Dual Channel DDR question

Hi guys, this looks like a good place to ask this question. I have a Gigabyte Ga7nnxp mobo and its rather good in my opinion, but what I would like to know is seeing as I have 3 sticks of DDR ram, 2 are pc3200 256mb and 1 pc2100 256mb it all runs at the lower 266mghz of the pc2100 stick. Would my system perform better with only the 2 pc3200 DDR sticks installed, id loose 256mb of ram but id be able to clock the remaining 512mb of memory back up to 400mghz. Would this out way the loss of 256mb of pc2100 at 266mghz??? I dunno what to do, any advice please. Regards Steve
 
Well that plus with just the pc3200 your back in dual channel mode .... I say yes for sure take out the pc2100 no doubts.
 
When i bought this mobo it was to replace my old GA7vrxp which was ok but the mouse port failed then a capacitor went pop so was scrapped. Anyway my old drr was all pc2100 but odd makes and would not run in dual mode in any config whatsoever on this mobo. I bought 512mb pc3200 corsair twin x kit installed it and bingo problem solved. I had some trouble with cpu over temperature so clocked the fsb down to 133mghz and put in the extra 256mb of pc2100 because memory was only running at 266mghz anyway. I think its fair to say this thing is nowhere near running at optimum yet, but it will be, by the way my cpu is only athlon xp 2200+, 266fsb so i cant run the memory at 400mghz yet can I? I thought fsb has to be same as memory clockspeed or am I mistaken about this? Regards Steve, ps at boot up it say's dual channel ddr enabled (this is with the pc2100 installed??)
 
yah, having slightly less RAM running dual channel is a lot better than having slightly more ram running single channel. not as much RAM for your computer or games to use, but double the memory bandwidth.

P.S. Welcome to OSNN.net, steveblade!
 
If the motherboard has a setting for 400 mhz ram you can run it at that speed. The CPU and RAM can run asynchronously (different speeds) you just loose a little performance over the maximum possible. Still better than running ram at 266.

Run the ram as fast as you can and fix that CPU overheat problem. There is no point choking a slower processor even more.

The CPU problem could be too high case temp, ûûûûty HSF, or poor assembly.
-The fix for the case temp is 2 - $6 case fans a front one blowing in and a rear one blowing out.
-You can get a good cpu HSF (volcano 9) for ~$12.
-A tube of arctic silver is $5 and instructions how to properly apply it are on the AMD web site.
You may only need to do one or 2 of these thermal fixes.
 
Thanks for the welcome elemental, and the help you and dragon, ive taken it all in. Ive been plagued by thermal problems, I think the cheap crappy case ive got is part of the problem, its just to dam small and cramped. Also ive never fitted a heatsink that performs as well as its claimed too, and ive checked and rechecked the fitment of them, made sure not too much thermal compound or not enough. Plenty fans all pumping in the same direction etc, I run it with the case open now, cpu still at 60c but it is stable, only climbs any higher if playing joint ops for hours on end or similar. Im going pull that stick of ram out in a bit and just see how it performs when ive cranked everything back up, ive reinstalled the easy tune utillity just so i can see how hot everything is and such, wish me luck :crosseyed:
 
it's kinda hard to notice the difference between single channel and dual channel. think the main thing you'll notice, if at all, is programs might load a little bit faster or somethin like that. not gonna really make your computer overall run faster. might be wrong.
 
So far so good! I need a new case but I think the barton 3200+ will have to come first! Ive now got 768mb of pc2100 that is redundant, looks like its time to do some wheel a dealing.
 
I just tried my first experience with DCDDR. I was wondering if there is any difference between standard DDR and Dual Channel. I have seen them marketed totally apart from each other. I have 2 512 sticks of the DDR3200 in a Gigabyte board with the nForce2 chipset. I am running a Barton 3200 400 FSB and an nVidia 6800 Ultra OC. I have been getting some serious artifact and low framerates after I formatted and reinstalled all of the drivers. I didn't have this before I formatted with the same driver. My 3D Mark score dropped from 25,000 to 11,500.

Any ideas?:tired:
 
no such thing as dual channel ram - its a marketing term for having 2 different sets of wires to each pair of memory slots.
 
Artifacts are from the video card/driver.

First - Clean video fan,
Next try different drivers.
Lastly set the clock back to factory spec. Video cards (even factory OC) don't seem to like overclocking. they die young.
 
Its been a while since ive been on here, Ive bought and fitted 512mb corsair twin x kit(pc3200 LLPT) , it worked well, then I bought 1gb corsair twin x (pc3200xl) this is extra low latency. When I tried all of it together the timings weren't so good as just the 1gb on its own and windows was only showing 1.25gb ram not 1.5gb?? So im selling the the 512mb twin x. Ive also bought a barton 3200 400FSB but this is causing me problems now. The CPU is AXDA3200KV4E but it my system wont boot with the fsb at 400mghz and I dont know why, its currently at 167 and stable but should boot at 200. Anyone got any ideas?.. ps my bios is f20 fashed it just a week or 2 ago.


MOBO ga7nnxp, barton 3200, 1gb corsair twin x (pc3200xl) windows xp pro, geforce 5900 128mb gfx, thats the main stuff.
 
1) What is the rating and brand on your power supply? The 400mhz stuff is sensitive.

2). If you have at least a 350W power Supply, try increasing the memory voltage by 0.05-0.1 volts if your MB supports setting memory voltage, same on your processor.
A buddy had problems with his AMD 64 and ASUS tech support told him to up the RAM voltage a notch with the corsair high speed RAM.

3). Check your manual. I seem to remember nforce 2 chipsets don't support 4 DIMMs unless they are registered, or buffered, some restriction. Also, something about dual sided DIMMs in 4 slots.

4) Also make sure that you haven't accidentally got the MB set to make the RAM speed a multiple of the FSB speed (mine has an option for that). Try setting RAM and CPU clock speeds to auto detect and "safe/optimal/slow" (whatever your bios calls it). Then work up from there using the Gigabyte or Nvidia Windows overclocking tool (it's easier and safer).
 
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erm i dont think the nforce2 chipset really has dual channel support.....

and yeah like Leejend said, I remeber reading somewhere that 4sticks dont work on nforce2, it only sees ur first 2 512mb sticks and one 256mb stick..... maybe you should sell the other 256mb off.............

And why did you buy a Barton? You shoulda got a cheaper 939 venice or winnie on nforce3 250gb mobo or maybe even a nforce4 4x mobo( therir cheap about $80).
 
I had that same MOBO 4 sticks works fine in DC mode , I used 4 x 256mb and even 2 x 256 + 2 x 512

Make sure you use the right slots look in the .pdf it talks about the ram. I used the F11 bios was the best for me , I used to run the barton 3200 at a constant 420mhz with FSB 210 ram set 1:1 up the vdimm in the bios to max 2.7
 
Ill try having a CAREFULL tweak of the voltages in the bios. The 512mb twin x kit is on ebay now so thats history, if I can get everything else stable Ill buy another 1gb kit to compliment the 1gb xl kit im using. My ps is 350 watts but I think the brand is "crappola" will check it now. SUM -VISION is on the sticker, never heard of em, lol. Ive used the gigabyte easytune software but its buggy as hell (v4.) I have a look at the nvidia software see if its better. I shouldn't need to mess with cpu voltage should I?? Its is a 400fsb cpu so why would I need to change the default voltage unless I try to squeeze it a bit more than 400, not that I will yet, need more/better cooling preferably water first. I will post my findings later guys thanks for the help.
 
So far NO good, Ive checked what I can tweak in the bios, Ive got vcore overvoltage, dimm overvoltage, agp, cpu ratio, cpu overvoltage. I cant find the nvidia tool on their site, can anyone point me to it please? Ive sat and watched the volages in the bios and the 12v line is at 11.85 most of the time and is not very stable although it does get a bit nearer 12v. I may need a better psu although I dont know yet.
 
Read the current ratings for 3.3V, 5V and 12V off the PSU label and post them.

You should not have to mess with the CPU voltage unless you want to overclock, probably not even then.

I'll go find that nvidia link. It is well hidden on their website.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/sysutility.html

Hmm, looks like they turned it into bloat ware. It still has the good stuff in it though.

Wow, check out the other stuff:
Firewall
Mixers
etc

Man they've been busy little coder bees.
 
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My PSU "claims" to be 400watts, it was a cheapy though so I still dont rule it out. The label reads +3.3v 26A, +5v 30A, +12v 12A, and -5v 0.5A, -12v 0.8A and 5sb 2A. The easy tune 4 software works when it feels like it, mostly it doesn't, easytune 5 doesn't work at all and the nvidia ntune only gives me basic tweaks, cant get to the advanced settings. Im getting stressed with it now because im only trying to run it at default speeds!! It should plug n play, by the way what is the standard cpu speed for a AMD xp3200 barton cpu, does it clock at 2gig or 2.2?? Im thinking I might try an earlier bios maybe f16. Im at a loss at the min.
 
My easy tune 4 is build 03.080701, does anyone have a later build? Ive reinstalled it and it just doesn't work sometimes, the button for advanced mode and load n save settings does't appear so its usless to me. Im going to test a few earlier bios versions today to see if I have any joy. Anyone else got a gigabyte ga7nnxp and barton 3200 cpu that works ok?
 

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