Nforce4 and 4 RAM modules

K

keimigca

n00b
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
42
I have been looking at new Mboards for the last month or so, and I have found a problem. Many of the reviews I have seen for Mboards say that if you run 4 sticks of dual channel Ram you have to get them at 333 megahertz, not at 400. But If you get less than 4 you can get 400mh. Is this true of all the Nforce4 boards or just a couple of the ones I have looked at(gigabyte, msi).

Chris
 
It is a bit more complicated than that. All motherboards will be the same though. It is a limitation of the CPU memory controller, not the motherboards. In order for it to work the way you want at this point in time, you would need 4 sticks of pc3200 RAM that are single sided modules. Most 512 are dual sided and thus don't work with 4 sticks at pc3200 speeds. As a side note, 512 sticks that are single sided are a bit hard to find, but I think Crucial has some!

You have 3 options:

1. Install 4 sticks and run at 333mhz speeds (not recommended)

2. Buy 4 sticks of pc3200 RAM that are one-sided sticks only

3. Wait 1-2 months for new steppin of Athlon64 CPU that will fix this issue
 
d2thez said:
3. Wait 1-2 months for new steppin of Athlon64 CPU that will fix this issue
Click to expand...

It's unfortunate that they will first (maybe only? i dont know) be released as high end models 3800+ or some such.

Also is this dual sided module issue only applicable when using 4 modules?
 
Yes, you can use double-sided modules in two sticks configurations, but once above that, it goes downhill. So doubles-sided sticks are okay as long as you are using a max of two in a dual channel configuration.
 
I'm assuming that this is an issue with all capacities of 4 double sided sticks right? Or can it work with 4 256mb double sided sticks?
 
I am pretty sure that this applies to 256mb modules as well. But honestly, you might have a better chance than with 512mb modules. It all depends on if it is dual bank or not.
 
Does this mean if i stick two more sticks of ram in my system it won't work>? :confused:

cause I almost wanna try it just to prove someone wrong. ;)
 
it works with 4 sticks... it just slows the speed down... With 4 pc3200 modules, it drops to pc2700 speed. There is an AMD white paper that explains this issue.
 
Son of a bitch,

I ordered my chaintech VNF4 Ultra, at the same time I ordered my ram. I got 2x256mb DDR400, with the intention of getting two more 256mb sticks later. Only after reading the Mobo manual did I say my mistake.

I guess the question is,

Running things stock (not oc'ing), would a system perform better with 1 gig of DDR333 or 512mb of DDR400,?

Im assuming that from an OCers perpesctive, DDR333 seriously limits your options.
 
When I first started running my A8N-SLI I was using 2 - 256MB sticks at DDR400. I switched to my older ram (2 - 512MB DDR333) and my performance improved greatly. Looking at sisoft mem bandwidth scores before and after, my performance went from around 5000MB/s to around 4000MB/s, but it was well worth the sacrifice. If you think about it, it only takes a tenth of a second to fill up your ram if you have .5GB; however, if you had to write that extra .5GB of needed memory to a swap file on a hard disk, then you would spend much more than a tenth of a second...

When I tried to use all four of those modules, it dropped the memory speed to DDR266.
 
would that act like a memory divider when you OC? could you then bump the fsb/htt up to 234 and effectively be running the ram at 400 again?
 
no, would not work still.
also, the 1-2 months till it changes is wrong.
this actually changes in mid 2006 or so, when AMD brings out an entire new pin package. the new memory controller requires different pins (1006 i think)
sorry to put a downer on things.
i was pissed too, as i wanted 4 sticks of 2225 512mb corasir ram, but had to go for 2 sticks of 1024mb at 3338 instead.
oh well.
f
 
if im not mistaken s754 boards (the DFI lanparty in my sig specifically) can not run 3 sticks of pc3200 at full speed.....and as it was stated above that even with overclocking it wouldnt work..


why are my sticks running at 408mhz then? (204 FSB/HTT with a divider)

so if you "overclock" the sticks (not really overclocking since you will be manually setting them to run at stock speeds...) then as long as the CPU and motherboard are anywhere near a decent overclocking chip/board he can get them to run at stock speeds...of course he would need a basic knowledge of overclocking....


ps.
i recently sold my 2 X 256 sticks of kingston ram (that in conjuction with my 512 mb stick of gieil gave me 1 gig) in order to buy a second stick of the geil ram. thats why it doesnt show my 3 stick config in my sig.
 
freddiepm61 said:
... i wanted 4 sticks of 2225 512mb corasir ram, but had to go for 2 sticks of 1024mb at 3338 instead.
oh well.
f
Click to expand...
Speaking of which, how did that setup ultimately perform for you?

I'm in the same boat--need 2MB for audio editing, but want to run as fast as I can with gig sticks--
How well do they OC, and which units do you think are good?
 
so is it better to run 4x256 or 2x512 ? or does it even make a diference? i plan on upgrading soon and my budget only allows 2x512 if i stay on agp and upgrade the vid card later, or just get 1 512 now and hope i can get a match for it later. ...difference between nf3 or nf4....
 
yes...2x512...

for 2 gigs get 4X512 tho......and manually set it to stock speeds...since even if the board/chip is 1 step above a POS overclocker it should easily handle the slight overclocking
 
I posted another thread about this here...

Someone responded with a link to the Asus knowledgebase that had something about this issue for the A8N-SLI. As long as you are using "approved" modules on Asus's list, you can manually set the speed in the BIOS... I did this, and it works fine, on the A8N-SLI anyway. 4 sticks of 512MB PC3200 running at DDR400 manually set in the BIOS.. no instability has occured, I've been running this way for a while now.

Edit:
Here is a link to that thread: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=859858
 
I am runing 4 x 512 of crucial 3200 LL at 400 right know on my MSI K8N Neo 2 with know probelms. I have even run memtest for hours with no errors. Is this issue only related to NForce 4?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top