You stole that ball and ran off with it!!

I hear ya, Man...I just had to mess with ya a bit.

What is weird is that when I decided to upgrade my memory I just assumed that a dedicated DDR3 controller (I mean, that's our only option for the 790i - we can't use DDR2 for backwards compatibility - it's DDR3 only) would support higher density chips - I mean, limiting a high performance board to only 8 gigs total would be outrageous - I've got old Pentium 3 boards that supported more - lol!
 
What makes it even stranger is that I didn't even do what I normally do in cases like this - research memory and compatibility for my board. I had come to appreciate the memory controller on the 790i and really had been screwing with this board for two solid years that I felt I could get any memory to work with it if I was willing to put in the time and so when I went shopping on New Egg my only criteria for 2 x 4 was bandwidth and quality production. Those Corsair sticks I purchased were perfect - lots of headroom, hand binned ICs, etc. I basically wanted to do nothing other then swap out my old dimms and replace them with the new ones (knowing I'd have to move to a command rate of 2 a head of time and adjust a few timings). My FSB stayed at 1800 like I wanted and actually - ironically - despite the timings needing to be slightly loosened vs my old patriot sticks - read performance went slightly up.
 
That's why when VistaHead asked me "are you saying you're running 2x4?" I was a little surprised since I just assumed that with DDR3 prices falling so low that a lot of people must be running 2x4 (and even 4x4 - I thought) - especially those of us who don't feel like an upgrade to an i7 would really give us much benefit.
 
At the end of the day, though - although there is no definitive statement by Nvidia or it's resellers that the board supports 2x4 - I can't find a statement to the contrary either. I guess that's why I assumed that density wouldn't be a problem.
 
So I don't think anyone "ommitted" or "falsified" info - I think it's just one of those weirdo things that not many actually have tried it - and I don't believe for one second that I'm the first - I bet there are lots of people out there that are running 2x4 and are just like me - assuming it's a common thing so they don't bother saying anything.
 
The more I think about it - the more I believe that 4 x 4 wouldn't be a problem with the right tweaking - with TRAS and TRFC being the two most important timings to getting it working and SPP voltage on the power side. If the board can run 2 x 2 and 4 x 2 and 2 x 4 - then it will run 4 x 4... I just don't need more then 8 - after all that upgrade gave me twice as much memory as I had before - lol.
 
Oh ya, one more thing I'd like to share that may have played a role was that if you are shopping online for mem - a lot of the pairs I looked at advertised for a particular chipset or processor brand. I automatically skipped over those... What was nice about these Corsair sticks that I bought was this little peice of info on the product page:
 
"Designed to deliver outstanding performance and compatibility in high performance AMD and Intel dual-channel systems..."
 
Which told me they weren't tweaked for or designed specifically for a particular chipset/processor. I do think that could be relevant.
 
Anyways, I've blabbed enough. I do look forward to seeing the results from others.
 
EDIT:
I just noticed that Corsair finally has these listed on their site - they weren't before - and although Newegg had them for sale I couldn't find a reference for them on Corsair's site. Now there is - check out this link:
 
http://www.corsair.com/me...-cmt8gx3m2a2000c9.html
 
Notice this on that page:
 
"Designed for use with all DDR3 motherboards with two memory channels." 

jim.kehoe@comcast.net

I would never expect eVGA to intentionally deceive or mislead in their manuals. I have had equipment manuals and spec sheets where the misspellings and grammar errors had me doubting the quality, capacity, and functionality. Maybe there really was a General McBaloney from Nigeria with millions of dollars that needed my help.

I don't think this was a published specification. I have visited the major memory vendors and plugged my 132-YW-E180-A1  motherboard into their memory-finder, never have I seen a 4GB stick returned as a solution.

Adding LOTS of memory has always been a mid-life fix to boost performance. A 2x4GB or 4x4GB upgrade could put new teeth in this older lion and extend it's life as my main desktop for a few more years. Now to get an ACHI card ....

 
Mislead how?  The board was made and produced in the early offerings of DDR3 back when a 1 gig stick was still 200 dollars.  That being said, there were no such offerings for 4 gig sticks back then.  Therefore there is no omition of information.  Simply put it didnt exist and is past its EOL making further testing be Evga irrelivent and a waste of time for them.  If it works it works.

The specifications for DDR3 were ahead of manufacturing capacity.
 
I won't try to fool anyone and say I know all about it. My consideration is any new memory specifications will/should be forward looking. Gordon Moore wisely predicted technology will grow linear if not exponential or logrithmic in time. The memory manufacturers have been putting more and more onto the same stick for lower prices, over time.
 
The specifications for 240pin DDR3 may allow 64GB per stick, but at initial manufacturing they could only squeeze 1 or 2 there. If anyone is intimate with the JEDEC standards on DDR3 please correct me.
 
It is not my desire to step on you, Micah, these Nvidia memory controllers are built on specifications available. Keeping the functionality open to use yet-to-be-created higher density memory, future-proofs the product. I am pleasantly  surprized. The 790i is damn flexible in allowing all these adjustments.   I very much like what eVGA has done and continues to do in their products. The 790i line is eol, but still interesting and a nice place for Wolfdale processors.
 
Just peeking at Crucial, they make DDR3 in 8GB and 16GB densities. List price $300 and $850 respectivly.

n9zn-extra,
 
I did some more tweaking to these modules and my board and just finished stability tests - will post screenshots and give you as much data as you could possibly want on these sticks in my next post.

This has been very interesting reading, indeed. It makes me kind of wish that I had the money to spend to do experimenting with different RAM on my MoBo...However; I am extremely pleased with the performance and numbers that I am getting with my current configuration and settings.
 
I believe I will continue to run with this until such a time as the board dies before I consider an upgrade to my platform. I do plan to get another matching GTX 460 in the near future for SLI tho.
 

**NOTE: CPU Core 4 sensor is stuck at 41C so, ignore it** 

 
**FSB & Memorv Config**
FSB - Memory Clock Mode: [Linked]
FSB - Memory Ratio: [Synced]
FSB (QDR), MHz: [1828]
Actual FSB (QDR), MHz: 1828
x MEM (DDR),  MHz: 1828
Actual MEM (DDR), MHz: 1828
P1: [ENABLED]
P2: [ENABLED]
 
**Memory Timing Setting**
Memory Timing Setting: [Expert]
tCL (CAS Latency): 8
tRCD: 8
tRP: 8
tRAS: 23
Command Per Clock: [2T]
 
** Advanced Memory Settings **
tRRD: 7
tRC: 47
tWR: 12 
tWTR: 19
tFAW: 36
tREF:  7.8uS
tRFC: [AUTO]101
[**System Voltages**
CPU Core:[1.35v]
CPU FSB: [1.3v]
Memory: [1.90v]
nForce SPP: [1.45v]
nForce MCP: [1.6v]
GTLVREF Lane 0: -50mv 
GTLVREF Lane 1: -50mv
GTLVREF Lane 2: +00mv 
GTLVREF Lane 3: +00mv

Be really interesting to see if it runs 16gb.

I look forward to this!
 
Just curious why did you choose that particular set, any reasons?

JeffreyHam

Update to my above post #14. By only making one change to the settings listed (SPP from 1.45v to 1.5v) I was able to set in my current signature settings listed. I had tried 1840MHz a few times previously and my system would not even boot to the BIOS at that speed. 1.5v is in "RED" in my BIOS but, all is well. 

Thank you for this information.
It is probably safe to assume I will be running the SPP high.
From my experience with the 680i and 780i motherboards (including but not particularizing the 790i), increasing the SPP is a necessary adjustment for any form of OC stability.
One of my boards from the past responded extremely well to higher SPP <-> MCP voltage.
 

aleximo

I look forward to this!

Just curious why did you choose that particular set, any reasons?

I'll respond to you tomorrow.

I found these sticks on Newegg and have heard some people having success with memory designed to work on P55 chipsets. So I figure next payday I may give it a go. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231407.

So I have managed to get 10GB of 2GHz DDR3 RAM to function perfectly with the recommended timings.
As I said in the previous post, the RAM kits are:
F3-16000CL9D-8GBRM (2x4GB) kit
F3-16000CL9D-8GBRM (2x2GB) kit

They both have the same timings of 9-10-9-28, and are running perfectly at 2000MHz in the 790i with one of the 2GB modules.
The only differences between the two RAM configurations is the voltage. The 2GB modules are rated at 1.65v whereas the 4GB modules are rated at 1.55v. Obviously they are both functioning correctly with 1.65v and the SPP voltage set to 1.55v.
 

 
Stand by for more...

That is extremely interesting....thank you for posting your tests. The only potential problem that I can see coming is running the RAM at 2000MHz while running the CPU at 1333MHz. This is creating a huge CPU bottle-neck and could easily lead to data corruption within the OS. I don't suppose that you'd be able to do a proper Link and Sync at 2000MHz to really see how it would perform.....that would be awesome if you could!!

That chip will need an EXTREME amount of vcore voltage to stabilize at that speed.