speed drops using 4gb ram in vista ultimate 64bit

[bornslippy5]

HI THERE MY SYSTEM SPECS ARE
A8R32 MVP DELUXE
AMD FX 60
2 X ATI X1950 512MB
1KW GALAXY PSU
2 X 150GB RAPTOR HD
1 X 160GB TOSHIBA HD
DVD RW
DVD ROM/CR RW
16 IN 1 CARD READER WITH FLOPPY
AM RUNNING VISTA ULTIMATE 64 BIT AND XP MCE 2005 (DUAL BOOT...XP ON TOSHIBA HD)
LASTLY
4 X 1GB BALLISIX DDR RAM

OK PROBS I AM HAVING..
WITHOUT MEMORY HOLE ENABLED VISTA SHOWS ONLY 2.85 GB RAM INSTALLED.
WITH MEMORY HOLE ENABLED IT SHOWS 4 GB
HOWEVER WHEN RUNNING THE WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX IN VISTA I SHOW A 4.2 INDEX FOR RAM WHEN RUNNING 4GB COMPARED WITH 4.8 WHEN I RUN WITH JUST 2.
ALSO FINDING GAMES VERY CHOPPY WITH 4 GB INSTALLED RATHER THAN THE 2 GB.
HAVE SEEN IN MOTHERBOARD MANUAL THAT THE SPEED OF EACH RAM IS DROPPED TO 333MHZ WHEN RUNNING 4GB OF DOUBLE SIDED RAM, BUT SURELY EVEN WITH THE DROP FROM 400MHZ TO 333MHZ I SHOULD HAVE A SPEED INCREASE DUE TO HAVING THE 4 X 333MHZ COMPARED WITH 2 X 400MHZ.
AM NEW TO PC TWEAKING SO FEEL FREE TO SHOOT FROM THE HIP....
AM THINKING OF SELLING RAM IF I CANNOT MAKE EM GO...LAST RESORT...

ARE THERE ANY RAM TIMINGS I CAN USE IN BIOS TO MAKE THIS SITUATION BETTER.
AT PRESENT EVERYTHING IN THE MEMORY IS SET TO AUTO.
AM USING MOBO AT 5% OVERCLOCK WITH AI NOS (THROUGH BIOS AS THERE IS NO UTILITY FOR THIS THROUGH VISTA AS YET

PLEASE HELP ITS DOIN MY HEAD IN HAVING 2 X 1GB STICKS OF UNUSED TOP CLASS RAM LOOKING AT ME FROM MY DRAWER...

THE REASONING FOR THE RAM INCREASE WAS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE IN MY SYSTEM FOR HIGH CLASS GAMING AND TRYING TO BREAK 10,000 IN 3D MARK 06
9870 SO FAR

TELL ME IF I'M BEING STUPID AND SHOULD JUST SELL THE RAM

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

[ladygreenwitch]

Hey Slippy,

My personal welcome to PCHF.

Have you tested the individual sticks to see if you actually have errors on any of them? I would run a full memtest scan and make sure they were all 100% before banging your head against the wall any more than you have already.

Also, have you tested all of the sticks seperately to see if you are getting the same kind of slow down, and have you switched out locations say name them A, B, C, and D, have them in slots 1,2,3, and 4, and then swap to B,C,D,A, etc?

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

[bornslippy5]

hi there thanks for your reply.
have done memory tests previously with no errors.. didn't do it with individual sticks though.
however have tried just using 2gb of ram swapping ram that was in 2 & 4 into slots 1 & 3 and running the windows experience index again and get same results for both pairs of ram so i believe all 4 are good.

have done a bit of tinkering in bios today and now have all 4 rams working at an experience index of 4.8 the same as with 2.
5.9 is highest mark you can get with this index..so not bad but not as good as i hoped with high quality ballistix ram.

i managed this by enabling memory hole putting hardware rewrapping into discrete (think thats what i did or something similar)
and setting memory speed at 200mhz..(which is 2 x 200mhz i believe so 400mhz)
in manual it says it drops memory speed to 333mhz with 4 double sided rams, so not sure but think i may have overrided this.
also am overclocked to 5% with ai nos.

tryed muckin about with ddr voltages briefly and had overclock failures so stopped that, also a bit scared of frying things so was tentative.

all seems a little faster a present haven't tried any games yet however.
sooo will try a few games later and let you know.

do you know anyone with a similar system to me and know of their bios settings.
going off subject a little
if i set ai nos past 7% it wont boot,so would like to know of settings that may work. just want to get the potential out of my machine. and games to run as floorlessly at high settings as poss. with my rig i should really not be experiencing any slow downs and choppyness at all.

thanks for your time again.

[double_a_ron]

Are you certain that all the Memory Modules are identical? If you pair slower ram with faster ram they will all run at the slower Ram's speed.

[bornslippy5]

yes mate bought from same company. and identical products.
all 4 x 1gb with same specs.
have 1st pair in slots 2 and 4
and 2nd pair in 1 and 3 at present

bought my 1 st pair 6 months ago 2nd pair 2 months ago.

thx for your reply

[ladygreenwitch]

Hey Slippy,

Our resident overclocking guru hasn't been on in a while, which may mean that he's due. I am going to email him and see if he has the time to check out your thread. He has always had the best handle on how to set a system.

In the mean time, we'll be waiting to hear how your games are playing.

TTFN

LGW

[bornslippy5]

hey there have played a few games since last post, quake 4 on very high quality.
is working great untill there's a lot of action happening in a scene then it gets choppy again.
quake 4 is possibly not the best game to try out at present cos apparently it has some known compatibility issues with vista.
haven't noticed any myself the choppyness i get with any game with 4gb ram installed.

lately i've tryed upping voltages to ddr to 2.85 with trembly knees, and upping the ddr frequency to 233mhz worked great for 10 mins b4 it rebooted on me.

it wont boot atall at 250mhz. ballistix are capapble up to ddr 4000 (250mhz) btw have checked with cpu z.
so am feeling quite thick at present think i need to read a bios bible or something.
#

thx again for your time and inputs.
)