sandra 2004 question

[Monster1]

When I bench my memory via sandra is states that mem is 75% utilized.. what can I do about the unused 25%?

the FSB is 400 and it is corsair value3200 (if that means antything to anyone)


Thanks

[Ankun]

I'm pretty sure it means they only used 75% of your ram for the test. ie. you have 512mb ram and they only used 384mb of it.

[Monster1]

No, I guess I should rephase

what it said.
Your memory bandwidth is 75% effecient

is basicly what it says.I would like it higher if possible

[Ankun]

I looked into it and it seems the bandwidth efficiency is determined by how much bandwidth your motherboard can support, (ie if your motherboard could take 400mhz ddr, it would have 3200mb/s bandwidth) and say you only had 333mhz ddr (pc2700, so only 2700mb/s max bandwidth) you would only be using about 85% of your maximum bandwidth.

When you run the test under chipset information it should say your estimated maximum bandwidth, unless your ddr memory is rated at the speed listed you shouldn't have much to worry about.

I'm only about 65% efficient because my motherboard will take pc3200 while I'm only using pc2100.

edit: you could make your % higher by overclocking your memory or by buying the fastest memory your motherboard will support.

[Monster1]

hmmm

Ok, thats kinda what I figured but I have the mem at 400 (actully a little over);) on a 400 mobo

mem 403 mhz w/MSI delta KT600. this is why Ican figure where the 25% is being lost

[Ankun]

well what did sandra rate your maximum bandwidth at? I noticed it was a bit from exact, because my motherboard can actually run ddr ram at ~230mhz(x2) Also the rating they give you isnt actually based on the rating whoever made your memory gave you, its factored by the mb/s they gather from the actual benchmark. If your ratings are less than they should be you should try closing some background applications(if any are open) or possibly test your ram for errors.

[Monster1]

yea. I did all that. I went to sanda site and they said if your getting above 80%, you lucky. but they didnt elaborate

[Ankun]

Hmm that is really confusing to me. Had I been using this program for longer than a week I would probably have some other ideas but at the moment I'm clueless :\ I'd kinda like to find out myself though.

Is your memory and FSB running at the same speed? It seems to be basing my maximum bandwidth off of my fsb speed, while running my fsb at 200mhz it said I have 3200mb/s maximum bandwidth, I moved it down to 199mhz and it now rates me at 3184mb/s.

[Monster1]

LOL. I know what ya mean;)

yea, my FSb and mem are the same speed