Memory bandwidth kinda low!?

RWBRWB Icrontian
edited February 2006 in Hardware
I just tested my new laptop in Sisoft Sandra 2005, it's supposed to have 533MHz DDR2 memory, yet it seems to only score 2900MBps in Sisoft which seems VERY low to me.

Any ideas? Right now my computer's speed is at 2GHz, it's a Pentium M 2GHz with 2GB of 533MHz DDR2. It's also Dual Channel Memory.

Comments

  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited February 2006
    Are you folding while running the benchmark? I seem to remember that having an effect.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Haven't started to fold just yet
  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2006
    Could it be that the ram is running in single channel mode?
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Hey rwb ...try this pcwizard 2006 program and post your results ...http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2006
    madmat wrote:
    Could it be that the ram is running in single channel mode?

    That could be a distinct possibility, Matt. I have no experience with the 915 chipset laptops and P-M, but that does sound awful low for a DC capable chipset.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    csimon wrote:
    Hey rwb ...try this pcwizard 2006 program and post your results ...http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php


    What should I benchmark and how do I post the results?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Memory Global Benchmark

    Bandwidth 1 KB : 13838.11 MB/s
    Bandwidth 2 KB : 14342.09 MB/s
    Bandwidth 4 KB : 14624.44 MB/s
    Bandwidth 8 KB : 14562.34 MB/s
    Bandwidth 16 KB : 14278.17 MB/s
    Bandwidth 32 KB : 14037.01 MB/s
    Bandwidth 64 KB : 8319.8 MB/s
    Bandwidth 128 KB : 8027.11 MB/s
    Bandwidth 256 KB : 8338.08 MB/s
    Bandwidth 512 KB : 8316.12 MB/s
    Bandwidth 1 MB : 8232.82 MB/s
    Bandwidth 2 MB : 7673.03 MB/s
    Bandwidth 4 MB : 2643.62 MB/s
    Bandwidth 8 MB : 2539.91 MB/s
    Bandwidth 16 MB : 2548.43 MB/s
    Bandwidth 32 MB : 2550.63 MB/s
    Bandwidth 64 MB : 2547.96 MB/s
    Bandwidth 128 MB : 2548.52 MB/s
    Bandwidth 256 MB : 2548.84 MB/s
    Bandwidth 512 MB : 2549.48 MB/s
    Bandwidth 1024 MB : 2548.37 MB/s
    Bandwidth 2048 MB : 2548.93 MB/s
    Latency : 102.76 ns (205 cycles)

    RAM Benchmark

    Bandwidth (Write Float - Prefetch) : 770.31 MB/s
    Bandwidth (Write Int. - Prefetch) : 771.01 MB/s
    Latency : 102 ns (204 cycles)
    Bandwidth Efficiency Float : 58%
    Bandwidth Efficiency Int. : 58%

    Processor Benchmark

    Whetstone (FPU) : 2743 MFlops
    Whetstone (SSE2) : 3529 MFlops
    Dhrystone (ALU) : 8368 Mips
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I usually take a screenshot of the results page but you did fine.
    On the results page at the bottom below the Latency is an information tab ...that helps a bit as well.

    So ...102ns Latency? Not very good if you're at cas 3 ...but on a side note you're cpu benches look awesome for 2ghz IMO.

    Do you have any bios settings for the ram? Did you build this lappy or is it a Dell or something?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Not too sure how to access the bios on this machine, but CPU-Z shows my memory timings to be 4-4-4-12-1 I think it even shows that I am in DUal CHannel mode.

    It says:
    Type DDR2-SDRAM
    Channels # DUAL
    Size 2048MBytes
    Frequency 266.0MHz
    FSB:RAM 1:2
    CAS# 4
    RAS# to CAS# 4
    RAS# 4
    Cycle Time (Tras) 12
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    RAM Benchmark

    General Information :
    Chipset : Intel i910/915PM
    Chipset RAM Type : DDR2-SDRAM PC2-4300 Dual Channel
    SPD RAM Type : DDR2-SDRAM
    FSB Frequency : 133 MHz
    Bus Speed : 532 MHz (QDR)
    Memory Frequency : 266 MHz
    Chipset Bandwidth : 4256 MB/s
    Memory Bandwidth : 8512 MB/s
    Latency : CL4

    Memory Information :
    L1 Cache : 64 KB
    L2 Cache : 2048 KB
    Total Memory : 2048 MB

    Tests Information :
    Instructions SSE, SSE2, SSE3 : 128-bit
    Instructions MMX : 64-bit
    Instructions 3DNow! : 64-bit
    Instructions FPU : 64-bit
    Instructions INT : 32-bit
    Test : 2 x 64 MB
    Prefetch-Block (8 KB) : Yes
    Latency Stride : 512

    Memory Global Benchmark

    General Information :
    Chipset : Intel i910/915PM
    Chipset RAM Type : DDR2-SDRAM PC2-4300 Dual Channel
    SPD RAM Type : DDR2-SDRAM
    FSB Frequency : 133 MHz
    Bus Speed : 532 MHz (QDR)
    Memory Frequency : 266 MHz
    Chipset Bandwidth : 4256 MB/s
    Memory Bandwidth : 8512 MB/s
    Latency : CL4

    Memory Information :
    L1 Cache : 64 KB
    L2 Cache : 2048 KB
    Total Memory : 2048 MB

    Tests Information :
    Instructions SSE, SSE2, SSE3 : 128-bit
    Instructions MMX : 64-bit
    Instructions 3DNow! : 64-bit
    Instructions FPU : 64-bit
    Instructions INT : 32-bit
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I think the only way to improve on the ram would be to get into the bios.
    You could try upping the frequency to the next available level.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2006
    That's a Dell laptop, Chris. I seriously doubt that they give any choices on ram speed or timings. Dell is famous for putting a really dumbed down bios in all their systems, performance-wise. The only way to get better memory performance IMO would be to buy some premium low latency ddr2 for the laptop and I don't think the small performance gain would justify the expenditure.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    This is not a Dell, I thought I pose\ted that before, but I think I didn't submit it :P

    Anyways, it's a PowerPro 2:17 bought from Powernotebooks.com ;)
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    I was just in the bios, I figured it out. It's pretty much basic, kinda as if it were a Dell BIOS. Only security and bootup sequence stuff and a few other minor things.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2006
    Yeah, pretty much all laptop bioses I've seen are pretty well dumbed down, with no options for manually setting ram timings. They set their ram timings based off the programmed spd info, I believe. My powerpro 5:6 is the same way (older model than yours).
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Is there a program I can use to change timings in windows? I doubt it will fix this problem, this is a huge deficit in bandwitdh
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Could it be that the ram is running in single channel mode?
    It's a laptop. It might not even be dual channel capable, regardless of the chipset or motherboard.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    It was advertised as being Dual Channel, I think the CPUZ thing also states it is running in Dual Channel mode. This is just so frustrating, I mean it's good, but thinking it could be even better just gets to me.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited February 2006
    The big saving grace of Pentium M is that it really doesn't need high memory bandwidth to perform well, RWB. If you can get higher memory bandwidth then great, but they still perform well with lower memory bandwidth also. It's not nearly as crippled as a P4 would be at your present memory bandwidth.

    With that said, if you can get it some good memory bandwidth they really sing then. If I remember right, my desktop Dothan system gets about double what you are seeing with your laptop, but it's also running BH5 at 2-2-2-7 timings too at 200+ memory speed.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    It would seem that this is the speed at which the memory bandwidth actually runs. I haven't been able to confirm that of course, but being that my 3D Mark score are pretty high, for example I can get 2754 points in 3D Mark 05, 3000 points with a bit of GPU/MEM overclocking, I would guess this is how it is.

    It could be that Sisoft has a bug for this chipset, I checked the known results in sisoft's compairison thing and it showed memory bandwidth similar to what I had in the tests, mine were just slightly less :(
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