panorama-monk

I just built a PC from ECS A780GMA, an ATI chipset based MO which is far better than ECS GF8200A which like the XFX, its Nvidia chipset had lots of problems in setting up drivers. My CPU is AMD Quad 9500 running XP32 which are good enough as I'm not a gamer. Not aware of 32 bit OS can't address RAMS over 4GB, I bought 2 pairs of Cosair 2x2GB RAMS in two separate orders, and they are 1.8v and 1.9v respectively.

Now I inserted 2 sticks into slots 3 and 4. On initial start up, I can see that they are set to "unganged" unless I disable it, per manual.

Questions:
(1) I don't know how to disable "ungaged" as it was not mentioned in the manual.
(2) does the voltage difference (1.8 vs 1.9) matter?
(3) Having read posts here, does it mean I better have 4x1GB and to fill all the 4 slots?
(4) I assigned 1GB to the video, from the system info, I still have 2.25GB available.
(5) I have tried with 4 sticks, the available memory reported was 3.25 GB. In other words, the video shared memory was taken away before the OS has it.
(6) In having all 4 sticks of 2GB in the slots, ignoring their voltage difference, would each of the 4 cores "use"(access) 1/2 of each stick?
(7) In my case, (ganged / dual channel) or (unganged / single channel), which is fastest and best for me?
(8) I'm behind the trend now, how can I see the CPU and RAM status/performing?

Melcar

1) Your BIOS should have the option to change between modes somewhere in there

2) The BIOS will only set a general set of timings and voltage for all the RAM. Since they are different pairs, it's best if you set both voltage and timings yourself. For voltage use the highest (1.9V in your case), and for timings the loosest ones out of all your RAM. This is so that the you run all RAM sticks at a setting that won't cause a problem

3) Doesn't matter. For overclocking it's generally better just to have two sticks because populating all the slots may stress the memory controller more, possibly reducing overclocking potential.

4) You shouldn't need that much RAM for video, specially with an IGP. Lower it to 512MB (hell, even 256MB would be overkill).

5) A 32bit OS will only read 3.25GB of RAM. Since you set 1 whole GB for video, you will be left with 2.25GB for the system.

6) & 7) Phenoms have 2 memory controllers. Ganged mode combines them into a single 128bit controller; in this mode applications have to wait in que to access the memory controller. Unganged mode splits the memory controller into 2 64bit lanes; applications now have to wait less time in que to access the controller since there are two now. Unganged offers the best overall performance since having two memory controllers instead of one makes it easier to multitask. Of course, if all you do is run single threaded applications (games) and don't multitask much, Ganged mode should work better.

8) For monitoring and stuff, there is Coretemp for CPU temperatures and CPU-Z for reading frequencies. For performance you should run benchmarks (3DMark) and/or Sissoft sandra

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Darkvette

Good call on that all Melcar.

For anyone with questions about the XP 32-bit memory limitation, the following website explains what the limitations are for ALL the M$ Windows OS (XP, Vista, etc.)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...its_windows_xp

The odd thing is, where XP will only see 3.25GB, Vista 32-bit will see all 4GB. I had a friend install 4GB of RAM in his Vista 32-bit laptop and it read all 4GB. Who knows though. Hope this helps.

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alwaysAMD

I've done some pretty extensive testing on this because I was unable to find a definitive answer, but ganged and unganged are pretty much equal for everyday usage. If you use more single threaded apps, ganged will shine, but if you do alot of multithreading, you will gain performance with unganged. The difference, however, usually equates to a couple fps gained in games, and a couple seconds in video encoding over ganged. Hope that helps.

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Jamar16

Basically its as simple as this for multi threading use unganged for single threading use ganged mode.

Programs that benefit from unganged mode are programs like from adobe ranging from photoshop to on aftereffects along with some games like crysis i think and a few others which use all the cores on tris and quad core cpus.

other types of programs perform better on single thread.

here is my ram bench mark with unganged and ganged mode, NOTHING ELSE WAS CHANGED!!





hope that helped

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Grandlo

ram doesn't get searched it's random/direct access..

exculsive access of a core to a stick might not be the best thing if there is a lot of shared memory across the cores. This is one of those things that depend on how the app is coded more then if the app is multithreaded or not. I'd just keep it normal(ie every core access to all sticks at same time) unless you're willing to test each game you play and get a setting for each lol. kinda overkill.

edit: apparently it's splitting the memory buss in 2 as someone on this post mentioned.. interesting. it's hard to understand how that would effect things in theory. im going to wrap my head around it for a while. exculsive access to a memory stick didn't make sense to me at all as that would require mirroring of shared memory to work properly.

Darkvette

All, think of it this way. You have one 4 lane highway (128-bit Ganged Mem Controller) splitting to two exits (Both Mem Channels). Only so much traffic can get through at once. However, if each exit has it's own dedicated highway (ie, two 2 lane highways or 2x64-bit Unganged Mem Controllers, each to its own exit or Mem Channel), then you can (in theory) get more traffic through because each highway is dedicated to an exit.

It's almost like 6 of one and 1/2 a dozen of the other. Personal Preference almost...

__________________
3DMark06 = 14714
Performance Test 6.1 (x64) = 1386.4

ATI Red Tide!!

"When in doubt, overclock!! If that doesn't work, overclock some more!! If all else fails throw it out the window and be done with it!!" - Anon.

xandypx

There is actually an additional benefit to unganged vs. ganged.... At least according to AMD's release notes.

The reason the memory benchmarks come in better unganged is that with two memory controllers running at 2x64, as opposed to 1-128bit, the processor can both read and write to seperate memory addresses at the same time during each clock cycle. with 128bit, it's either a read or a write.

AMD also claims an additional benefit... when multi-tasking each controller reads and writes to it's own RAM module (or modules depending on how many sticks are configured on your Mobo), and since they "claim" that the different applications "should be running on different cores", this lessens the chance of the controller overwriting data that is already stored in RAM for application 1 with new data for Application 2, requiring this information to be re-read from the HDD when Application 1 needs it.

Does it work?... who knows but that is AMD's claim.

Pao

Interesting to see a new source of information for this topic. You my sir have earned your first rep, and I'm glad to give it.

Darkvette

Good call, + Rep.

__________________
3DMark06 = 14714
Performance Test 6.1 (x64) = 1386.4

ATI Red Tide!!

"When in doubt, overclock!! If that doesn't work, overclock some more!! If all else fails throw it out the window and be done with it!!" - Anon.