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#41
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
Mike
Nevertheless SiSoft Sandra is not free. As is stated on the Freedownloadmanager site it is shareware and costs $29.00 US. This really isn't worthwhile getting into an argument over but I'm sure you will see from the above how I misunderstood your point of view. The important thing is that Harry's happy now. Paul |
#42
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
Just a thought, Paul........since you have two DDR slots available, have you
thought about using them instead of the SDR slots? Memory is pretty cheap and the DDR may just be better than interleaving your SDR. Check back with your computer shop, they would probably *give* you a 16M video card from an upgraded machine.........not much demand for those anymore.....then you could have the best of both worlds :-). Heirloom, old and pay no real attention, just spouting off "PaulFXH" wrote in message oups.com... Heirloom Thanks again for your comments. I woke up this morning with the full intention of trying out your suggestion. Then I discovered that my two empty slots are DDR slots so my SDR sticks can't be moved around. However, in an attempt to get some encouragement for shoving in an AGP card (yes, I do have a slot) I changed the BIOS setup to reduce the shared memory from 32MB to 16MB. Sure enough, this brough my RAM memory from 224MB to 240MB. However, it made no difference whatsoever to my memory read or write speed, or the latency or the bandwidth efficiency nor even to the cold boot time. This surprised me and does not suggest that the AGP card would provide the expected (or hoped for) performance boost. Nevertheless, I went along to the local computer store to check out the AGP card situation. The guy I spoke to there did not see much, or even any benefit, as likely to arise from its installation. For him, WinME is an irremediable blight on the computer world and he was quite ´prepared to attribute all of my computer ills, including the sluggish memory performance, to the OS. He considered that WinME is particularly prone to leaving unremovable residues in the registry which will slow everything down after a few years of accumulation. So I came away pondering the gravity of his claims but without the AGP card. On the other hand, although my experience with WinME is only one month, I really cannot say that it has been a dissappointment. Despite my lamentations about the memory, I find that the machine I'm using is actually quite sprightly. It starts up and shuts down quickly and apps can be brought up very swiftly. The whole memory thing was really just something I saw as an opportunity to squeeze a little more rapidity out of a machine that is already performing well. It is not very much slower than my other machine running on WinXP (with faster CPU and more than twice the RAM) and actually does some things faster. My only real problem on the WinME machine is that it tends to hang unexpectedly now and again but this is something I could live with. Thanks for your interest in my problem Paul |
#43
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
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#44
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
Hi Heirloom
Thanks for your thoughts. However, just to make it plain that I don't have a crisis here. The computer actually operates well and I really am not complaining. If there were something I could do to improve even more the performance preferably without spending any money or getting out of my chair, then I'll do it. I started this thread with that aim. Although no improvement was achieved I did learn a lot and found the exchange of views most enjoyable. Hey, what's life for but to keep learning and stay happy (or to become happy if you are not already starting from that platform). Nevertheless, your suggestion to track down a 16MB AGP is one I'll take up next time I visit the computer store down the road. I'll just finish with a further observation I made today in the same context that might encourage comments from somebody. Because of a problem I had today, I was forced to clear the CMOS memory. Strangely, several items in the BIOS SetUp menu which had formerly been grayed out (and, indeed, were the original reason for this thread) now became capable of change after clearing the CMOS. These included Bank Interleaving and CAS Latency. However, the strange thing is that no matter what I changed the Interleaving setting to (choice of 4-way, 2-way or none) it always ended up as 4-way after making the change and saving it. In other words, it seemed that irrespective of the settings put into the BIOS, default settings always seemed to be preferentially used (for a reason I cannot explain). This list of unchangeable BIOS options includes SDRAM frequency which is fixed at 100 MHz although the option of 133 MHz is temptingly available in the BIOS. Tinkle any bells? Paul |
#45
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
YW, Paul. You should know that I am just an old fixture around here,
helping when I can......even if it is only to bring a smile to someone's face. This is the best NG on the Internet, bar none. You won't find a better group of people. That's why, even after building my new box and installing XP, I am still here........this is 127.0.0.1 for me. Honestly, I had never heard of 'memory interleaving' before you brought it up......I did mess with the HD interleave on my old XT clone, had that baby running at, almost, AT speeds before I was done! what you did today, I don't have a clue. I would have to do a lot of research and reading to even approach that one. One thing for sure, there are some bonerfried gurus in this group.......if the answers are available, this would be your best shot. Heirloom, old and "tinkle bells?".....wasn't that a fairy? "PaulFXH" wrote in message oups.com... Hi Heirloom Thanks for your thoughts. However, just to make it plain that I don't have a crisis here. The computer actually operates well and I really am not complaining. If there were something I could do to improve even more the performance preferably without spending any money or getting out of my chair, then I'll do it. I started this thread with that aim. Although no improvement was achieved I did learn a lot and found the exchange of views most enjoyable. Hey, what's life for but to keep learning and stay happy (or to become happy if you are not already starting from that platform). Nevertheless, your suggestion to track down a 16MB AGP is one I'll take up next time I visit the computer store down the road. I'll just finish with a further observation I made today in the same context that might encourage comments from somebody. Because of a problem I had today, I was forced to clear the CMOS memory. Strangely, several items in the BIOS SetUp menu which had formerly been grayed out (and, indeed, were the original reason for this thread) now became capable of change after clearing the CMOS. These included Bank Interleaving and CAS Latency. However, the strange thing is that no matter what I changed the Interleaving setting to (choice of 4-way, 2-way or none) it always ended up as 4-way after making the change and saving it. In other words, it seemed that irrespective of the settings put into the BIOS, default settings always seemed to be preferentially used (for a reason I cannot explain). This list of unchangeable BIOS options includes SDRAM frequency which is fixed at 100 MHz although the option of 133 MHz is temptingly available in the BIOS. Tinkle any bells? Paul |
#46
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
Hi everybody
This is just an update on some progress I made in getting the memory measurements (read/write speeds, CAS latency from Everton) on my computer a little more respectable. When I started this thread, the RAM measured (typically) 374 Mb/s Read, 169 Mb/s Write and 475 ns Latency. These now measure 613, 273 and 286 in the same order [Latency is a delay and therefore the lower the better in contrast to Read/Write which should be fast] Although this is a major improvement, the benefits of which are clearly seen in the computer operation, it is still less than 40% of the way towards the benchmark for my type of mobo as quoted by Everton. The major factors involved in the improved memory performance were (in decreasing order of importance): 1. Moving graphics display from 32-bit True Color to 16-bit High Color 2. Changing graphics display from 1280x1024 to 1024x768 3. Enabling 4-way bank interleaving 4. Moving CAS Latency from 3 to 2 (only improved latency and not the Read/Write figures). I have yet to install an external AGP card as suggested by Heirloom (given that my mobo has an integrated video chip that shares memory with, and therefore robs from, the RAM sticks) but this is coming up. I have further tried to improve matters by increasing the CPU frequency from 100MHz to 133MHz. However, even though jumpers to make this change are available on the mobo, the computer simply does not boot when I switch the jumpers. Unfortunately, I have no idea as to the reason for this. Neverthess, I now have the impression that my SDRAM PC133 sticks are being penalized, in comparison with those from which I took the Everton benchmark numbers, simply because they are running on a lower speed bus (100MHz rather than 133MHz for which they are designed). All-in-all, the computer is running extremely well and is by no means left behind by my more modern, and faster, WinXP machine. Indeed, it does some things better. Who says WinME is out-dated? Paul |
#47
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Bank Interleaving of RAM sticks
Thanks for the update. Based on the improvements you have seen, which I
believe to be mostly a result of of display changes, I think your best bet will still be to get the graphics card. Let us know after you get it.......I, for one, am quite curious about the pending results. Heirloom, old and don't like shared video "PaulFXH" wrote in message oups.com... Hi everybody This is just an update on some progress I made in getting the memory measurements (read/write speeds, CAS latency from Everton) on my computer a little more respectable. When I started this thread, the RAM measured (typically) 374 Mb/s Read, 169 Mb/s Write and 475 ns Latency. These now measure 613, 273 and 286 in the same order [Latency is a delay and therefore the lower the better in contrast to Read/Write which should be fast] Although this is a major improvement, the benefits of which are clearly seen in the computer operation, it is still less than 40% of the way towards the benchmark for my type of mobo as quoted by Everton. The major factors involved in the improved memory performance were (in decreasing order of importance): 1. Moving graphics display from 32-bit True Color to 16-bit High Color 2. Changing graphics display from 1280x1024 to 1024x768 3. Enabling 4-way bank interleaving 4. Moving CAS Latency from 3 to 2 (only improved latency and not the Read/Write figures). I have yet to install an external AGP card as suggested by Heirloom (given that my mobo has an integrated video chip that shares memory with, and therefore robs from, the RAM sticks) but this is coming up. I have further tried to improve matters by increasing the CPU frequency from 100MHz to 133MHz. However, even though jumpers to make this change are available on the mobo, the computer simply does not boot when I switch the jumpers. Unfortunately, I have no idea as to the reason for this. Neverthess, I now have the impression that my SDRAM PC133 sticks are being penalized, in comparison with those from which I took the Everton benchmark numbers, simply because they are running on a lower speed bus (100MHz rather than 133MHz for which they are designed). All-in-all, the computer is running extremely well and is by no means left behind by my more modern, and faster, WinXP machine. Indeed, it does some things better. Who says WinME is out-dated? Paul |
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