 and going to tighten up the timings.

I have heard that crucial ballistix has a pretty bad return rate and die fairly quickly from volts around 2.1V, I was going to buy some but just couldn't convince myself to do it with all the horror stories I have read about it latley.

[Nerror]

I now use my G.Skill 8500 kit and its very good for overclocking my e8400. When ever I get the chance Im either going to try dropping my multi and running my ram at stock or higher or leaving the multi at 9 and going to tighten up the timings.

The new 8 layer PCB kit? I've been looking at the 2x2GB (http://newgskill.web-bi.net/bbs/view.php?id=g_newproduct&no=8) kit myself, but it costs 30% more than the 2x2GB PC8000 kit, so I dunno...

I was considering popping in 8GB of RAM, well knowing I might not get as high an overclock, but not really sure if I want to do it. :p I know WAR will be more than fine with 4GB but still...

[Ragenrok]

ya the new 8 layer ones. I only have the 2gig pack bt I still find 2gigs plenty lol. Im hoping to get my timings down to 4-4-4-12, mabey even 4-4-4-10 which is a nice drop down from the stock 5-5-5-15 lol.

[zer]

I find corsairs XMS2 impressive. I have a set of 2x1gig of XMS2 5400 and it was able to boot and orthos at 900mhz 5-5-5-15 with 2.1V which wasn't bad for a cheap set of ram. I got it for $120 bout a year ago when this ram was around $150 most of the time lol.

I now use my G.Skill 8500 kit and its very good for overclocking my e8400. When ever I get the chance Im either going to try dropping my multi and running my ram at stock or higher or leaving the multi at 9 and going to tighten up the timings.

I have heard that crucial ballistix has a pretty bad return rate and die fairly quickly from volts around 2.1V, I was going to buy some but just couldn't convince myself to do it with all the horror stories I have read about it latley.

You prob had a rev1.x or 3.x kit, because the Promos ICs corsair used on their XMS2 DIMMs a little under a year ago were complete . G.Skill is a good brand worth mentionning also, I just dont have any real personnal experience with them so I rarely recommend them, maybe I should pick up a set to test.

The return rate isnt just on the Crucial Ballistix, but any DIMM module using Micron D9GMH, the ICs crave voltages but also have a shorter livespan because of this. One should try to keep them at 2.2Volts or below for 24/7 use and try to get some active cooling on them or at least some form of air flow in order to dissipate the heat on the spreaders.

[Ragenrok]

ya the G.Skill kit im using seems to be able to hit 1200mhz from what I have seen of reviews and tests, I haven't heard of G.Skill much before but I have to say im very impressed with there ram.

[zer]

You could always use a 4:3 divider... Mind you, thats goin to be putting you in the 400Mhz FSB strap (i.e performance level 7 or 8). Im not sure how the Abit works but if you can change the performance level of your MCH, you shouldnt have a issue with memory Bandwith i.e (Read/Write/Copy). Im currently running on a 400Mhz FSB Strap and my performance level is 7, Im pretty sure that can be lowered to 6. I wont play too much with it till I get my new proc., since I dont have alot of free time. Im planning on running the E8400 @ 4.05Ghz -- 9x450 -- 333Mhz FSB Strap -- 6:5 DRAM:FSB Ratio -- 1080Mhz 4-4-4-12 2T. Performance level will be 6 w/ Transaction Booster set to Disabled - Relax level 0 and AI ClockTwister set to Strong:P

[Ragenrok]

ya, well im hoping when I get a chance I can push my e8400 to 4.26 by setting it at 8x533 then running my ram at 4-4-4-12 that lets me have my ram at stock freq with tighter timings and have it runnin at 1:1. As far as im concerned thta will be my ideal overclock, thats my hopes anyways lol, not sure it my chip will handle it without more than 1.4V

[zer]

Should be fine, since your dropping the multi to 8. Youll only know when you try it:P

[Ragenrok]

ya, this board can hit around 550 FSB so the only thing that can limit me is the CPU, im hoping that if I give it a cookie (of course I'll have to eat the cookie for it ;)) that it will cooperate with me lol.

[zer]

Cookie Dough makes for good TIM. True Story!!!

[8igdave]

Yeah id only get 8400+ ram if i had a E8400 as i want to be garanteed to be able to get at least 500fbs worth out of my ram for overclocking. Just gota hope the motherboard would do it too :p

Though with all the ram dividers unless your needing the huge fbs. Overclocking ram still isn't really required. I mean, a E2180 for instance will run at 3ghz and 800mhz o the ram by just simply using a 10x300fbs with a 1.2 ram divider on the ram (2:2.4). No need to really overclock it, just changing multiplyers. However, does changing am ultiplyer count as overclocking it? i presume so anyway!

[zer]

Depends what you really want, usualy a higher FSB mean more bandwith, so for encoding or somthing of the sorts, you could see a nice little benefit. Albeit, its small but in the long run all thoses extra seconds saved add up!

The real world difference between 800 CAS4 and 1066 CAS5, with the same BUS speed is barely if at all noticeable. Its only once you start pumping up that FSB in conjuction with your RAM that you can notice something.

On top of that, with Intel chipsets... The MCH Strap has a direct impact on your memory performance, so thats another curve ball you gotta watch out for.

[zer]

Though with all the ram dividers unless your needing the huge fbs. Overclocking ram still isn't really required. I mean, a E2180 for instance will run at 3ghz and 800mhz o the ram by just simply using a 10x300fbs with a 1.2 ram divider on the ram (2:2.4). No need to really overclock it, just changing multiplyers. However, does changing am ultiplyer count as overclocking it? i presume so anyway!

You would get better memory performance buy lowering your multipliyer to 9 and running your FSB @ 333Mhz and your RAM with a 6:5 divider:) RAM is still running at the same speed but the bandwith is increased overall:)

[8igdave]

ahh yes the debates of high multiplyer lower fbs or high fbs lower multiplyer. Not sure it has much of an effect. Id like to see some bennchmarks on it actually as i dont really how much it effects it.

A decent effect on decoding?

[zer]

You might get ~ 1% better performance in general, sometimes more but heh... Hahahaha!

If you play SuperPI then its a pretty noticeable diff:) hahahahaha!

[zer]

A decent effect on decoding?

Yes... Its still small, but obviously one of the application that will be more directly affected by RAM and its timmings:)

[8igdave]

think ill just keep my ram at 800mhz then. Actually i think its at 780mhz or something as with my dividers it was either that or something like 950, most of the ocz ram i have caps out at 880mhz- 950mhz so i wasn't really bothered in trying to get it stable so high when ill notice no difference from it being at 780mhz.

[zer]

Yes, there no need in creating instability for a minimal boost:)

[Nerror]

Yes, there no need in creating instability for a minimal boost:)

Especially for WAR. Crashing in a critical city siege fight because your super overclocked 6GHz E8500 (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178378) ran out of liquid nitrogen cooling would suck :p I plan on overclocking, but obviously not past 100% stability with watercooling.

[8igdave]

To stres test it i suggest using prime 95 and tghen run the full version, not the demo version of 3d mark. it will run 3 tests which are solely on your cpu and realyl do stress it out. When running prime 95 8hours of no crashing is genearly considered 100% stable.

[Ragenrok]

nah, I consider a orthos blend test at priority 9 or higher for 6+ hours good enough.

[zer]

Memtest86+ v2.01, OCCT blend and Prime 95 v25.5 blend.

Two passes with Memtest86+, then 60-120mins of OCCT, then Prime 95. Past experience says that if Im goin to fail either OCCT or Prime 95, its within 30-40mins. I use blend when I have found my 24/7 setup... Before that, I use small FFTs to find stable CPU clocks and that for about 30-40mins:)

[8igdave]

The majority of enthusiasts will say tehy want a 8 hour screenshot before taking it as stable. The thing can still crash after 6 hours and even after 8. And 30-40 minutes is simply not long enough. It crashs at around 2-4 housr quite a few times when going for the top overclockes.

[Ragenrok]

ya but I don't care what others consider stable lol. If im trying to get my OC recorded online then ya I'll do a 8hour test but if its just for personal overclocking to get a boost in my games then 6hours is good for me. After 6hours orthos if it crashes in any game I'd be very surprised.

[zer]

Well Ive done my fair share of overclocking and to be completly honest, 2 hours of OCCT Blend followed by 2 hours of Prime 95 Blend, back to back, is damn good enought... Even for folding!!! When your CPU fails afther long, long hours, its "usually" a heat thing:) To be honest, how much you stress test your computer is up to you, some do it for as long as 12-24hours. To me thats a waste of energy and time...

[8igdave]

ive not even run prime on mine lmao. I just run 3d mark as it stressed the cpu out quite a bit, it made it crash once so i had to up my v and it was fine after.

i just cant be bothered with stress testing it, i see playing my games as all the stress testing it neesd as that is all i play i need it to do what i want not what others want.

having said that i wont advice othres to do it unless they choose to them selves and just saying othres wont except anything but 8 hours it seems. but i know for a fact it can still crash after 4 hours of being stable on prime.

Actually i think i may have run prime when i went to see my granparents one day. So perhaps ive given it say 5 hours stress test.

i find it curious that now you say youve done lots of overclocking after being so against it saying it could kill your pc at the start in 4-5 weeks lol.

[Ragenrok]

I have also had a game crash on me about 1 hour in because I didn't bother to stress test, I always do atleast 1 hour of heavy stress testing to make sure I can atleast game. Nothing beats random crashes.

haha I remember playing my computer before I had went watercooling. I could not figure out for the life of me why my computer was all of a sudden freezing up and I had to downclock a bit.

Well after 2 days I noticed the wife had started using our fireplace alot more and all the heat it was putting out was pushing my CPU heat up way to far lol. I lost alot of progress in COD4 single player because of her lol.

[zer]

If your not doing any sensitive work like Folding @ Home then playing games is ok. I just personnaly run the stress tests to make sure that my system works on its very basic and fundamental level. To do that, using OCCT/Prime95/Orthos is a must, it also gives me peace of mind!

[8igdave]

meh, i like to live life on the edge! Thats the geek equivliant of runing a pc which isn't stress tested!!! lol

I have also ha d agame crahs on me about 1 hour in because I didn;t bother to stress test, I always do atleats 1 hour of heavy stress testing to kake sur eI cna atleast game. Nothing beats random crashes.

haha I remember playing my computer before I had went watercooling. I could not figure out for the life of me why my computer was all of a sudden freezing up and I had to downclock a bit.

Well after 2 days I noticed the wife had started using our fireplace alot more and all the heat it was putting out was pushing my CPU heat up way to far lol. I lost alot of progress in COD4 single player because of her lol.

women, they just dont understannd do they. Ive had games freaze because of my overclocked 8800GTX. But other games do not freeze even when stressing it to nearly the same level. Tis strange, dont think i was the only ojne that had those problems either. Only took it down by like 10mhz on the core.

[Ragenrok]

ya it was harsh, I had to have two overclock profiles with my e6600, fireplace off and fireplace on,

when the fireplace was off I could go 3.4ghz @ 1.53V

when fireplace was on I had to go 3.2ghz @ 1.5V

[8igdave]

Hope you told her were to stick it when she was causing you to lose 200mhz of power on your cpu! She probably just burst out laughing lol.

[Ragenrok]

She was enjoying it, one night she not only stoked the fire bigger she opened the glass door to let even more heat out lol. I tried fighting it, I ended up at like 2.9 ghz just to fight the heat, at that point I got the hint she wanted me to shut it down for the night :p

She can be evil when she wants to, I wish I could have my spare room back for my computer!! problem is my computer is now in the living room where the fireplace is :( All because were having a kid, dam kids not even born yet and already costed me a computer room :mrgreen:

[8igdave]

how selfish of a kid to want a room lol. I presume if you hadn't turned it off you may have found your self sleeping in the spare room instead lol.

[Ragenrok]

haha no but I'd probably lose the hearing in my right ear from getting "talked to" :p

[Nerror]

Added another link to the OP: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3184&p=1

Really great guide that goes indepth on the intel chipset based overclocking. A must-read IMO.

[8igdave]

Added another link to the OP: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3184&p=1

Really great guide that goes indepth on the intel chipset based overclocking. A must-read IMO.

a quad core at 4.2ghz at 1.4v? holey moley!