Swopped 3400+ for CG Stepping now memory bandwidth dropped (WTF?)

[Sheik]

Ok I had an early Athlon64 3400+ CO Stepping and now I swopped it for a new CG stepping. My old memory bandwidth in Sandra 2004 was 3100 and now it's 2780 ?

Any ideas why ?

RAM is Winbond BH5 @ 2-2-2-11 (200 Mhz)
Gigabyte K8N Pro F11 BIOS

[n00by]

Could it be you swapped for a 512k Newcastle?

[Sheik]

No it is definitely a Clawhammer. Funny thing is my CPU score is still 9600 ... but Cinebench2003 drops from 316 to 296 ?

[morbidj]

Wow that is very odd? Did your mobo swith your mem timings on you by chance?I have a kn8pro set to auto and it wigs out at times.

[Peen]

maybe your bios needs updating to work correctly with CG's

[Nico]

CG stepping imposes 2t timings where the bios supports CG stepping. Use F12c and you can disable 2t and use multipliers with clkgen.

[pkrew]

Where are you finding the f12c at?

[Sheik]

@ morbidj Have had funny things happen lately. When I put RAM in slot 1 + 3 it would not boot (beeping sounds !) Put RAM in slot 1 + 2 it boots, but bandwidth dropped. Maybe my mobo is faulty or my RAM. Tonight I will memtest to be sure.

@ Peen The F11 is latest official BIOS :-(

Shot Nico that sounds promising :-)

[Peen]

sounds like a beta bios? im sure someone will have it :D

[Sheik]

F12c Beta BIOS at nForcersHQ apparently.

Here:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47241

links to:

http://members.cox.net/garikfox/gak8np_f12c.zip

[pkrew]

The link to the bios is dead.

[Sheik]

This link should work.

http://clientes.netvisao.pt/ratax/k8np_f12c.exe

Funny thing. It might be Beta but on AMD site:
http://www2.amd.com/us-en/recmobo/DetailHandler/1,,30_2252_869_9460%5e9461,00.html?queryID=77283

Model: GA-K8N Pro
Revision: 1.0
Form Factor: ATX
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce3
Bios: Award K8NP 12c 02/25/2004 Recommended Speeds:
AMD Athlon™ 64 3400+
AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+
AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+

And now the plot thickens.
http://forums.planetamd64.com/viewtopic.php?t=1023
Does anyone else loose lots of memory bandwidth in Sisoft SANDRA using bios f12c. The older f11 bios seems much higher.

[pkrew]

I get the same Sandra using the f12c that I got with the f9 K8NNXP. I'm sure if you enabled the 2t option your score would drop. Great find Nico!! Thanks Sheik for finding the link!!

[Sheik]

Originally posted by Nico
CG stepping imposes 2t timings where the bios supports CG stepping. Use F12c and you can disable 2t and use multipliers with clkgen.

Nico ! Your the man. This did the trick.

Why don't Gigabyte release this BIOS. The date on it is 25 February 2004 !

[Nico]

No problem :D , you have no idea how many bioses I tried before I found this one. It's the only one that gives a good bandwidth score and allows the CG to adjust multipliers in clkgen.

[Gautam]

This is the holy grail I've been looking for for weeks!! 1 sec drop in PIFast and SuperPI, and a 300mb/sec gain in Sandra! Many thanks!!