Ganged vs. Unganged Mode - Page 11 - Overclock.net

pt4n · 10-17-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkvette

I've seen a lot floating around the internet about Ganged and Unganged modes for PC RAM. I don't think I'm the only one that has questions about it, but being that info on it is scarce, I thought I would start a thread so that others could post info about it (Unfortunately I don't know a whole lot about it, so that's another reason too

)

What is Ganged Mode?

What is Unganged Mode?

Which Mode is Better?

What exactly does it do?

Hi,

I own a phenom 9950 cpu matched with a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H matx motherboard and 2 x 2Gb Corsair XMS 800MHz Ram.

My bios indicates 64bit unganged.

A Q and A from Gigabytes Website under the above mother board.

Q: I have installed Phenom CPU and memory modules according to the Dual Channel Memory Configuration table in user’s manual, but system shows “unganged mode, 64-bit” during POST. How do I enable 128bit dual memory channel?

A: Phenom CPU have two individual memory controllers (DCTs), each one of them controls single memory channel (64 bit). These two DCTs can work simultaneously when memory modules are installed on different memory channels. It is called “unganged mode”.

You can switch to “ganged mode, 128bit” when you are using two or four of the same memory modules. Please kindly enter BIOS setup program, to press CTRL+F1 key to enable advanced BIOS setup features then enter "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)\ DRAM Configuration", to set the “DCTs Mode” as “Ganged”.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2814

I guess ganged mode is better as it works off 128bit.

Hope this helps.

eclipseaudio4 · 10-17-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by pt4n

I guess ganged mode is better as it works off 128bit.

Hope this helps.

They are both technically 128bit as 2 X 64bit = 128 bit.

toyz72 · 10-17-09

will someone clear this up.mine is 720x3 unlocked to x4.my board memory 1,2 yellow then 3,4 black.my mb book said to run in same color slots.so does this mean i should be running ganged?because its set to auto and running unganged.

jimibgood · 10-17-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by danewfie

It is amd's version of Nvidia's Locked vs unlocked architecture.

basically allowing you to use your ram in dual channel vs single channel.

Ganged = dual channel mode for ram. All cores get access to 100% of the ram.

unganged = single channel. Each core gets access to a stick of ram.

In theory, the unganged mode is better as each core will get access to data quicker. In theory.

Some limitations apply... and i dont know muchelse.

Edit: sorry, it also alows you to control the clocks indipendantly from eachother.

This is wrong. Who told you this???? Ganged and unganged have absolutely nothing to do with single and dual channel.

toyz72 · 10-17-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyz72

will someone clear this up.mine is 720x3 unlocked to x4.my board memory 1,2 yellow then 3,4 black.my mb book said to run in same color slots.so does this mean i should be running ganged?because its set to auto and running unganged.

needs an answer plz!

Idiot · 10-17-09

You need to set it in the bios manually.

jimibgood · 10-18-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Idiot

You need to set it in the bios manually.

No like he said auto makes it unganged. Just leave it on auto. Unganged give much better performance thatn ganged.

xandypx · 10-21-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyz72

will someone clear this up.mine is 720x3 unlocked to x4.my board memory 1,2 yellow then 3,4 black.my mb book said to run in same color slots.so does this mean i should be running ganged?because its set to auto and running unganged.

In this senario, you should be running in Ganged mode. Leaving one bank of memory unpopulated dosen't give one of the memory controllers anything to work with, therefore you basically get one 64bit lane to memory, and waste the other.

As I had mentioned in my previous posts, besides unganging the memory controllers, the bios also sets access to memory DIMM slots (or Banks of memory) when you change the setting to Unganged.

I am very suprised that your Bios does not notice that you have an unpopulated Memory Bank in the "Auto" setting.

I finally found what I was looking for on this topic, I assume I couldn't find it originally, since it was re-released on Sept 9, 2009.

I had read this and other tech documents on AMD's website in the past. This is a copy of the AMD BIOS developers specification. You don't need to read the whole thing, but ganged vs. unganged is specifically described in section 2.8, and the internal doc link to "ganged vs. unganged considerations".

AMD Bios and Kernal development guide

Darkvette · 4 Weeks Ago

Alright guys, this link explains it pretty well. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166222

Ganged Mode is 1x128bit Dual Channel
Unganged is 2x64bit Dual Channel

Unless I'm mistaken, Single channel usually only applies when you're running one stick of RAM.

Yukss · 2 Weeks Ago

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/am...ganged-p2.html

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Ganged vs. Unganged Mode

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