Adjusting the TRC Memory Setting is Important

SPDTool and Final Thoughts

For Advanced Users:

For those readers that have found the ‘perfect timings’ for their system and don’t mind voiding warranties you can re-program your SPD with a nifty little utility called SPDTool 0.55! This will allow your SPD/EPP modules to boot at the perfect settings every time, so when you update your BIOS you don’t have to worry about writing down and keeping a copy of all those memory settings. SPDTool should be used at your own risk and if you don’t know hex code stop now as all the settings that need to be changed are in hexadecimal.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions:

After hearing that Corsair was changing the Trc value in their memory modules last week and taking a look at it the setting on our own we have been able to confirm Corsair’s findings. Lowering the Trc value from 35 (55ns) to 15 (24ns) was able to yield a ~1-4% performance improvement across the board with no decrease in any application that we tested.

Since this setting can be changed on any brand module, if the BIOS allows it, this is something that everyone should look into and see if it works for them. Take an hour out of your day and run some tests with the Trc set like it is now in your BIOS and then lower it to 13-17 and see if you notice a performance increase! From what I have seen the faster the frequency the more important lowering the Row Cycle Time (Trc) becomes. All the testing for this article was down at 1244MHz, so our results might be more dramatic than what one would see at say 800MHz.

In the case that this article was over your head just reboot your system and by enter the BIOS (usually by hitting delete) and on the BIOS page that shows memory timings look for a parameter called Trc. If you can find the value change it from ‘auto’ to something lower like 15 and save the settings!