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July 22nd, 2021 00:00
Reports and related issues between Ram and Alienware desktop: we summarize in a single post.
I opened a new thread to filter and summarize the problem discussed in several posts.
Does the problem caused to the Ram (latency, slowdowns, etc.) depend on the Z490 motherboard? If they had put the later models wouldn't it have happened? Or could it be solved by changing the type of Ram? What is the element that has led to this problem?
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Vanadiel
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July 22nd, 2021 03:00
Nobody knows why. Only that there is no Gear mode selection provided in the bios settings of the motherboard and it is only using gear 2 mode.
There's nothing you can do to solve this.
Wardski1974
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July 22nd, 2021 03:00
Correct me if im wrong, but dont the R11's run in Gear 1?
Ignazio-Dell
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July 22nd, 2021 03:00
The motherboards you are talking about, are they from Dell?
Rabbitdude
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July 22nd, 2021 03:00
Gear 1/2 works on both the Z490 and Z590, however that does not mean that the memory controller on Dells subpar boards can support it, and by the looks of how bad they are with XMP settings I'd make a good assumption of no, the memory controller is well beyond the point of being functional enough to support Gear 1 so we are stuck in the land of some seriously bad ram latency
Vanadiel
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July 22nd, 2021 04:00
The memory controller is part of the CPU, not the motherboard. Therefore, it has nothing to do with the memory controller.
Vanadiel
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July 22nd, 2021 04:00
No, there is no gear selection with previous generation Intel CPU's used on motherboards.
Simplified the speed between the memory controller and the memory for the latest generation Intel CPU's is:
Gear 1 mode = 1 x 100 x 1.33 Mhz = 133 Mhz
Gear 2 mode = 1 x 100 x1 Mhz = 100 Mhz
So technically speaking the only difference is the extra speed from the 1.33 multiplier that brings the total frequency up from 100 to 133 Mhz.
Vanadiel
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July 22nd, 2021 04:00
The problem with trying to summarize a technical issue is that you have to be objective and stick to technical aspects of the problem(s).
mako64
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July 22nd, 2021 07:00
Way beyond my knowledge. All I need to know Is my R11 i9-10900KF with the z490 mobo good to go and not have this stuck gear issue?
disregard I think you answered it already.
r72019
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July 22nd, 2021 08:00
No issues with R11 (same board, z490 chipset). The difference between the R12 and R11 is not the motherboard. The difference is one shipped with 11 gen CPUs, the other shipped with 10th gen Intel CPUs. Gearing is an Intel introduction. Gearing was not introduced/supported until Intel 11th gen. So this issue only affects the Auroras running Intel 11th gen CPUs. If you're running a 10th gen CPU you're not impacted.
If you were to buy an R12 and stick a 10th gen CPU in it there'd be no issues (that is, assuming Dell did not do a 10th gen microcode support delete like they did with the R10 v1 vs. v2).
On the flip side, if you had an R11 and added an 11th gen CPU, then you'd have this issue (assuming Dell were to release a microcode update to support 11th gen CPUs on the R11 and there's 0% chance of that happening).
r72019
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July 22nd, 2021 08:00
Intel 10th gen didn't have gear mode. But it is correct that Intel 10th gen ran the memory controller and clock at the same speed (i.e., at 1:1, or "Gear 1").
The issue is the 11th gen CPUs changed the memory controller, and gave it two modes of operation. The second one, gear 2, allows for halving the speed of the controller to allow for more OC headroom, and relieving pressure on the memory controller with high frequency RAM (and, presumably, support for higher frequency RAM). The downside is this increases latency.
r72019
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July 22nd, 2021 08:00
Dell doesn't make its own motherboards, the components are sourced from OEMs. Typically, for recent gen Auroras: pegatron for the motherboards, Delta or Huntkey for the PSUs, MSI for the GPUs, AVC for the fans, asetek for the AIO pump, etc. But they are built to Dell spec.
Rabbitdude
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July 22nd, 2021 09:00
Yep I'm so old I forget the MC has not been part of the board since Socket 775
Daugvolf
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July 24th, 2021 10:00
In all likelihood this was done on purpose, likely to conserve voltage. Someone probably realized "Hey, the VRM on this Z490 mobo isn't really sufficient to power an 11th gen Intel CPU. I know! Lets force the RAM into Gear 2 and we can divert that voltage to the CPU. Problem solved!"
EDIT: Ok, maybe that's a bit too speculative. But without more official info, that's all we got.
Vanadiel
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July 24th, 2021 11:00
If you scroll down a bit on this link, you can see an official response: Link
This is by design. There is no memory controller Gear 1 or Gear 2 option in the Dell OEM (original equipment manufacturer) BIOS. The retail Intel documentation discussing memory controller Gear 1 and Gear 2 that are shown in this thread do not apply to the Dell OEM BIOS, motherboard, and ram.
Rabbitdude
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July 24th, 2021 18:00
Which is basically an official we don't care. TDPs and voltage of 10th/11th Gen are the same, so they really had no reason to change it from standard 1:1 ratio like the R11 to Gear 2 1:2 on the R12. Again it wouldn't be a problem if they didn't lock the board down to minuscule speeds when gear 2 is meant for high speed ram to offset the latency increase