Asus P4P800, checking DDR ram speed with XP?

[outtaping]

Hello,

Is there a simple utility that displays DDR-ram speed, with Win-XP.

I just bought some DDR-433 PC3500 ram, and want to make sure it's
running at 400Mhz (not 266, etc.).

Thanks.

p.s. Tried a small util called CPU-Z, but it doesn't seem to display
true DDR-ram speed.

 

[Philip Callan]

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

Go there, its a utility that allows you to change FSB/mem etc while running
windows, it should report
the true speed, and even allow you to tweak it a bit.

The one for your Board is at:
http://www.cpuid.com/download/CG-ICS952607.zip

The utility is Motherboard dependant, so you can only use that 2nd link for
P4P800 / P4P800-VM / P4C800 / P4C800-E
for other makes, people have to go to the first link and check to see if
their MB is supported.

 

[Philip Callan]

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

Go there, its a utility that allows you to change FSB/mem etc while running
windows, it should report
the true speed, and even allow you to tweak it a bit.

Sorry, side note its for adjusting your FSB and AGP speeds, not memory, but
it will show you true values for RAM.

 

[Eric]

You can also use Sisoft Sandra -- which gives you tons of information about
your system. Here is a link to it:


http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=

Here is what it says about my RAM speed: note that it says "400 mhz data
rate" next to speed under the memory bank portion (note that it also shows
that I have PAT and hyperthreading enabled):

Mainboard
Manufacturer : ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
MP Support : 1 CPU(s)
MPS Version : 1.40
Model : P4P800
Version : Rev 1.xx
Serial Number : MB-1234567890

Chipset 1
Model : ASUSTeK Computer Inc 82865G/PE/P, 82848P DRAM Controller / Host-Hub
Interface
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz data rate)
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 4x 200MHz / 2x 200MHz
Width : 64-bit
HTT - Hyper-Threading Technology : Yes
IO Queue Depth : 12 request(s)

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-3-3-6CL 1CMD
Bank 1 : 512MB DDR-SDRAM 2.5-3-3-6CL 1CMD
Channels : 2
Speed : 2x 200MHz (400MHz data rate)
Multiplier : 1/1x
Width : 64-bit
Refresh Rate : 7.80µs
Performance Acceleration Technology : Yes
Power Save Mode : No
Fixed Hole Present : No

 

[Noozer]

http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=

Here is what it says about my RAM speed: note that it says "400 mhz data
rate" next to speed under the memory bank portion (note that it also shows
that I have PAT and hyperthreading enabled):

I keep hearing about PAT... It's something that my P4C800E should have, but
Sandra shows that it's disabled. From what I can see, you need a SATA hard
drive to use PAT???

 

[outtaping]

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

Go there, its a utility that allows you to change FSB/mem etc while running
windows, it should report
the true speed, and even allow you to tweak it a bit.

The one for your Board is at:
http://www.cpuid.com/download/CG-ICS952607.zip

The utility is Motherboard dependant, so you can only use that 2nd link for
P4P800 / P4P800-VM / P4C800 / P4C800-E
for other makes, people have to go to the first link and check to see if
their MB is supported.

Thanks for the help, I'll try both programs.

Also DL'ing Sandra-2004. I just switched from W98 to XP, some of my
software programs are so old(!).


Might as well ask about this too:

In P4P800 BIOS, Advanced/Jumperfree Config/Performance, there are 3
settings:

Auto
Standard
Turbo

Sounds like 'Turbo' mode would be preferred setting. The manual does
mention turbo-mode but nothing else. What does this setting actually
change or do?

(...watching the other/new topic about PAT setting)

 

[Eric]

No. SATA has nothing to do with PAT -- I don't even have a SATA board.

PAT is enabled in the P4P800 by setting Memory Acceleration in the bios to
"enabled". I don't know if your board has a similar setting in the bios.
PAT can also be enabled in the P4P800 by setting "performance mode" in the
bios to either the "standard" or the "turbo" settings. Again, I don't know
your board's bios.

Also, no matter what, PAT generally becomes disabled (at least partially)
when you overclock.

 

[Eric]

From experimentation, it appears that the peformance mode when set to either
"standard" or "turbo" does two things:

1. it enables PAT (assuming you are not overclocking) -- Performance
Acceleration Technology

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20030528093951.html

2. it changes the memory timings to what may be more efficient timings,
assuming your memory can handle it.

For instance, in "auto" under the "performance mode", with the "serial
presence detect" elsewhere in the bios set to enabled (so your memory timing
is auto detected), my memory timings show up as 2.5 3 3 8.

When I enable either "standard" or "turbo", the timings show up as 2.5 3 3
6. Under a previous bios version, "turbo" tried to change memory to 2 2 2
5. My memory couldn't handle that, and I couldn't boot in "turbo".

 

[Eric]

Oh and here's an interesting article on both the memory accleration and the
performance mode settings:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-p4p800_8.html

I'm not sure the conclusions are now accurate with bios 1014. Also, I think
the results depend on your memory and the timings it can handle.

 

[Noozer]

No. SATA has nothing to do with PAT -- I don't even have a SATA board.

PAT is enabled in the P4P800 by setting Memory Acceleration in the bios to
"enabled". I don't know if your board has a similar setting in the bios.
PAT can also be enabled in the P4P800 by setting "performance mode" in the
bios to either the "standard" or the "turbo" settings. Again, I don't know
your board's bios.

Also, no matter what, PAT generally becomes disabled (at least partially)
when you overclock.

Ok... was confusing it with the Intel Application Accelerator (or whatever
it's called).

Definately overclocked here, sot PAT stays off!

 

[outtaping]

From experimentation, it appears that the peformance mode when set to either
"standard" or "turbo" does two things:

1. it enables PAT (assuming you are not overclocking) -- Performance
Acceleration Technology

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20030528093951.html

2. it changes the memory timings to what may be more efficient timings,
assuming your memory can handle it.

For instance, in "auto" under the "performance mode", with the "serial
presence detect" elsewhere in the bios set to enabled (so your memory timing
is auto detected), my memory timings show up as 2.5 3 3 8.

When I enable either "standard" or "turbo", the timings show up as 2.5 3 3
6. Under a previous bios version, "turbo" tried to change memory to 2 2 2
5. My memory couldn't handle that, and I couldn't boot in "turbo".

This info is very helpful!

Since updating the P4P800 865 chipset from Intel's website (v5.0.2 I
think), things 'seem' to have not been as stable. Your post basically
explains why (overclocking the CPU, and 'turbo' combination probably).

Thanks.