Playing with RAM timings.

**musman** · 03-18-10, 06:43 PM

Can I damage anything by playing with my RAM timings? My stock RAM specifications are 7-7-7-24, DDR3 1600. If I tried say, 7-7-7-18, am I risking damaging anything? Just curious is all. I'm always wanting to learn new things and get my PC to run at it's best. I would like to put my CPU to it's stock clock speed and play with the timings just too see what it does, if anything.

Here is my exact RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227381

Thanks!

t3hl33td4rg0n · 03-18-10, 09:03 PM

Back in the day, this used to be a big deal. AFAIK with newer RAM, tightening up the timings has a miniscule gain. I could be wrong though.

Logical · 03-18-10, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by musman

Can I damage anything by playing with my RAM timings? My stock RAM specifications are 7-7-7-24, DDR3 1600. If I tried say, 7-7-7-18, am I risking damaging anything? Just curious is all. I'm always wanting to learn new things and get my PC to run at it's best. I would like to put my CPU to it's stock clock speed and play with the timings just too see what it does, if anything.

Here is my exact RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227381

Thanks!

Usually if the timings are out of range then the system will not past POST.

**musman** · 03-19-10, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t3hl33td4rg0n

Back in the day, this used to be a big deal. AFAIK with newer RAM, tightening up the timings has a miniscule gain. I could be wrong though.

That's what I have been reading also, not much gain by tightening up the timings. I have been reading that where you can notice a difference is when editing videos or transferring large files, neither one of those I do do very often.

I got it too run at 7-7-7-18 last night, going to try to push it a little more tonight.

Revs · 03-19-10, 10:45 AM

The trouble with timings is, as was said, the gains are tiny, but it can make for an unstable system. If you're really unlucky, data loss, too. Also, stress testing doesn't always find problems. Best thing I've found is only adjust one at a time and just use your PC for a week or two. If all is well, tweak again.

**musman** · 03-19-10, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revs

The trouble with timings is, as was said, the gains are tiny, but it can make for an unstable system. If you're really unlucky, data loss, too. Also, stress testing doesn't always find problems. Best thing I've found is only adjust one at a time and just use your PC for a week or two. If all is well, tweak again.

I have been reading post from others with the same RAM. Seems 7-7-7-18 at 1600 is about all I should expect.

Had a funny thing happen last night. I wanted to see what effect overclocking my CPU had on FSX so I started the game, setup a flight in New York (NYC is a good place to fly too see what FPS your going to expect in FSX) got it up and running and saved the game. I loaded up one of my BIOS OC settings and ran FSX again loaded my saved game and got worse FPS than with my stock CPU clock. My OC was 3.46GHz. I got 10-15 more FPS with the stock settings. My OC took because I checked it with CPUZ. After all that I went to bed, going to check it out again tonight.

t3hl33td4rg0n · 03-19-10, 08:37 PM

If you're overclocking the FSB and keep your timing setting on auto, then the BIOS will real the timing table form the SPD chips on the modules and adjust the timings based on the "slowest" stick.

The best you're ever going to get is maybe 1ns or less out of the RAM regardless of whether you're overclocking or not. I suggest you let the BIOS decide what the timings should be set to.

If its being goofy with RAM ratios and please correct me if I am stupid and this makes no sense [or if I am wrong lol]...

eg: If the FSB is at 240x4 with a 5:4 ratio then the RAM would be running 768MHz (which would give you 7-7-7-12) but timings are based on a 960MHz speed (11-11-12-16) then you would want to set the timings to what you would get at that frequency. This is where you theoretically could tighetn the timings a bit because the RAM is running at a slower frequency tham its spec'd to do. You could possibly get away with something like 6.5-7-7-11 and maybe even less.

Other than that you will want to play it safe, because its just not worth the risk. Also, keep a burnt copy of the memtest86+ ISO handy to test your successful POST results, without booting into the OS.

**musman** · 03-20-10, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t3hl33td4rg0n

If you're overclocking the FSB and keep your timing setting on auto, then the BIOS will real the timing table form the SPD chips on the modules and adjust the timings based on the "slowest" stick.

The best you're ever going to get is maybe 1ns or less out of the RAM regardless of whether you're overclocking or not. I suggest you let the BIOS decide what the timings should be set to.

If its being goofy with RAM ratios and please correct me if I am stupid and this makes no sense [or if I am wrong lol]...

eg: If the FSB is at 240x4 with a 5:4 ratio then the RAM would be running 768MHz (which would give you 7-7-7-12) but timings are based on a 960MHz speed (11-11-12-16) then you would want to set the timings to what you would get at that frequency. This is where you theoretically could tighetn the timings a bit because the RAM is running at a slower frequency tham its spec'd to do. You could possibly get away with something like 6.5-7-7-11 and maybe even less.

Other than that you will want to play it safe, because its just not worth the risk. Also, keep a burnt copy of the memtest86+ ISO handy to test your successful POST results, without booting into the OS.

I'm not sure if you are correct or not. This part "If the FSB is at 240x4 with a 5:4 ratio" is Greek to me

I'm still a noob. I have had my CPU OC to 3.56GHz but recently have put it back to stock. I never really noticed any difference in performance with my CPU OC, unless I was running a benchmark program. In games and every day usage I can't tell any difference.

Lyme · 03-21-10, 01:30 AM

If your doing anything where the data is too big to fit into the cpu cache, ram timings can make a big difference. Surfing the web and checking email don't fit into that category.

When using ram that has a speed greater than 1333mhz be aware that there isn't a industry spec on the timings, and the little spd chips on the memory boards are often misread by motherboards.

Realistically, what you want to do is have your ram clocked at the same speed as the bus accessing it.

As a interesting note, if you look at the following timings and ask yourself the question: which is faster, and why.
1600mhz 7-7-7-21 2t
1300mhz 7-7-7-21 1t

Strangely enough (and for good reason) the 1300mhz timing is faster, because 2T (command rate) means that the cpu can only send commands to the ram every second tick. So instead of being 300mhz faster, it turns into 1300mhz slower.

Also by general rule RAS= CL+RCD+RP (but not always).
CL - CAS latency
RCD - RAS to CAS delay
RP - RAS Precharge
RAS - Row Address Strobe/ Row Address Select.

What I would recommend timing wise, is that you head on over to the OCZ forums and make a post in the right forum with what you bought, and what system you have and ask them for the optimal timings. I did that for my GSKILL ram, and they were a great help.

03-18-10, 06:43 PM	#1
musman I Derail Threads Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: USA Posts: 976	Playing with RAM timings. Can I damage anything by playing with my RAM timings? My stock RAM specifications are 7-7-7-24, DDR3 1600. If I tried say, 7-7-7-18, am I risking damaging anything? Just curious is all. I'm always wanting to learn new things and get my PC to run at it's best. I would like to put my CPU to it's stock clock speed and play with the timings just too see what it does, if anything. Here is my exact RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227381 Thanks! __________________ Antec Nine Hundred case. Core I-7 920 @ 3.56GHz, Noctua NH-U12P Cooler, EVGA 01G-P3-1180-AR GeForce GTX-285 1GB, EVGA GT-240 Superclocked 512Mb used as a Physx card, DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6, OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1600 7-7-7-18, Intel X25-V SSD, used as a boot drive, 2X Seagate 500Gig 32MB Cache 7200RPM in RAID 0, Logitec G-15 keyboard, Logitech MX-518 Mouse, CH Combatstick 568, Xboc Controller, LG L227WTG-PF 22" LCD Monitor 1680x1050. Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit. Speakers: KRK Rokit8 studio monitors. http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/media/customer.jpg

03-19-10, 10:45 AM	#5
Revs Registered User Join Date: May 2007 Location: UK Posts: 6,362	Re: Playing with RAM timings. The trouble with timings is, as was said, the gains are tiny, but it can make for an unstable system. If you're really unlucky, data loss, too. Also, stress testing doesn't always find problems. Best thing I've found is only adjust one at a time and just use your PC for a week or two. If all is well, tweak again.

03-21-10, 01:30 AM	#9
Lyme Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 2,682	Re: Playing with RAM timings. If your doing anything where the data is too big to fit into the cpu cache, ram timings can make a big difference. Surfing the web and checking email don't fit into that category. When using ram that has a speed greater than 1333mhz be aware that there isn't a industry spec on the timings, and the little spd chips on the memory boards are often misread by motherboards. Realistically, what you want to do is have your ram clocked at the same speed as the bus accessing it. As a interesting note, if you look at the following timings and ask yourself the question: which is faster, and why. 1600mhz 7-7-7-21 2t 1300mhz 7-7-7-21 1t Strangely enough (and for good reason) the 1300mhz timing is faster, because 2T (command rate) means that the cpu can only send commands to the ram every second tick. So instead of being 300mhz faster, it turns into 1300mhz slower. Also by general rule RAS= CL+RCD+RP (but not always). CL - CAS latency RCD - RAS to CAS delay RP - RAS Precharge RAS - Row Address Strobe/ Row Address Select. What I would recommend timing wise, is that you head on over to the OCZ forums and make a post in the right forum with what you bought, and what system you have and ask them for the optimal timings. I did that for my GSKILL ram, and they were a great help.