Hi;This is driving me nuts.I have a Gigabyte GA-K8NS-Pro board,it has 3 Memory slots for DDR 400 Ram.I have 2 sticks of Corsair valueram 2x512mb DDR400. First of all I flashed the bios to F13 according to the web site.Ok if I put 1 stick of 512mb in slot 1,and go into setup all is on auto,looking in bios with ctrl-F1 in bios,the present DDR speed is 400.This is ok,Now I add second stick and all changes,not running at DDR 400,now it says DDR 333.What gives here.?? I tried to chang settings manuall to DDR400 and it won't boot or run at all.Man this is driving me crazy....I tried 2 sticks of DDR400 2x256 Golden Dragon Ram whitch I know is good,and it would't even boot at all.Where to from here? I don't have a 1gig stick.
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Ram will not run at DDR 400 in bios When I Add More than 1 stick 4
- Thread starter lordgalla
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electronicsfreak
Technical User
Did you make sure to follow the manual in putting the ram in the correct slots for dual channel? As most motherboards have a particular way they want to ram to be.
There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
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electronicsfreak
Technical User
If the board does not support dual channel then your ram will never run at full 400MHz. Dual channel is what makes ram run at that speed.
There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
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No it isn't. DDR400 runs at 200 MHz, though because it transmits on the rising and falling edge of the clock signal it is an effective 400 MHz. You do not need a dual-channel mainboard in order to run DDR400 at DDR400 speeds. Once again, dual channel has nothing to do with it.
My old board is an ASUS K8N socket 754 board with three memory slots, and is capable of running DDR400 at DDR400 speeds. I know for a fact that it doesn't use dual channel to achieve this because the socket 754 CPUs only have a single channel memory controller.
So for the last time, can we please put this nonsense about dual channel affecting memory speed behind us? The two are unreleated. Dual channel = wider memory bus = more bandwidth, but it is completely unrelated to memory clock speed.
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kmcferrin said:
kcmcferrin,
With no offense to you or electronicsfreak, this is like asking, in the data recovery forum, "can everybody please start backing up regularly so we can put this data recovery business behind us"...in other words, we are doomed to repeat history here and address the same topics repeatedly because not everyone reads every post and remembers it. It's like Groundhog Day with many topics, including this one. Your explanation is excellent, it is clear and concise.
lordgalla,
Try running each stick independently and looking at the reading. You may have a mis-labeled stick. If you have 1 DDR333 and 1 DDR400, your system will default to the slowest module.
Tony
Funny way to put it, but you're right.
One other thing to consider is that some motherboards (and I'm speaking of a couple of 3-slot socket 754 boards that I know of specifically) will only allow DDR400 operation when 1 or 2 slots are in use. Adding a third module will result in the speed being dropped to DDR333. This is usually stated explicitly in the manual.
I always assumed that this is because of the timing tolerance on each memory channel. Have two modules on a single channel is easy, but trying to add in a third and keep everything in sync complicates things to the point where the bus would have to slow down. That's what I always thought, anyway.
But back to the point, my thinking is that this board might be of a similar nature, i.e., it will run DDR400 only if you use a single module, otherwise it's DDR333. It would all be down to how it is designed.
electronicsfreak
Technical User
lol well I didnt do that intentional I was just under the impression that is what made it run that way. My apologies.
There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon
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There are many complaints about this happening on the nForce3 chipset with the 754-pin Athlon 64. You can try a BIOS update, but usually that combination is limited to 333MHz (166MHz x 2) when accessing more than three ranks (sides) of memory. So if you're using double-sided sticks, then you're not going to be able to get 400MHz speeds according to Gigabyte's website:
Ideally, you should be using x8 or x16 single rank modules. Buy from a vendor online who knows what you're talking about and order a new set.
Intel explains the meanings behind "ranks":
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
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Ideally, you should be using x8 or x16 single rank modules. Buy from a vendor online who knows what you're talking about and order a new set.
Intel explains the meanings behind "ranks":
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.
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- #11
(Wahnula) I tried each stick independently and looking at the reading,and both had a reading of ddr400,both sticks are exactly the same,but if I use 2 to get 1 gig the reading drops to ddr333,I've never had this problem before,on any computer I have had..I'm wondering if there is a motherboard problem?
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- #12
Well All,I guess to put a end to all of this,The Tech Support At Gigabyte say's (It is Normal due to the integrated memory controller within the processor.When more than one module is installed it'll clock down to 333.If you wish to run it at 400 please use single stick.) Well I never new this,I guess we all learn something new every day..So now my 2 sticks of 512 is really DDR333,and if I want 400,buy a 1gig stick..Simple enough if you have money to through around I guess.........
Thankyou all for all your help and responces to this.
Thankyou all for all your help and responces to this.
lordgalla,
I think you might have missed what was in that first link I posted above. Take another look. There are five different combinations using 2 sticks that will give you the 400MHz speed. The combinations depend on the "type" of RAM that you have. You just can't use two double-sided sticks.
So technically, you have another option of keeping one of the 512's in place and adding another single-sided stick.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.
I think you might have missed what was in that first link I posted above. Take another look. There are five different combinations using 2 sticks that will give you the 400MHz speed. The combinations depend on the "type" of RAM that you have. You just can't use two double-sided sticks.
So technically, you have another option of keeping one of the 512's in place and adding another single-sided stick.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.
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