kyleax1

On my current system I followed the guide for finding your bottleneck and came to find out that my ram was holding me back. My mobo won't let my multiplier go higher then 11 so all I could do was increase the FSB and the highest stable I could load into windows with was 2.54 (2.20 stock)

I'm sure I could try to make it boot with higher timings, but it wouldn't boot with any reasonable timings and I got tired of taking the pin out of my mobo and reseting it so I just set all the ram stuff to auto, took it to 2.54 and left it alone

The last thing I want to hold me back on OC'ing in my new build is ram.

x4 955 or 965 (not sure yet which I want)
giga UD5P
sticking with G skill Ram (DDR3)

So my question is...

If I get the 1866 rather than 1600 will that ensure that Ram will NOT be the deciding factor on how high I can OC?

zodac

If you get the 1866, it would help OC when you use different FSB:RAM ratios.

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shadow_419

Entirely different ballgame with the BE cpu's. With an unlocked cpu multiplier, neither one will hold back your overclock. What may hold you back is the ability of the imc and motherboard to run the ram above the theoretical max speed amd imc's run. The Phenom II are guaranteed to run up to DDR3 1333. There are plenty of people that can run overclocked with DDR3 1600 but it can be difficult.

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kyleax1

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kyleax1

So your saying the IMC in the mobo and cpu can only handle a 1333 prior to OC'ing and if I was to purchase 1600 or higher then I would be making it harder for the IMC to OC them?

I'm so lost

I don't know much about ram to be honest, I had to google IMC just so I would know what you were referring to.

shadow_419

Sorry, I'll try to be more clear. The IMC is the integrated memory controller that's built into the cpu die. The imc is not on the motherboard.

The imc on the Phenom II are rated to work with up to DDR3 1333 ram by AMD.
Many motherboards can get the cpu to run with DDR3 1600 or even higher.
The cpu's can be overclocked and run DDR3 1600 but sometimes it is more difficult to overclock at speeds greater than DDR3 1333 and stay stable.
If you get the DDR3 1600 ram you linked to and you have trouble overclocking and getting stable you could always use a lower divisor and run the ram at 1333 with tighter timings.
Both the 955 and 965 have unlocked cpu multipliers so you don't have to worry about your ram not overclocking because you don't need to raise the reference clock.

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kyleax1

Ah that makes much more sense now that you explained it.

So it does not matter if I get 1333, 1600, or 1866 because they will all basically work at the same speeds once oc'ed and even if I get 1866 I may have to take it down to 1333 anyways.

One thing I noticed when looking at the G Skillz ram is that the 1333 has tighter timings and the higher the speed gets the loser the timings get. Is that because they are virtually the same, but are just set to load at diff speeds/timings out the box?

+1 rep btw

shadow_419

Correct, they are usually the same chips but binned to the speed they will run.
Example:
G.skill buys 100 ram chips of 1333 7-7-7
All can run 1333 at 7-7-7
50 can run 1600 at 8-8-8
15 can run 1866 at 9-9-9

15 sticks of 1866
35 sticks of 1600
50 sticks of 1333

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kyleax1

So if all 3 types were the same price you purchase the 1866 just so you have more options on how to run it then, correct?

zodac

Yep, flexibilty is always handy when OCing.

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