HELP! Ram bandwidth

[Stove]

Iwill XP333
256meg Samsung PC2700
Tried upping FSB settings to get the best memory bandwidth, and it was stable at 180MHz (360DDR), and 190(380DDR), but 195 wouldn't post. Also noticed that even at 190 the Sandra memory benches were crappy- worse than an older aLi set at PC2100. So somehow the Mobo has decided to run the memory asynchronous. Anyhoo: at 195, no go, and neccessitated a CMOS reset to get any life at all, and I went back to my default settings of 166x8. And Sandra STILL shows crappy memory benches.(see attachment). What bios settings control this? I thoght that the only one that did this was the "asynchronous mode" thingy in the Iwill Smart Settings: but mine is set "as Iwill Smart settings" not at "133/166". Any ideas?

[Wibber]

I saw a tool somewhere that lets you mod bios to show all the hidden options.. I wonder where it was

[KingJackal]

I think the XP333 scales down PCI and memory bus speeds as the fsb rises so that you keep a lot of stability. I don't think you can change this.

It's an XP333, that's how it works, sorry, get over it :(.

[Stove]

Yeah, it does scale down PCI bus etc: but memory bus shouldn't be scaled at all unless you tell it to in Bios: by setting the "133/166" mode. And I have had WAY better benches than this at this same speed before too- so it obviously doesn't HAVE to run out of synch. It just is, and I want it to stop. :rolleyes:

[Humantuckshop]

GODDAMNIT! Does the XP333 suck or what!?

What BIOS version are you using - the newest APRIL version gives better performance.

Here is a SiSoft Sandra memory bench screenshot of my (OLD) XP333 @ 133MHz........

[Humantuckshop]

We must remember that Sandra is a Synthetic benchmark. ie: it may not be a good indication of actual performance.

[Hans]

XP333 V2.1

Bench taken @ 180 MHz, 2-2-2 setting
April BIOS

[Hans]

Try this BIOS setting.

[Stove]

Have tried setting CAS to 2 in the past, but the Iwill board seems to be able to ignore those settings if it likes. Made not a skerrick of difference. My real problem for now is the fact that changing FSB from 133 to 166 ALSO makes no difference

[Big D]

Hans' BIOS settings should improve the scores. The XP333 certainly likes to be tweaked to get the best out of it. My XP333-R scores just under 2000 MB and about 1850MB on the two Sandra Memory Bandwidth benches at the standard 133MHz FSB. This is better than KT266A but I also used WPCRSET which bumps up the memory scores a bit as well. Prior to that the scores were just under the KT266A scores.

From what I've seen the WPCRSET gains improve with the overclocking but I've yet to try this.

[Hans]

Yeah, if you want to get the most of out of XP-333 then WPCRSET is a must. However, the scores I posted is gathered from default April BIOS.

[Big D]

Did you see much of an improvement with the April BIOS over the last one Hans (the March I think)?

[Hans]

Sorry, I didn't try the March or Jan BIOS. I hated them. Gave me lots of errors. I was on the Dec 2001 BIOS for 4 months before upgrading to Apr BIOS.

Yes, the bench improved but I can't feel it in the real world. The Sandra jumped from 1900~2000 to what I've got now.