5 ms·

ECC RAM would actually be a boon to everyone, including gamers. ECC means not only that you know precisely when you've gone too far with overclocking, but pote

ECC RAM would actually be a boon to everyone, including gamers. ECC means not only that you know precisely when you've gone too far with overclocking, but potentially allows overclocking a bit further, relying on that some amount of trouble can now be tolerated. It also means you're not going to break your OS by playing with this stuff. Memory corruption carries a huge risk of disk corruption, which can mean things like corrupt data, random crashes or an unbootable system that persists even after reverting everything to defaults.

p1necone 4y ago
The sweet spot for overclocking ECC ram is still before it starts malfunctioning. If it's clocked higher but is correcting for errors it will still be slower.
- ilyt 4y ago
  Entirely depends on error rate
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
RealityVoid 4y ago
I doubt that would actually be useful with overclocking. I don't know the arch of the modern PC well enough to say with 100% confidence, but on embedded arches, the RAM has the parity bits checked when they get placed on the bus. If the error happens on data retrieval(or was already present) , then the ECC saves you, but if it happen anywhere else... not really? I don't know if.. ALU's for example automatically include the parity bits in the computation.
- p1mrx 4y ago
  You're talking about overclocking the CPU. ECC is more relevant when overclocking the RAM itself, which also affects gaming performance.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  They specifically mean overclocking the memory.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- willis936 4y ago
  The GTX 1080 has GDDR5X, which has ECC. I was able to dial in my memory OC on that card by increasing the clock then running memory throughput benchmarks until the throughput was maxed out. At the point where errors start the theroughput would decrease, but nothing would fail. Assuming stationary processes this is pretty nice. Maybe bump back 5% for margin.
  - sliken 4y ago
    I believe that's inside the chip, much like DDR5. However that doesn't help if there's an error introduced by the packages, pin, board traces, CPU pins, or CPU. Better than nothing, but not full ECC either.
    - willis936 4y ago
      You can see here that there are 4 EDC lines used for CRC of every word. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207162829/https://www.micron.com/~/media/documents/products/data-sheet/dram/gddr5/8gb_gddr5x_sgram_brief.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20170207162829/https://www.micro...
jjtheblunt 4y ago
totally embarrassingly naive question : why bother overclocking ?
- eric__cartman 4y ago
  Some people prefer to trade off stability for a slight performance improvement. With modern hardware I don't think it's worth it to be honest. I want my computer to work day in and day out even if it means a 2% lower score in some benchmark.
  - jjeaff 4y ago
    There are also a lot of cases where you can overclock without sacrificing stability. The standard clock speed for any line of processors is simply the minimum it is tested for. But you sometimes get lucky and can get a better chip with more viable transistors. So you can boost the clock ok those and reap the benefits without any drawbacks. There are sites and services that do "binning" where they test the specific chips and you can buy ones that have been vetted to clock higher.
    - thfuran 4y ago
      And undervolting lets a CPU/GPU boost to higher frequency for longer before hitting power/temperature limits or just use less power to hit the same performance. There's a decent chance that any given chip can be undervolted enough to make a notable difference before becoming unstable.
    - freetime2 4y ago
      XMP profiles are another example where you can boost RAM speeds without much risk of instability [1]. I assume the manufacturer is just doing binning on their end and selling the higher performing RAM at higher prices. And the performance differences can be significant: 20% or more in certain workloads. [1] https://www.pcgamer.com/what-are-xmp-profiles-and-how-do-i-use-them/ https://www.pcgamer.com/what-are-xmp-profiles-and-how-do-i-u...
  - chongli 4y ago
derkades 4y ago
Indeed, because I had ECC RAM I felt comfortable overlocking it, and managed to go from 2400MT/s to 3200MT/s for my home server. A massive difference in performance, while paying only slightly more for ECC.

p1necone 4y ago

The sweet spot for overclocking ECC ram is still before it starts malfunctioning. If it's clocked higher but is correcting for errors it will still be slower.

ilyt 4y ago
Entirely depends on error rate
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

RealityVoid 4y ago

I doubt that would actually be useful with overclocking. I don't know the arch of the modern PC well enough to say with 100% confidence, but on embedded arches, the RAM has the parity bits checked when they get placed on the bus. If the error happens on data retrieval(or was already present) , then the ECC saves you, but if it happen anywhere else... not really? I don't know if.. ALU's for example automatically include the parity bits in the computation.

p1mrx 4y ago
You're talking about overclocking the CPU. ECC is more relevant when overclocking the RAM itself, which also affects gaming performance.
Dylan16807 4y ago
They specifically mean overclocking the memory.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
willis936 4y ago
The GTX 1080 has GDDR5X, which has ECC. I was able to dial in my memory OC on that card by increasing the clock then running memory throughput benchmarks until the throughput was maxed out. At the point where errors start the theroughput would decrease, but nothing would fail. Assuming stationary processes this is pretty nice. Maybe bump back 5% for margin.
- sliken 4y ago
  I believe that's inside the chip, much like DDR5. However that doesn't help if there's an error introduced by the packages, pin, board traces, CPU pins, or CPU. Better than nothing, but not full ECC either.
  - willis936 4y ago
    You can see here that there are 4 EDC lines used for CRC of every word. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207162829/https://www.micron.com/~/media/documents/products/data-sheet/dram/gddr5/8gb_gddr5x_sgram_brief.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20170207162829/https://www.micro...

jjtheblunt 4y ago

totally embarrassingly naive question : why bother overclocking ?

eric__cartman 4y ago
Some people prefer to trade off stability for a slight performance improvement. With modern hardware I don't think it's worth it to be honest. I want my computer to work day in and day out even if it means a 2% lower score in some benchmark.
- jjeaff 4y ago
  There are also a lot of cases where you can overclock without sacrificing stability. The standard clock speed for any line of processors is simply the minimum it is tested for. But you sometimes get lucky and can get a better chip with more viable transistors. So you can boost the clock ok those and reap the benefits without any drawbacks. There are sites and services that do "binning" where they test the specific chips and you can buy ones that have been vetted to clock higher.
  - thfuran 4y ago
    And undervolting lets a CPU/GPU boost to higher frequency for longer before hitting power/temperature limits or just use less power to hit the same performance. There's a decent chance that any given chip can be undervolted enough to make a notable difference before becoming unstable.
  - freetime2 4y ago
    XMP profiles are another example where you can boost RAM speeds without much risk of instability [1]. I assume the manufacturer is just doing binning on their end and selling the higher performing RAM at higher prices. And the performance differences can be significant: 20% or more in certain workloads. [1] https://www.pcgamer.com/what-are-xmp-profiles-and-how-do-i-use-them/ https://www.pcgamer.com/what-are-xmp-profiles-and-how-do-i-u...
- chongli 4y ago

derkades 4y ago

Indeed, because I had ECC RAM I felt comfortable overlocking it, and managed to go from 2400MT/s to 3200MT/s for my home server. A massive difference in performance, while paying only slightly more for ECC.