WTF? My RAM is automatically clocking down?

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:05 pm

I just benched my RAM with Sandra, and it reports it at 3100, when right after reboot about an hour ago it was over 4700. This mysterious "reduction" has occurred twice now, and it seems it happens when the PC has been on for a while.

WTF???

Does the Intel throttling deal affect RAM somehow, too? I'd assume maybe, but my CPU is at max load right now, and MBM is reporting 42 °C CPU / 28 °C NB.

Specs:
P4C800 Deluxe
3.0 GHz P4 800 MHz
512 x 2 Corsair XMS PC3500
Latest version of Sandra

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:24 pm

I just rebooted and the BIOS reported nearly the same temps.

I'm going to take Sandra benches every 10 minutes for the next hour and see if it does it again.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:30 pm

is there an option to disable the down throttling?

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:31 pm

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
is there an option to disable the down throttling?

No, just a list of percentages. I reset everything to defaults. Firs ten minutes has passed, with no big drop.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:33 pm

this is with the asus or abit board?

if u dont get a fix for this, monday i'll be ordering a 3000+ barton instead of a 3ghz p4

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:33 pm

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
this is with the asus or abit board?

if u dont get a fix for this, monday i'll be ordering a 3000+ barton instead of a 3ghz p4

ASUS, but it just started happening. I'm flummoxed.

tHE_0ne · Post by **tHE_0ne** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:38 pm

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
this is with the asus or abit board?

if u dont get a fix for this, monday i'll be ordering a 3000+ barton instead of a 3ghz p4

good man

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 9:05 pm

Ok it DOES have something to do with the throttling, because the score drops when Folding is going in the background. I will try adjusting the throttle percentage and see what happens.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 9:19 pm

I tried all the percentages and none of them work. It still drops the RAM speed to the low 3000's when Folding is running.

I figured the throttling would affect only yhe CPU speed, but I guess it affects the memory, too.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 9:31 pm

Originally posted by Burke
I tried all the percentages and none of them work. It still drops the RAM speed to the low 3000's when Folding is running.

I figured the throttling would affect only yhe CPU speed, but I guess it affects the memory, too.

tahts bs why does it throttle u down when ur running full load, thats when u need it funning full bore!

Cypher · Post by **Cypher** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 10:00 pm

Sorry to hear that Burke. Being as your MB is so new there will surely be bios updates that will hopefully address this issue. YoS, I would wait till May when the new AMDs come out.
No offense Burke.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 10:02 pm

Originally posted by cyPHer_138
Sorry to hear that Burke. Being as your MB is so new there will surely be bios updates that will hopefully address this issue. YoS, I would wait till May when the new AMDs come out.
No offense Burke.

No offense taken. I don't participate in legit fanboyism, just ribbing of the non-Intelligentsia.

I don't think a BIOS update will cure this, though. It's a built-in feature of the P4 CPUs.

deksecurity · Post by **deksecurity** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 10:56 pm

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
this is with the asus or abit board?

if u dont get a fix for this, monday i'll be ordering a 3000+ barton instead of a 3ghz p4

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

JusticeMachine · Post by **JusticeMachine** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:30 am

FYI, It won't throttle down the Ram if it was TwinX, Matched ECC. In the Intel forums there is alot of talk about The quirks of the P4 800, The main thing is using matched Ram with it. Just for kicks try running just 1 stick of your Ram in there for awhile and see if the CPU wants to throttle down the Ram.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:32 am

Originally posted by JusticeMachine
FYI, It won't throttle down the Ram if it was TwinX, Matched ECC. In the Intel forums there is alot of talk about The quirks of the P4 800, The main thing is using matched Ram with it. Just for kicks try running just 1 stick of your Ram in there for awhile and see if the CPU wants to throttle down the Ram.

heh, looks like corsair will profit from that

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:38 am

Originally posted by JusticeMachine
FYI, It won't throttle down the Ram if it was TwinX, Matched ECC. In the Intel forums there is alot of talk about The quirks of the P4 800, The main thing is using matched Ram with it. Just for kicks try running just 1 stick of your Ram in there for awhile and see if the CPU wants to throttle down the Ram.

If that's true, that's some bull****! I neither want nor NEED ECC. Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

JusticeMachine · Post by **JusticeMachine** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:51 am

Originally posted by Burke
If that's true, that's some bull****! I neither want nor NEED ECC. Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

In the Asus Bios does it have the switch

DRAMData Integrity Mode?
ECC and NON-ECC ?

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:57 am

Originally posted by JusticeMachine
In the Asus Bios does it have the switch

DRAMData Integrity Mode?
ECC and NON-ECC ?

I'm almost sure it doesn't, but I'll have to check it when I get home today.

JusticeMachine · Post by **JusticeMachine** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:01 am

Originally posted by Burke
I'm almost sure it doesn't, but I'll have to check it when I get home today.

Just might, No offense but one of my peeves with Asus is the lack of Memory adjustments. It is a vital aspect in OC'ing.

BTW, Where did you snag up your P4 800? Got Link?

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:05 am

Originally posted by JusticeMachine
Just might, No offense but one of my peeves with Asus is the lack of Memory adjustments. It is a vital aspect in OC'ing.

BTW, Where did you snag up your P4 800? Got Link?

I got mine a couple of weeks back at Essential Computer. Their price on it has dropped SUBSTANTIALLY from when I bought mine.

http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=3783

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:10 am

BTW, does Corsair even make ECC TwinX? I can't find it for sale anywhere.

JusticeMachine · Post by **JusticeMachine** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:14 am

Originally posted by Burke
I got mine a couple of weeks back at Essential Computer. Their price on it has dropped SUBSTANTIALLY from when I bought mine.

http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=3783

I ordered my Gigabyte GA-8KNXP from them last night and couldn't find the P4 800, They have none listed on there site. Gotta find a CPU for this board.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:20 am

Originally posted by JusticeMachine
I ordered my Gigabyte GA-8KNXP from them last night and couldn't find the P4 800, They have none listed on there site. Gotta find a CPU for this board.

I got my 3.0 GHz P4 from Essential, too...apparently one of the last ones they originally had in stock, since it's been "on order" ever since.

JusticeMachine · Post by **JusticeMachine** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:24 am

NM, Intel states that the 800mHz P4's that were released earlier this month are suffering from the 800 bug, Any CPU purchased this month can be exchanged for the fixed CPU when released. Participating dealers. 2 weeks for the chips.

I guess i wait.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:42 am

Originally posted by JusticeMachine
NM, Intel states that the 800mHz P4's that were released earlier this month are suffering from the 800 bug, Any CPU purchased this month can be exchanged for the fixed CPU when released. Participating dealers. 2 weeks for the chips. I guess i wait.

From what I've read, there wasn't a bug in the chips, it was some kind of BIOS anomaly and has been corrected.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:28 pm

Someone posted this over in my thread at AsusBoards.com

It's not the thermal throttling of the CPU that's causing it. It's because HyperThreading makes the CPU appear as 2 logical CPUs to the OS. Thus the OS will assign Folding to use 100% of 1 CPU, and think it has another CPU free, which it doesn't as HT shares the execution resources on just the 1 CPU across 2 threads. The 100% utilisation on across "both CPUs" will eat up resources, including memory bandwidth, allowing fewer execution resources to each of the individual threads that require it.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri May 02, 2003 3:32 pm

Originally posted by Burke
Someone posted this over in my thread at AsusBoards.com

It's not the thermal throttling of the CPU that's causing it. It's because HyperThreading makes the CPU appear as 2 logical CPUs to the OS. Thus the OS will assign Folding to use 100% of 1 CPU, and think it has another CPU free, which it doesn't as HT shares the execution resources on just the 1 CPU across 2 threads. The 100% utilisation on across "both CPUs" will eat up resources, including memory bandwidth, allowing fewer execution resources to each of the individual threads that require it.

Disabling Hyperthreading indeed solved the problem. But it sucks that I have to.