I actually flashed an A8V BIOS to my A8V-X hoping it would work (since the boards are incredibly similar) to get the voltage controls, but it wouldn't POST with that BIOS so I had to go back to the stock one.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-24, 15:39:

Well, with this platform it is impossible to get exactly what you'd want. It is either low, or too high. I either need better memory which'll work at ~450, or have to be content with what i got here.

So far from what i am seeing here is that the same memory which worked on nforce2/s462 at 400/2.5/3/3/7 and could OC by at least 10% up to 440 with the same timings with no issues barely works at 400/3/3/3/8 on S939 and will not handle even the slightest OC. And i thought nforce2 had quirky memory controller...

You may need to increase latency, but the board probably doesn't allow to select higher than 3. AMD memory controller is not as good as NVidia's. On my s754 Athlon 64 I run DDR400 (2x1GB) with timings 2.5-3-3-8 though.

There existed 1GB DDR500 stick A-DATA Extreme Edition Vitesta. DDR500 - 3-4-4-8, DDR400 - 2.5-4-4-8. It is supposed to be a kit of 2x1GB.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-24, 17:51:

You may need to increase latency, but the board probably doesn't allow to select higher than 3. AMD memory controller is not as good as NVidia's. On my s754 Athlon 64 I run DDR400 (2x1GB) with timings 2.5-3-3-8 though.

There existed 1GB DDR500 stick A-DATA Extreme Edition Vitesta. DDR500 - 3-4-4-8, DDR400 - 2.5-4-4-8. It is supposed to be a kit of 2x1GB.

I can increase timings, but it does not help. It really, really does not like going above 400. May be different memory would help, may be it would not. All those faster kits are basically just binned and overclocked, nothing officially rated higher than 400 exists, AFAIK. Also the sticks i am using are technically 400/3/3/3/8, so the fact they at least work at nominal settings is good already.

If i want to OC i have to drop the divider one step though, no way around it. Because of how it works it ends up being something like 315 too, instead of 333. I could try dropping CPU multiplier a bit (it is possible) and increasing base frequency further to raise memory and HT closer to nominal values, but that requires further experimentation - there are a lot of variables to fool around with.

As pictured it is still noticeably faster than with nominal 2.2Ghz CPU, 1Ghz HT and 400 memory...

You need to find a way to activate DRAM divisor 12. You are running with 14. 2400mhz with divisor 12 leads to ddr400, your nominal ddr speed. It will be an indirect setting as you probably have DDR speed in BIOS setup just like AM2, not multiplier. It was also influenced by HT multiplier in AM2. Try increasing base frequency while lowering CPU multiplier to keep frequency the same.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-08-24, 19:18:

You need to find a way to activate DRAM divisor 12. You are running with 14. 2400mhz with divisor 12 leads to ddr400, your nominal ddr speed. It will be an indirect setting as you probably have DDR speed in BIOS setup just like AM2, not multiplier. It was also influenced by HT multiplier in AM2. Try increasing base frequency while lowering CPU multiplier to keep frequency the same.

It is configured a little differently here - i can choose divisor in relation to "FSB" in BIOS, so it is 1:1 for 200, or 5:4 for 166 (which obviously ends up being 160). There are no options in between, so i have to set it to 5:4, which means i need to set "FSB" to 250 for RAM to be 200. It works out the same way with HT too. So theoretically i should be able to then set CPU multiplier to 10 and get nice and round 2500 (CPU can do that), but... it does not work. Does not even post past ~240 FSB, even with very low multiplier, so it is not the CPU - it is the motherboard. PCI/AGP frequencies can be set separately so it is not that, but i suspect something is getting overclocked and does not like it...