I decided to give my old horse a little boost in her olden age. My 890GPA-UD3H (rev 2.0) motherboard had 4GB installed (2x2GB), and I decided to add another 8GB (2X4GB) to it, for a total of 12GB. The modules I have are Corsair XMS3 DDR1600. The original 4GB are rated for slightly faster timings (7-8-7-20 vs 9-9-9-24 for the new 8GB modules). In the BIOS, I used the Auto setting for timings.
Originally I just had the 4GB installed on DIMM slots 1&2. I installed the new 8GB modules in DIMM 1&3, and the old 4GB ones into DIMM 2&4. BIOS counts up the ram correctly to 12 GB.
However, the system runs noticeably slower with the new RAM installed. Chrome opens up slower, Facebook apps run slower. It might be my imagination, but looking at Task Manager, it looks like the three cores of my CPU are working harder just opening up Chrome and Facebook...when they used to get around 45% cpu usage opening those up, now they seem to be in the 70-80% cpu usage range. I'm playing Heroes of the Storm, and a game that ran at around 30 fps is now chugging along at at unplayable 1-4 fps when there's a battle going on.
Adjustments I've tried in BIOS:
- Raising my memory from 1333 mhz to 1600 mhz
- Lowering my memory speed from 1333 mhz to 1033 mhz
- Switching from "unganged" to "ganged"
- Turning on my onboard video and switching that video frame buffer size to 512 mb (I found a thread on another Gigabyte MB where a maxed out 32GB board would be helped by turning on the onboard video similarly).
All my memory voltages are set to default. My BIOS version is FF, dated 11/2011.
Currently I have just the new modules in on DIMM 1&2, for a total of 8GB. The system slowdown problem disappeared, but I'd love to be able to use my full 12GB if possible.
System specs:
Windows 7 Home
Athlon II X3-455
ATI HD 6870 Radeon
Thanks!
