Ram and GPU question.

[Gdog96]

Merry Christmas everyone

I got a new GPU and some new ram for christmas this year, and I had a few questions.

The GPU is a GTX660. When in MSI Kombustor the power level reaches 103%. Is this bad? Also, if I chuck my old 550ti in there as a dedicated physx card, do you think it will boost my FPS? Although it will only be in a x4 pci slot.

Also, is it possible to put two different types of ram in a pc. I have 1 8 gig stick and 2 2 gig sticks. The 2 gig sticks are a different brand to my 8 gig stick, but they are the same speed. Would they work together in my PC to give me 12 gigs of ram?

Hope everyone is having a good day

 

[Grayfox]

No it is not bad.

But normal.

The new Kepler GPUs go into a boost mode.
My GTX680SC has a base clock of 1084Mhz and a boost clock of 1150Mhz

The boost overclocks it and doing so supplies more power.

 

[nick09]

The memory should not be a problem to run together. But you may not be able to use the "dual data rate" tech that is in the memory since you are running 3 together instead of 2 or 4. They run best in pairs.

 

[djinline]

Merry Christmas everyone

Also, is it possible to put two different types of ram in a pc. I have 1 8 gig stick and 2 2 gig sticks. The 2 gig sticks are a different brand to my 8 gig stick, but they are the same speed. Would they work together in my PC to give me 12 gigs of ram?

Merry christmas to you too, mate!

If your motherboard supports the amount of RAM you're going for (I'm very sure it supports at least 16GB) and all the sticks have the same technology (DDR3), I can't see anything going wrong. I've mixed RAM brands, sizes and speeds in the past and didn't encounter any issues except the whole pack of sticks would run at the speed of the slowest stick, but that's not case here as all sticks have the same memory speed.

 

[Gdog96]

Ok thanks guys! Ill try the RAM later

EDIT: I have put the old ram in with the new and the full 12 gigs shows up in task manager. Thing is, in CPUZ the speed only shows as being 672.6mhz. Is this normal? Will it speed up when the extra frequency is needed or have I caused some sort of problem when I added the extra ram?

 

[Grayfox]

Yes, your CPU will underclock to an idle clock to save power as will your GPU.

My GPU clocks are
324Mhz with 987mV of power use.
1084Mhz with 1100mV of power use.
1150Mhz With 1175mV of power use.

As for the ram do you know what is in it ATM.

If you put 3 4GB sticks of 1600Mhz ram and 1 stick of 1333 of 4GB your memory will be set at 1333Mhz for the other sticks.
Being Double Data Rate(DDR) ram a clock of 800Mhz in CPU-Z will be 1600Mhz of ram clock speed.

 

[Sharky.]

The GPU is a GTX660. When in MSI Kombustor the power level reaches 103%. Is this bad?

Nope. Kepler cards have a boost system where the card can ramp up its power while it's under its thermal spec. Seeing 103% power is actually a good thing because it means your card is 1) working properly and 2) running well within nvidia design spec temperatures

Also, if I chuck my old 550ti in there as a dedicated physx card, do you think it will boost my FPS? Although it will only be in a x4 pci slot.

In non-PhysX titles or PhysX-enabled games where you have PhysX disabled, no. However you will see a (slight) fps gain in games where you have PhysX enabled, due to the PhysX processing being offloaded from the card in charge of the 3D rendering (the 660).

EDIT: I have put the old ram in with the new and the full 12 gigs shows up in task manager. Thing is, in CPUZ the speed only shows as being 672.6mhz. Is this normal?

If I had to hazard an educated guess, your old RAM is 1333MHz? 673*2 (x2 because DDR3 speed is twice the nominal clock, which is what CPU-Z shows) ~= 1333. RAM only runs at the slowest clock and highest latency of all installed modules.

Will it speed up when the extra frequency is needed or have I caused some sort of problem when I added the extra ram?

No to both. Your RAM is functioning normally, albeit in a less-than-optimal configuration.

 

[Gdog96]

Thanks everyone! I have decided not to put my 550ti in with the 660 because it's not worth the extra heat that will be in the case. I may do in the future if I need it though.

 

[Grayfox]

If you want to add a card for physx get a GT620 or similar that is low power.