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nTune is happy with the Corsair’s tested voltage for TWIN2X2048-8500C5D (EVGA 680i)

rainwood

By rainwood
in Memory

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rainwood

rainwood

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Running Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D on the EVGA nForce 680i SLI 775 22-CK-NF68-AR.

The settings in the BIOS:

- SLI-Ready Memory: [Expert]

- FSB – Memory Clock Mode: [Linked]

- FSB – MEM MHz Ratio: [1:1]

- FSB – MEM MHz: [1067]

- Memory Timings: [AUTO]: 5-5-5-15-2T

- Memory Voltage: [AUTO]: 2.2000V

 

Ran Memtest86 (Version: 1.65) test with the default settings for 2 hours: no errors.

 

NVIDIA Monitor tells me that the memory voltage will damage the TWIN2X2048-8500C5D…

 

O.K., what I can think of for the causes of this warning;

- nTune was not properly installed.

- nTune was properly installed && thinks that the 2.2000V is really danger.

- The 2.2000V is not right voltage for the memory on the EVGA 680i board.

- The memory modules are not properly seated.

- The memory modules are defective.

 

Anyway, the “red box” makes me worried if the bad voltage will kill the memory.

…Ram guy, I need your insight on this.

 

BTW, before I started the test, I found that the “legacy USB support” must be disabled before the test for the EVGA 680i board to run the Memtest in the Corsair support forums. However, I was not able to find out the settings to disable the “legacy USB support” in the BIOS. So the test result (no errors) might not be valid (, and I think that 2 hours was too short to verify that the memory seems to be O.K.). Does someone know which settings in the BIOS are to disable the “legacy USB support”?

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DerekT

DerekT

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Two hours of a clean memtest is more than enough in my opinion.

 

There are two reasons to run memtest. The first is to test the bandwidth for errata that is hardware based. It has been my personal opinion that one pass is enough. The second is to test the thermal output of the dram and the ability of the dram/system to radiate the thermal output. I would perform 10 or more passes to test for the systems ability to deal with the thermal radiation. It has been my personal knowlege that errata produced after one pass is due to the DIMM's and system's inability to radiate and remove the heat thus producing errata due to thermal issues.

 

Regarding Nvidia's monitor of the Vdimm and subsequent warnings. You are at the proper voltage for this DRAM. The dram is warranted at 2.2v for lifetime so the issue is with the Nvidia monitor unless your system is overvolting the Vdimm.

 

Regarding Legacy USB. Your BIOS does not have the Memtest/Legacy USB bug or you would have been erroring, thus there is no need to disable it.

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rainwood

rainwood

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I appreciated your input very much.

I think that I was running the memtest without knowing what it is meant for.

Regarding this NVIDIA Monitor issue, I will take this to NVIDIA, then.

 

...however, if the mainboard is providing too much voltage and the voltage reading in the BIOS is incorrect, it just scares me – I cannot trust other readings in the BIOS!?

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rainwood

rainwood

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May I say that you have one rocking system :)

…thank you.

I am still struggling to stabilize my system, though (the mainboard seems to have the serious SATA problem. It is said that the BIOS update to address this problem is coming in the week after the Christmas. I really hope that the BIOS update could clean all SATA problems.)

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rainwood

rainwood

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Thank you for your follow-up.

 

Please let us know how you make out

The memory modules seem to work fine.

In this evening I updated the BIOS with the P23 Beta, which was release in the last weekend, and I am planning to run the memtest. I will post the result one or two days later.

 

did you try and set the SLI ready memory setting to enable?

Yes, I tried the possible setting to “enable” the SLI ready memory.

The thing is, the BIOS does detect the SLI ready memory (“SLI Ready memory detected” message is displayed in the POST), but it does not automatically “enable” the memory. To “enable” the SLI ready memory, the user has to do it manually. The settings to “enable” the SLI ready memory in the BIOS that I tried were; “CPUOC 0%” and “Expert*” in the “SLI-Ready Memory” setting under the “FSB & Memory Config” in the BIOS (page 46-7 “122-CK-NF68-XX nForce 680i SLI Mainboard User’s Manual").

…however, no matter what setting in the BIOS to “enable” the SLI ready I tried, the NVIDIA Monitor tells me that the 2.2000V is bad.

 

The JEDEC spec for DDR2 is 1.8 Volts thats why you are getting that warning and they are rated at 2.2 Volts so just ignore it if they ever fail we will replace them as long as you dont go over 2.2 Volts!

As suggested, I ignore the memory voltage warning in the NVIDIA Monitor.

 

*the manual does not show the “Expert” option. The manual has a lot of misleading information. EVAG must update the manual.

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rainwood

rainwood

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After updated the BIOS with the P23 Beta,

 

Ran Memtest86 (Version: 1.65) test with the default settings for about 6 hours: 15 passes && no errors.

 

However, I noticed that the “tREF” value looks odd in the BIOS: “tREF Auto (7.8uS)”

…is the value supposed to be 3.8 or 3.9? I am not 100 % sure, but I think that the value was 3.9 in the P21 BIOS.

 

Could you provide me the expected value of the “tREF” with my memory settings?

 

My memory settings defined in the P23 BIOS are described below;

 

Advanced Chipset Features section:

- FSB & Memory Config section:

  • SLI-Ready Memory [Expert]
  • CPU Freq, MHz 2933.3 (grayed out)
  • CPU Multiplier 11x (grayed out)
  • FSB - Memory Clock Mode [Linked]
  • FSB - Memory Ratio [1:1]
  • FSB (QDR), MHz [1067] 1066.7
  • Actual FSB (QDR), MHz 1066.7 (grayed out)
  • x MEM (DDR), MHz Linked (grayed eyed out)
  • Actual MEM (DDR), MHz 1066.7 (grayed out)

 

- Memory Timings section

  • Memory Timing Setting [Optimal]
  • x tCL (CAS Latency) Auto(5) (grayed out)
  • x tRCD Auto(5) (grayed out)
  • x tRP Auto(5) (grayed out)
  • x tRAS Auto(15) (gre grayed yed out)
  • x Command Per Clock (CMD) Auto(2T) (grayed out)
  • ** Advanced Memory Settings **
  • x tRRD Auto(4) (grayed out)
  • x tRC Auto(30) (grayed out)
  • x tWR Auto(6) (grayed out)
  • x tWTR Auto(10) (grayed out)
  • x tREF Auto (7.8uS) (grayed out)

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DerekT

DerekT

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No, the tREF value in the BIOS (P23 BETA 2) is still “7.8uS even though I loaded the default settings & tried other settings.

Is this the BIOS is not reading/setting the value properly or the memory modules do not provide the correct value?

 

When you speak of 200 MHz 3.9us, you are speaking of the AMD Tref. The Intel Tref is at 200 MHz 7.8us at default. This is one of the issue that you get when owning an Nvidia based chipset board vs an Intel based chipset board. AMD / Intel have differences in referesh from the AMD on CPU memory controller and the Intel off chip legacy Northbridge memory controller. Many make the error with Nvidia based chipsets that the Tref should follow AMD's spec but this is not the case. If you think of this logically, it follows that the Tref command should be tighter with the on CPU memory controller than the off CPU Northbridge memory controller.

 

Paraphrased From Adrian Wong’s site:

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm

 

”This BIOS feature allows you to set the refresh interval of the memory chips. There are (several) different settings as well as an Auto option. If the Auto option is selected, the BIOS will query the memory modules' SPD chips and use the lowest setting found for maximum compatibility. For better performance, you should consider increasing the Refresh Interval from the default values (15.6 µsec for 128Mbit or smaller memory chips and 7.8 µsec for 256Mbit or larger memory chips) up to 128 µsec. Please note that if you increase the Refresh Interval too much, the memory cells may lose their contents. Therefore, you should start with small increases in the Refresh Interval and test your system after each hike before increasing it further. If you face stability problems upon increasing the refresh interval, reduce the refresh interval step by step until the system is stable.

 

The refresh cycle refers to the number of rows that must be refreshed.

 

"Periodically the charge stored in each bit must be refreshed or the charge will decay and the value of the bit of data will be lost. DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) is really just a bunch of capacitors that can store energy in an array of bits. The array of bits can be accessed randomly. However, the capacitors can only store this energy for a short time before it discharges it. Therefore DRAM must be refreshed (re-energizing of the capacitors) every 15.6µs (a microsecond equals 10-6 seconds) per row. Each time the capacitors are refreshed the memory is re-written. For this reason DRAM is also called volatile memory. Using the RAS-ONLY refresh (ROR) method, the refresh is done is a systematic manner, each column is refreshed row by row in sequence. In a typical module each row takes 15.6µs to refresh. Therefore in a 2K module the refresh time per column would be 15.6µs x 2048 rows = 32ms (1 millisecond equals 10-6 seconds). This value is called the tREF. It refers to the refresh interval of the entire array."

 

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_02i.htm

 

Here is some research via a discussion of tREF on the DFI forum:

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10411

 

Research on tREF:tREF Table

 

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.php?p=230464&postcount=1

 

Tref is considered to have a slight influence on Stability/Bandwidth. Keep in mind that the information posted is in reference to the AMD optimizations. As well, keep in mind that these specialized timings are chipset related and not DRAM related. In other words, the Tref is not SPD or set in the DRAM, but is referenced to the onboard Northbridge from the BIOS settings.

 

I would advise you to set the tRRD, tRC, tWR, tWTR, tREF: to Auto

 

My system Tref:

 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e269/Ropey123/tref.jpg

 

Hope this helps,

 

Derek

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  • 4 weeks later...
rainwood

rainwood

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A very good read. I think that I need to learn more about not only the memory modules but also the chipsets and memory controllers!

I appreciated your help on this mater very much.

 

Last night the new version of nTune was released (version: 5.05.22.00). I downloaded and tried out. …the NVMonitor still shows the memory voltage (2.2000V) is not good... I read the release notes but I did not find the “fix” that addresses this problem in the release notes.

 

BTW, I am sorry that it took so long to reply. I had to have the RMA of the mainboard processed, and finally finished the base set up of my system with the replaced mainboard. The mainboard came with the P23 Final BIOS, which is said to fix the SATA problems, and my system has been stable for three days since it’s rebuilt (no BSODs or SATA drives lock-ups). I hope this mainboard did not give me the instability problems any more…

 

Oh, just FYI, I got a new CPU cooler, too; Vigor Monsoon II. With this CPU cooler, my search for the CPU cooler has at last ended. This is the best CPU cooler that I’ve used ever. I was impressed with its high performance; for instance, the heat spreader temperature did not reach 30 °C during the Prime95 blend test using Orthos and the temperature when I stopped the test after 8 hours run was 27 °C!!! The temperature at idle is 24 – 25 °C. This CPU cooler really does a good job. The TEC cooler is the king (this is just my opinion).

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