Upgraded To PC3200 RAM. Now 3DMark score is LOWER??

[pberry]

Hi

My system is

a7n8x-e deluxe mobo
barton 2600+ cpu ( 166fsb )
radeon 9800 pro
etc etc

I want to put a xp 3200+ cpu in ( or maybe a 2500+ and o/c it to 3200+
). I had 2 sticks of Kingston 256mb PC2700 Ram Cas 2.5, so i traded in
my two sticks of kingston 256Mb PC3200 ram, cas 3. Running in dual
channel mode.

If i run the ram at 200mhz in the bios ( cpu at 166mhz ) then i get a
far worse benchamrk score than with the old pc2700 ram ( about 13000
compared to over 15000 before. )

If i go into the bios and set the ram to run at same speed as fsb (
166mhz ) then i get a more normal score, just over 15000 as before.

Is this normal??

I take it theres nothing stopping me just popping in a xp3200+ now?

PS ive managed to get the xp2600+ up to 189mhz fsb resulting in a
clock speed of 2174Mhz. Not far off a 3200+ i dont think. But id
rather not overclock it so i run it at normal speed ( 166mhz )

thanks

paul

 

[BigBadger]

Yep...thats normal. All Nforce2 boards perform better is the FSB and memory
clock frequencies are synchronised. For ultimate performance run both at
200MHz (or more)......Why are you not wanting to overclock your XP2600+ but
appear to be quite happy to overclock a XP2500+?????. If you have good
cooling and raise the voltage a bit you should be able to hit 200FSB with
the XP2600+....I take it the multiplier is locked, otherwise you should just
reduce the multiplier to 11x.

By the way the hot purchase right now is an XP2500+ Mobile....they are still
unlocked and they overclock really well. I'm running one now at 2650MHz.

 

[Paul]

Hi

My system is

a7n8x-e deluxe mobo
barton 2600+ cpu ( 166fsb )
radeon 9800 pro
etc etc

I want to put a xp 3200+ cpu in ( or maybe a 2500+ and o/c it to 3200+
). I had 2 sticks of Kingston 256mb PC2700 Ram Cas 2.5, so i traded in
my two sticks of kingston 256Mb PC3200 ram, cas 3. Running in dual
channel mode.

If i run the ram at 200mhz in the bios ( cpu at 166mhz ) then i get a
far worse benchamrk score than with the old pc2700 ram ( about 13000
compared to over 15000 before. )

If i go into the bios and set the ram to run at same speed as fsb (
166mhz ) then i get a more normal score, just over 15000 as before.

Is this normal??

I take it theres nothing stopping me just popping in a xp3200+ now?

PS ive managed to get the xp2600+ up to 189mhz fsb resulting in a
clock speed of 2174Mhz. Not far off a 3200+ i dont think. But id
rather not overclock it so i run it at normal speed ( 166mhz )

thanks

paul

The Nforce2 has a resynchronization penalty, when the CPU and Memory
run with a different clock. In other words, 166MHz CPU and 200MHz
Memory will be slower than 166/166. There are two effects at work
- the memory clock increase works in your favor, the resync penalty
works against you - this implies that maybe with enough clock speed
on the memory, you could gain something. Note that there is a bug
with the memory interface, when the clocks are run at different
rates, so the standard advice is to leave them at the same frequency
if you want error free operation.

If you don't like this advice, run memtest86 and see if the memory
is error free, after you make any adjustments to CPU vs memory clock.

The supported CPUs are listed here:
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx

Have fun,
Paul