Out of curiosity, how many people stress test their System Memory after they install/upgrade it? with something like memtest86 or memtest86+ or some other program...
I stress test all my computer builds and if upgrading certain components, stress test them as well...
I know several of y'all are diehard system tweakers, and am figuring that this is part of your guidelines
TC
Hi TC,
I usually run stress tests on my components as well to ensure fidelity & performance, but I haven't performed any mem module stress testing since I've upgraded to the X79 & X99 Intel platforms due to the copy of memtest86 that I had at the time wasn't compatible. I had already downloaded the correct versions of memtest86 & memtest86+ for these platforms but need to get an empty mem stick to set it up on so that I can use it.
But since using these particular Intel X series platforms I haven't had any issues that I could detect w\ mem modules not working OK so I've gotten a little lazy about finishing up my mem testing suite..............
I wasn't having any issues w\ my Corsair Vengence LPX DDR4 2133 CL13 4x4Gb mem kit as all was working fine. I had come to a conclusion when I upgraded to this X99 platform to go w\ a 16Gb 4x4Gb quad-channel mem kit w\ the lowest CL number certified for this platform as this would represent the fastest mem modules from a latency standpoint & from using a 2133 frequency set of DDR3 mem modules on my X79 platform figured that 2133 would be enough. All was good...........until I read this thread & read Skuzzy's post which got me to rethink all this so I went on Newegg & started running performance numbers on all the different DDR4 mem modules & found what Skuzzy had said concerning using the frequency numbers alone was indeed misleading, but also using the CL numbers alone would cause 1 to leave some mem performance behind. I know that all this can be manipulated thru mem timings changes and such but I've given up on doing all this & just go w\ the mem's SPD. When I ran the numbers on a set of DDR4 3000 w\ CL 15 & found the MHz\clock tick results were large enough above my existing mem modules to get me to consider getting a set I stumbled across a set of the very same Corsair Vengence LPX DDR4 4x4Gb mem kit using 3000 frequency w\ CL 15 that were certified to work w\ my X99 platform on sale for $129.95....the cheapest of any comparable 16Gb quad channel mem module kits Newegg had as all others were more expensive....most were by a fair amount to boot. The only thing concerning these was that they had the red heatspreaders on them instead of the black ones & the exact same Corsair mem set that had the black heatspreaders weren't on sale at this time. But since I have a Gigabyte X99M Gaming 5 mobo w\ red\black color accents this wasn't a problem so I got these to see if these performance numbers would hold up & I could see\measure the difference.
All I did was pull my old set out, pop these new ones in, boot up into the UEFI to check for conformity to the SPD info....all had autoset as expected w\o any issue...all settings matched the SPD info....saved & rebooted & the rest is history.
I will be using this MHz\clock tick formula vs cost going forward to determine mem module performance capability. Will be waiting on Skuzzy to present his graphs to show the hold\transition time as well as the wait states to get a total idea of mem module performance. I've checked all over the Internet so far & haven't found any charts on this subject that were definitive enough to understand\use.
Now you know where I'm at.............
Provided below is a MSI AB graph of my box running AHIII w\ this new Corsair mem. Note the GPU frametime graph line.......this is the best my FuryX has ever done.....says something about the importance of mem module MHz\clock tick performance capability to adequately feed a big GPU to allow said GPU to maintain graphics frame timing as well as all other aspects (CPU, mem controller, DMA controller, etc). And you can clearly see a graphics screen pause captured as well.................
