What do all these memory related BIOS settings actually mean and do!?
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From: Steven O. on 22 Jul 2006 18:59 As discussed in another post, I recently put together a new PC with the ASUS A8N-E Motherboard. The MB has the NVIDIA nForce 4 Ultra chip set, and a Phoenix-Award BIOS (Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG, 04/07/06, also listed as ASUS A8N-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1013). The processor is the AMD Athlon 64 3500+, External clock 200 MHz. Memory: 1 Gig of Corsair Memory CMX512-3200C2PT (2 x 500 Meg DDR 400 chips) Unfortunately, the manual that comes with the board does not clearly explain several key BIOS parameters related to system performance. I have searched the ASUS, AMD, NVIDIA, and Phoenix-Award web sites in vain for detailed discussion. I am not looking to overclock the CPU -- I have no desire to risk overheating -- but I do want to be sure I am getting the optimum performance from the RAM and system bus. I am hoping that someone can either offer explanations of what these various parameters below mean, or can steer me to a document that has a reasonably detailed discussion of both what the parameters, what their interactions are, and especially what are the safe and unsafe settings for them. The BIOS options that seem like they are probably relevant are the following: DRAM configuration Max Memclock. Options: DDR 200 DDR 266 DDR 333 DDR 400 DDR 400 DDR 433 DDR 466 . DDR 500 DDR 533 DDR 550 DDR 600 1T/2T memory timing. Options: 1T/2T CAS latency. Options are Auto 2.0 2.5 3.0 RAS to CAS delay. Options: auto 2 3 4 5 6 7 Min RAS active time. Options: Auto 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Row Precharge Time. Options: auto 2 3 4 5 6 Master ECC enabled. Options: disabled enabled Hyper transport frequency. Options: Auto 1x 2x 5x Overclock profile. Options: Manual / auto / standard / AI overclock / AI N.O.S. For manual overclocking: CPU frequency [set at 200 by default] PCI express clock: 100 MHz up to 145 MHz CPU multiplier: x4 up to x20 N.O.S. Option: Disable Overclock 3% 5% 8% 10% Thanks in advance for all replies. Steve O. "Spying On The College Of Your Choice" -- How to pick the college that is the Best Match for a high school student's needs. www.SpyingOnTheCollegeOfYourChoice.com
From: John Doe on 22 Jul 2006 19:24 Off-topic cross post that could have been kept in the immediately prior cross post about the same subject. See also: Message-ID: <ggp4c2h7nr854uvpn5elvv3nk3it95imn2 4ax.com> Path: newssvr12.news.prodigy.com!newsdbm05.news.prodigy.com!newsdst01.news.prodigy.net!prodigy.com!newscon06.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamkiller.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!trnddc03.POSTED!65755189!not-for-mail From: Steven O. <null null.com> Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.amd.x86-64,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.comp.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Subject: What do all these memory related BIOS settings actually mean and do!? Reply-To: null null.com Message-ID: <jab5c290to4g8e86e0qlthvlvfalu7m06u 4ax.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 48 Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 22:59:39 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.156.17.244 X-Complaints-To: abuse verizon.net X-Trace: trnddc03 1153609179 141.156.17.244 (Sat, 22 Jul 2006 18:59:39 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 18:59:39 EDT Xref: prodigy.net alt.comp.hardware.amd.x86-64:11971 alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:471696 alt.comp.hardware:314897 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips:460796 As discussed in another post, I recently put together a new PC with the ASUS A8N-E Motherboard. <Snip> Thanks in advance for all replies. Steve O. "Spying On The College Of Your Choice" -- How to pick the college that is the Best Match for a high school student's needs. www.SpyingOnTheCollegeOfYourChoice.com
From: Rod Speed on 22 Jul 2006 19:27 John Doe <jdoe(a)usenetlove.invalid> wrote: > Off-topic cross post You get to like that or lump it. > that could have been kept in the immediately > prior cross post about the same subject. Makes a lot more sense to start a new thread.
From: kony on 22 Jul 2006 20:45 On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 22:59:39 GMT, Steven O. <null(a)null.com> wrote: >As discussed in another post, I recently put together a new PC with >the ASUS A8N-E Motherboard. The MB has the NVIDIA nForce 4 Ultra chip >set, and a Phoenix-Award BIOS (Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG, 04/07/06, >also listed as ASUS A8N-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1013). The processor is >the AMD Athlon 64 3500+, External clock 200 MHz. Memory: 1 Gig of >Corsair Memory CMX512-3200C2PT (2 x 500 Meg DDR 400 chips) > >Unfortunately, the manual that comes with the board does not clearly >explain several key BIOS parameters related to system performance. I >have searched the ASUS, AMD, NVIDIA, and Phoenix-Award web sites in >vain for detailed discussion. Most boards nowadays (except OEM targeted models) have these features, but they are deliberately set to defaults which might be conservative, but nevertheless are your best bet for proper system operation In other words, unless you knew a specific setting you needed to change, you should resist the urge to change any. Through experience changing them you might gain more insight into potential problems, but along with this comes knowing how to find and resolve problems resulting from changing the settings. Finally, the performance gain is usually small, in the grand scheme of things seeing that technology improves towards a certain % improvement over time, the amount of benefit you get from the tweaks is only a few "weeks". Hardly worth the possible problems unless this is only an experimental system rather than one relied upon for primary use. With that in mind... > >I am not looking to overclock the CPU -- I have no desire to risk >overheating -- Overheating is easily pinpointed, but instability can be more troublesome. Changing the bios settings can in effect be overclocking the particular parameter, or the per-board setting threshold for stability may be exceeded. >but I do want to be sure I am getting the optimum >performance from the RAM and system bus. That's easy enough, set the memory bios setting to "Auto/SPD". The bus speed is fixed until you want to changen the CPU speed which you already decided not to do. >I am hoping that someone can >either offer explanations of what these various parameters below mean, >or can steer me to a document that has a reasonably detailed >discussion of both what the parameters, what their interactions are, http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm >and especially what are the safe and unsafe settings for them. The safe setting is the default. The unsafe is to make any changes to any settings you don't understand or aren't able to troubleshoot per correct operation. In other words, don't change anything until you know what and why you need to change it. If there was significant "free" performance to be gained by just tapping a couple keyboard keys without further issues, they'd be set that way by default (and indeed, some may be already, but on the other hand some changes you make can lower the performance instead).
From: Rod Speed on 22 Jul 2006 21:43
kony <spam(a)spam.com> wrote > Steven O. <null(a)null.com> wrote >> As discussed in another post, I recently put together a new PC with >> the ASUS A8N-E Motherboard. The MB has the NVIDIA nForce 4 Ultra >> chip set, and a Phoenix-Award BIOS (Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG, >> 04/07/06, also listed as ASUS A8N-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1013). >> The processor is the AMD Athlon 64 3500+, External clock 200 MHz. >> Memory: 1 Gig of Corsair Memory CMX512-3200C2PT >> (2 x 500 Meg DDR 400 chips) >> Unfortunately, the manual that comes with the board does not >> clearly explain several key BIOS parameters related to system >> performance. I have searched the ASUS, AMD, NVIDIA, and >> Phoenix-Award web sites in vain for detailed discussion. > Most boards nowadays (except OEM targeted models) > have these features, but they are deliberately set to > defaults which might be conservative, but nevertheless > are your best bet for proper system operation That is mutually contradictory. If the settings are conservative, by definition that is not necessarily the best bet for proper system operation. > In other words, unless you knew a specific setting you > needed to change, you should resist the urge to change any. Nothing like the same thing. > Through experience changing them you might gain more insight > into potential problems, but along with this comes knowing how > to find and resolve problems resulting from changing the settings. It isnt necessarily a trial and error thing. > Finally, the performance gain is usually small, in the grand > scheme of things seeing that technology improves towards a > certain % improvement over time, the amount of benefit you > get from the tweaks is only a few "weeks". Hardly worth the > possible problems unless this is only an experimental system > rather than one relied upon for primary use. With that in mind... Gets sillier by the minute. >> I am not looking to overclock the CPU >> -- I have no desire to risk overheating -- > Overheating is easily pinpointed, but instability can be > more troublesome. Changing the bios settings can in effect > be overclocking the particular parameter, or the per-board > setting threshold for stability may be exceeded. Or it may well be a setting that is fine for the particular hardware used but which isnt the default setting. >> but I do want to be sure I am getting the optimum >> performance from the RAM and system bus. > That's easy enough, set the memory bios setting to > "Auto/SPD". The bus speed is fixed until you want to > changen the CPU speed which you already decided not to do. But the RAM parameters arent necessarily. >> I am hoping that someone can either offer explanations of >> what these various parameters below mean, or can steer >> me to a document that has a reasonably detailed discussion >> of both what the parameters, what their interactions are, > http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm >> and especially what are the safe and unsafe settings for them. > The safe setting is the default. The unsafe is to make > any changes to any settings you don't understand You havent established that they arent understood with better documentation. > or aren't able to troubleshoot per correct operation. It aint necessarily about troubleshooting, just using particularly the memory timing parameters that the manufacturer has stated that the particular memory being used is guaranteed to work at. > In other words, don't change anything until > you know what and why you need to change it. And he asked about that knowledge. > If there was significant "free" performance to be > gained by just tapping a couple keyboard keys without > further issues, they'd be set that way by default Wrong if for example the parameters in the spd are incorrect or the bios doesnt actually drive the ram with the parameters that the spds say it can do. > (and indeed, some may be already, but on the other hand > some changes you make can lower the performance instead). Waffle. |