Memory question

[negev]

What does the 'performance level' setting actually do? If I set my timings manually to 8-8-8-26, does the performance level setting have any effect?

Also, what are the defaults for all of the memory settings if you leave them on auto? Is there a way to see what they end up set as when left on auto? I'm starting to think that the blackops has really aggressive default memory timings which is stopping me from getting higher than 400x8..

[Slovnaft]

i'm not entirely sure on specifics, but in my experience PL is like a broad effect timing--> looser PL = higher FSB and vice versa.
but uh, you should post in the memory tech support forums so that someone who knows what he's talking about answers your question =]

[HDCHOPPER]

download mem set by Tony
in the stickys you can see what some of the auto's are that way

[LordIT]

What does the 'performance level' setting actually do? If I set my timings manually to 8-8-8-26, does the performance level setting have any effect?

I had the same questions in the Lavalys Forum (Thommy is my username there).
The performance level dosen`t depend on memory timings/ subtimings. There are some secrets in the Intel Chipset! Please have a look at the link:

http://www.lavalys.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3365

[Xello]

What does the 'performance level' setting actually do? If I set my timings manually to 8-8-8-26, does the performance level setting have any effect?

Also, what are the defaults for all of the memory settings if you leave them on auto? Is there a way to see what they end up set as when left on auto? I'm starting to think that the blackops has really aggressive default memory timings which is stopping me from getting higher than 400x8..

If you set the memory settings on auto it will default to the stock settings of that memory. They have little profiles in them to let the motherboard know what the default settings are :)

As for PL, here's what you need to know:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3184&p=8

[negev]

If you set the memory settings on auto it will default to the stock settings of that memory. They have little profiles in them to let the motherboard know what the default settings are :)


I thought the later Blackops bios's disabled XMP profiles.. my Geil ram had XMP but if I used Everest to compare the XMP profile with what was actually set in the bios with all settings on Auto, the Blackops had set them quite a bit more aggressive than the XMP.

[Xello]

I thought the later Blackops bios's disabled XMP profiles.. my Geil ram had XMP but if I used Everest to compare the XMP profile with what was actually set in the bios with all settings on Auto, the Blackops had set them quite a bit more aggressive than the XMP.

It's not XMP profiles, they're special for intel chipsets. I think they're called SPD profiles, they're just standard ones for all memory. From what i can remember they also act like little bios's for your memory, they can be flashed with a new one that will tell your memory to go to the timings for that SPD. Tony from OCZ used this to sort out some problems OCZ ram was having, i think.

That's weird that the board is tightening your timings when on Auto, i'm almost 100% sure that it should not be doing that, maybe PM Saaya about this. In the mean time if this is the case then you should definitely just use the manual setting and put your stock timings in yourself. Check memset once you're in windows too, to verify the timings are correct, i have at least 1 setting (tRTP) that goes to 2 steps higher in windows than what i set in bios.

[Ryan12]

Do you guys know if cpuz doesnt read memory timings correctly on the blackops board?

[saaya]

I'm starting to think that the blackops has really aggressive default memory timings which is stopping me from getting higher than 400x8..yes! :D
shamino wanted the tightest timings possible all the time, which caused a lot of compatibility issues and after we got that sorted out still prevents people from clocking very high unless they use manual timings.


download mem set by Tony
in the stickys you can see what some of the auto's are that waymemset is not from tony, its from herve aka felix88 :D
and yes, memset lets you see and adjust the most important timings directly in windows :)


Do you guys know if cpuz doesnt read memory timings correctly on the blackops board?it should read the timings just fine :)

now about performance level aka trd aka read delay... there has been a lot of speculation about it and a lot of guessing, but nobody really figured out what exactly it does. at least as far as i know...

im pretty sure that its a timing that is added to add more flexibility to the chain of memory commands and operations. it seems to impact almost only the read performance, and reducing it gives quite a big boost with every step you go lower. i think its not one of many timings however, but a timing that is added or used to calculate other timings in the memory command chain.
so increasing it will result in several steps in the process of acessing the memory, mostly for reading, take longer and thus you get lower read performance overall.

and yes, it does directly impact the highest fsb you can achieve.
all the 710fsb for asus and 700fsb with biostar were achieve with very high trd of 12 or thereabouts. to put things in perspective:
at 450fsb trd 8/9/10 is usually default, trd 7 is fast, 6 is very fast. how tight you can go depends on the quality of the board/chipset/cooling/amount of chipset voltage you blow through your northbridge :D

higher trd=lower read bandwidth
higher trd=higher fsb/nb voltage (you need less chipset voltage for the same fsb, or can get a higher fsb at the same voltage)