Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P and TW3X4G1600C9DHX

I currently have 4GB of TW3X4G1600C9DHX (2 x 2GB) riding on a GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (updated to the latest F3L BIOS) motherboard with an AMD Phenom II 720 (2.8GHz) processor.

 

If I allow the mobo to autoconfig the DDR3 I get what seems like an arbitrarily slow timing... 1033Mhz I think. If I change this timing to 1600MHz (by manually configuring the multiplier in the BIOS but leaving all of the other timing calibrations set to "Auto") I get a slew of errors in memtest86+ v2.11:

 

(Test 8, Pass 10, 468Mhz/DDR937/CAS7-0-9, +4k MB, Good: 457b3bba vs Bad: 447b3bba)

 

Is this an issue with the memory itself or do I need to muck around in the BIOS further... specifically, do I need to manually configure the CAS settings in the BIOS to 9-9-9-24 to get the memory to work at 1600Mhz?

 

Do I need to modify the voltage level as well?

 

Is there anyplace that I can find the explicit BIOS settings for TW3X4G1600C9DHX running at 1600Mhz?

 

Thanks!

I believe I have the DDR3 in slots 2 & 4 (or possibly 1 & 3, I believe either 2-stick configuration is acceptable according to the GA-MA790FXT-UD5P board manual).

 

I have tested the DDR3 at 1333 using memtest86+ and have encountered no errors... I only encounter errors when I set the DDR3 to 1600.

This may be normal and you may have to wait for the next BIOS release the highest we were able to get in the lab was about DDR1500. But if they are passing at DDR1333 I would suspect its the BIOS needs to mature.

 

Are you saying that the maximum speed for this DDR3 is 1500... if so, why was it listed and sold as DDR3-1600?

 

If you believe this is a compatibility issue then has your lab tested TW3X4G1600C9DHX been tested specifically with the GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard & the latest FL3 BIOS?

 

The release notes for the BIOS state that the motherboard specifically supports DDR3 @ 1600. It may be that the BIOS is not correctly "auto" configuring the TW3X4G1600C9DHX which then means that I need you to help me manually configure the CAS timings (at first glance my BIOS seems to support a fairly robust set of configuration options)...

 

...however I don't think we're at the point yet where we can simply blame the BIOS.

 

I noticed when I first started searching your forums that you had listed specific CAS/RAS timings for various DDR modules however at the time I could not find timings for my TW3X4G1600C9DHX (or perhaps I wasn't looking in the right place):

 

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52351

 

Would it be possible for you to provide me with these timings so that I myself can configure the memory on my system?

 

If you can do this for me I'd be happy to post my results here for the rest of the community once I've tested the TW3X4G1600C9DHX @ 1600 on my system.

 

I'm keen to do this also because I purchased this memory specifically (despite it's high latencies) because I believed that running it at a high frequency would offset this delay. If I am now just relegated to running it at a slower 1333 timing with the vague hope that a BIOS fix comes out at an some unspecified point in the future then I would have just gone with a set of 1333 memory with lower latencies.

This may be normal and you may have to wait for the next BIOS release the highest we were able to get in the lab was about DDR1500. But if they are passing at DDR1333 I would suspect its the BIOS needs to mature.

 

In the test you refer to above was the TW3X4G1600C9DHX tested specifically with the GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard & the latest FL3 BIOS?

 

Can you give me the make/model of a board that supports the TW3X4G1600C9DHX @ 1600 timing?

 

Do you have specific CAS/RAS timings for TW3X4G1600C9DHX (as you have for some of your other DDRx modules):

 

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54052

 

If so, would it be possible for you to provide me with these timings so that I myself can configure the memory on my system?

At this time you would need to use a Intel platform MB with a 1600 FSB CPU or and Intel CPU with an Nvidia Chipset MB and the CPU running at 1333 FSB minimum.

 

So essentially, I will need to purchase a completely new motherboard and processor in order to get this DRR3 to operate at it's advertised specifications.

 

According to your own "What Corsair Module or Modules will work with my MB?" configuration page:

 

http://www.corsairmemory.com/configurator/product_results.aspx?id=867642

 

This DDR3 is listed as "Guaranteed-Compatible Memory for your Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P"... "This memory has been verified to operate at 1600MHz at the low latencies of 9-9-9-24."

 

...but apparently not actually with a GA-MA790FXT-UD5P, right? For "Guaranteed 1600MHz" this I need a completely different motherboard than the one I specified.

 

Isn't this misleading?

 

The only reason I used the "Memory Configurator" in the first place was to find 1600MHz compatible memory for a GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard...

 

Does Corsair have any DDR3 that will actually operate at 1600 on my GA-MA790FXT-UD5P platform?

I just spoke to you on the phone. I will attempt to use the "Testing parameters for TWIN3X/XMS3-1600C9DHX (IN):" listed on:

 

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54052

 

... keeping in mind that the "CPU PLL Voltage:_______1.6V" may be listed as a +.2V configuration for my Northbridge SPP or MCH and I may have to slightly overclock my CPU.

 

(let me know if I got all of this last part right)

 

I will list my results from memtest here once I've completed this.

 

On a side note, I would like to point out two things.

 

Firstly; during our conversation you stated that I should have known that overclocking the part would be required because of how the "Memory Configurator" categorizes the TW3X4G1600C9DHX for my motherboard. I would like to point out that the categorizations listed on the "Memory Configurator" are "Enthusiast", "Overclocker" (for my TW3X4G1600C9DHX) and "Extreme":

 

http://www.corsairmemory.com/configurator/product_results.aspx?id=867642

 

I should have taken "Overclocker" literally then what would my assumptions be for "Enthusiast" and/or "Extreme"? From these categorizations how can I specifically know which parts are listing their stock speeds and which are showing overclocked numbers? "Enthusiast" could imply overclocking... and for all I know "Extreme" might require Nitrogen... my point being that aside from these vague categorizations none of this is explicitly stated.

 

My read on this was (and still is) that it's essentially a small/medium/large naming convention used to imply fast/faster/fastest... and if I assume that this page is geared towards customers (as I myself am), if indeed the the "medium" part does not (at present, out of the box) run any faster than the "small" part, then this is misleading and should be clarified on the "Memory Configurator" site.

 

Secondly, I would like to point out that the configurations I was looking for (thanks for pointing me to those by the way) are not listed under the same part number in the "Dominator Qualification and Testing" FAQ... and that I asked you specifically (twice!) in this thread for these specific settings but was put off. I understand that you are busy (I've worked support before so I know how it goes) but I should point out that had you directed me to the correct/equivalent part listed on this FAQ it would have saved us both a headache.

 

Please forward my comments regarding the "Memory Configurator" to the appropriate parties as I feel that it could help future customers avoid the confusion we experience during our conversation a short time ago...

 

Anyways... enough of the soapbox... I'll go test the darn part now.

You can't get memory running any faster than 1333MHz and have a stabile system because Amd Phenoms only have controlers for 1333MHz DDR3 memory max.That's why you get error messages.:D:

You can't get memory running any faster than 1333MHz and have a stabile system because Amd Phenoms only have controlers for 1333MHz DDR3 memory max.That's why you get error messages.:D:

 

I have to tell you that i have the 720BE and the Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P and it works with Ram : ********(not corsair) and they are working fine at 1600Mhz with 7,7,7,20 CL. I think it depends on the modules and nothing else.

I don't know if you found a solution yet,but you can try the settings in the link i'am providing you.My mobo is the ga-ma790xt-ud4p,but they are quite similar.http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76793PS:you don't have to use the further from the cpu slots.The first two (blue) are doing fine.

Note to 'allbread',

I believe you used the wrong memory slots. In the manual starting on page 16 section 1-4 'Installing the Memory' it states the mem channel 0 is slots 1and 3 and that channel 1 is slots 2 and 4. But in the diagram it shows that if you are using only two memory sticks that you should use slots 1 and 2 or slots 3 and 4 to install your memory in. This way you have memory working in both channels. Don't know if this will help your problem but when I took 2 sticks out of mine and used either slots 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 my system works fine. When I tried what you have done using slots 1 and 3 I ran into trouble.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Lori