# Ram not running full speed??



## DoomyCheese

I opened up CPU-z to make sure everything in my new computer is showing up right, but it says my ram is only running at 400MHz instead of 800MHz.

It's 1gb G.Skill PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz


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## TheMatt

Thats because it is DDR RAM, so the actual clock speed it is running at is 400 MHz, but the effective clock speed is 800 MHz because it sends data on both ends of the wave.

Your bandwidth is still 6.4 GB/s (12.8 GB/s if you are running dual channel) which is the ultimate measure when determining the performance of any RAM.


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## DoomyCheese

Thanks for clearing that up for me 

Also, is there any particular reason I get aa BSOD when I shutdown or restart? At the bottom of the BSOD, it says it's dumping physical memory.


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## TheMatt

That is not normal. What are the technical details of the BSOD?


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## DoomyCheese

How can I find out? It only shows up for less than a second. It only happens on Vista though :\

*EDIT:* I think it's my drivers. I found this which says the old ATI drivers were the problem. The ATI drivers I have installed are the ones that came with the GPU, so I'll go download the latest drivers now.


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## TheMatt

Follow the steps here under Recovery Settings and continue with your normal activities. This time, though, instead of rebooting, you should see a blue screen. Be sure to post the technical details on the blue screen including the STOP error. Write it down and post it back here so we can pinpoint the cause of the problem.


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## DoomyCheese

Ah, yeah it was the ATI Catalyst drivers. Updated them and now the computer shuts down just fine  One thing about the new drivers I have noticed though, is a massive frame rate drop accross all my games. I now get about 40-60 fps in Halo 2 instead of 120-130.


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## TheMatt

Which ones are you using now? And which ones did you have before?


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## DoomyCheese

The new ones I have are Catalyst Display Drivers 7.9 and the old ones were 7.1

I tried reinstalling them again but performance was terrible and the BSOD's were back so I put the 7.9 drivers back on, and now I can't really play any games at all. Everything lags so bad. 

Could my GPU be damaged from the new drivers? This really isn't right, the last two days I could play Halo 2 at 100+ fps all the time and now I cant even get over 25 

Please help, I've even tried a fresh install of Windows and it's still not working. :4-dontkno


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## TheMatt

Try the catalyst 7.8 drivers. The 7.7's might work but I heard those were slightly buggy.


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## DoomyCheese

The page for my card only has 7.9 drivers?

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32

Edit: Never mind, found them and downloading now.


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## TheMatt

Oh you are running Vista. Try these:
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/previous/common/common-cat78-vista32.html


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## DoomyCheese

Ok I uninstalled 7.9 and put 7.8 on but my games are still running bad :\ Could it be the ATI Control Center? That never installed with the original 7.1 drivers.


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## TheMatt

Try just the 7.8's (no CCC) or the 7.7's.


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## DoomyCheese

Nothings working, I honestly think it's the card. Is it possible for a card to suddenly lose all it's power?


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## TheMatt

Check your voltages and video card temps with SpeedFan and ATI Tray Tools (or the CCC).


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## DoomyCheese

I don't understand any of this stuff, here's a screenshot.


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## TheMatt

Voltages look good. Do you have any fans plugged into the motherboard other than the CPU fan?


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## DoomyCheese

There's the rear 120mm case fan?

Also, I noticed my ram is really taking a beating when I'm playing games. Could this be the problem?

Idle









Load









I have the money for a second GB of G.Skill PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz, should I get it?


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## TheMatt

Games take up a lot of RAM. If you go back to the drivers that were causing the computer to crash durring shut down is your performance restored?


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## DoomyCheese

Yeah I tried that and it didn't work :\ Maybe something blew up or overheated in those first few days. I'm perfectly happy to go and buy a second gig of ram, I'm just wondering what it will do performance wise.


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## TheMatt

What are the temps of the video card?


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## DoomyCheese

I don't have CCC installed so I can't tell :\ Speedfan isn't much help either, it only has Temp1, Temp2 etc.


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## TheMatt

PC Wizard should be able to get the graphics card temp as well as ATI Tray Tools.


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## DoomyCheese

I had a look through PC Wizard but couldn't find VPU tempurature so I just installed CCC. Right now the card is at 40 Degrees centigrade.


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## TheMatt

Thats a good temp.

I am stumped here. I will consult the other team members.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d

While you should get the ram (my proformance increased and no lock ups) also make sure v sync is off as it will limit the fps to 60


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## DoomyCheese

I downloaded 3DMark06 and tested my system. It did really bad  Never really got over 20fps in all the graphics tests. 3543 3DMarks. Also I did a 3D benchmark in PC Wizard and got:

130fps full screen texture
10fps Particles 3D
54fps Vertex
482fps Billboard

The graph has fps going up to near 5000 so I think something is definitely wrong with my x1950 Pro.


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## TheMatt

Turn Vsync off. See if you can test the card in another system.


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## DoomyCheese

Yeah I've tried turning Vsync off. I also have the only computer with a PCI-e x16 bus in my household :\


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## DoomyCheese

Hey I think this might be a resolution/refresh rate issue. I posted my problem on another forum and one reply said to increase my monitors refresh rate and put the refresh rate the same as the monitors in game. It made a noticeable improvement but it's still somewhat laggy.


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## linderman

a 500 watt PSU is light for your system, I have seen guys upgrade their PSU's which were starving their cpu's and video cards / after the upgrade they got an impressive FPS improvement


I think you would be better off using the antec trio rail 650 watt and sell off your 500 watt on ebay


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## Cellus

Through the course of installing, upgrading, unininstalling, and rolling back your video card drivers, have you been fully uninstalling them before installing new/old ones beforehand? After running the ATI Catalyst uninstall for not only the drivers, but the CCC, and other related components, run through Driver Cleaner for it to remove any remnants not uninstalled. After all the installing/upgrading/downgrading/fiddling of several versions of Catalyst, the next logical step is to toss it all, make sure any old remnants are wiped away, and re-install _one_ driver.


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## DoomyCheese

It definitely seems like a hardware fail after everything I've tried. Cellus, I've reformatted 2 times now with no luck. Is there anyway I can test my parts to find whats defective?

Edit: If it is the PSU, I should be able to return it as it hasn't even has a weeks worth of use yet.


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## TheMatt

Download ATI Tray Tools from my sig and run an artifact test.


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## DoomyCheese

I didn't do so well. The x1800XT beat me


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## TheMatt

There is somethign definitely wrong with your card because yours has more than twice the shader processing power as the X1800XT.

This is a longshot, but try clearing your CMOS.


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## DoomyCheese

Clearing the CMOS is taking the battery out for about 15 minutes right?


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## TheMatt

That or using the jumper on the motherboard (I usually do both just to make sure).


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## DoomyCheese

TheMatt said:


> That or using the jumper on the motherboard (I usually do both just to make sure).


Ok I did both and got the Checksum defaults loaded message. I'll see if I get any fps improvment now.

Edit: No dice  Still really bad frame rates. I'm seriously regretting building my own computer right about now.


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## TheMatt

I am still kind of thinking its the PSU. Check your voltages in the BIOS. Do you have a multimeter you can use to verify them?


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d

Yeh i am thinking it is that as well my video card takes up less power then yours and 500 watt is still underpowered for me, i would upgrade an dif it does not help then you still have a better one for later upgrades


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## DoomyCheese

I really do not know alot about voltages guys, is there specific numbers I should worry about? I'll check in the bios now.


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## mattlock

The ATX standards allow for +/- 5% on each rail. (12v, 5v, 3.3v) Record the voltages displayed in the BIOS and post them back here.


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## DoomyCheese

I've copied it all down exactly as it was in BIOS.

VCC 3.3V - 3.26V
Vcore - 1.3V
VCC 1.8V - 1.8V
VCC 1.25V - 1.25V
+5V - 4.91V
+12V - 12.23V
+3.3V - 3.18V
VSB - 3.26V
Voltage Battery - 3.15V


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## DoomyCheese

Also, I don't understand how it could be the PSU if it was all working fine the first few days :\ It just doesn't make sense that it would suddenly stop performing well


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## mattlock

Your voltage look ok.

As for the PSU not being the problem.... power supplies are not something that either work or don't work. There are so many variables involved that could cause anything, reduced performance, system lock up, random reboot, system shutdown.

Antec has some good PSUs but the Basiq series is not consider one of them. The Trio, Earthwatts, and NeoHE series are al made for Antec by Seasonic and are the only Antec units worth considering, with the Trio leading the pack.


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## DoomyCheese

Well if I can sell my Basiq for at least $90 AUD (I bought it for $110 and it's been in use for <1 week) I will have enough for a Trio 650w. My parents are in Europe so I can't do any online shopping. That's 4 weeks of this horrible performance I put up with, and then if it's not the PSU I've wasted my money in the end :\ But what if it is the PSU, and having to use it over the next 4 weeks damaged my system? Oh boy..


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## mattlock

If you've only had it for a week, try returning and upgrading to the Trio. You may have to pay a small restocking fee. Or did you buy it online? If so, post a link to the site you bought it from. I would like to review thier RMA policy.


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## DoomyCheese

Bought on eBay 

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ANTEC-BASIQ-...yZ111429QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Edit: I just looked, it says I have 1 year RTB warrenty. But I'm not sure if I can because the PSU isn't damaged (from what I can tell).


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## mattlock

They have a 7 day return policy, for a refund of non damaged items. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see the return policy.


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## DoomyCheese

I'm not sure I can return it then. See I bought it about 2 weeks ago, but only finished the computer about 5 days ago :\


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