Quick question about RAM for Asus A7NBX

[jaafit]

Hi I just have a quick question that I hope someone can answer. I have a Asus A7NBX with an AMD ATHLON XP 2800 CPU SOCKET 462 with 333 FSB and I have a 1G Kingston D333 KVR333X64C25/1G R RAM chip as well as some older 512MB and 256MB RAM chips. When I start up the computer, the bios shows a RAM speed of 133 Mhz.

What I want to know is, how can I increase the RAM speed? Which sort of RAM chips are ideal for this board?

 

[Lightning_Rider]

Hi I just have a quick question that I hope someone can answer. I have a Asus A7NBX with an AMD ATHLON XP 2800 CPU SOCKET 462 with 333 FSB and I have a 1G Kingston D333 KVR333X64C25/1G R RAM chip as well as some older 512MB and 256MB RAM chips. When I start up the computer, the bios shows a RAM speed of 133 Mhz.

What I want to know is, how can I increase the RAM speed? Which sort of RAM chips are ideal for this board?

Lol, are you TurtleHeart from AOE3?

Anyways, you said that you have some older RAM chips, they obviously work in your system, but are no doubt slower (they are probably DDR 266 since the speed shown is 133, 133 X 2 is 266) than the DDR333 chip. Because of this, the motherboard has to lower the speed of the higher clocked RAM in order to have it stay in synch with the other RAM and FSB. The solution involves buying new memory that matches the speed of your current chip. Hope that answers your question.

 

[mammikoura]

another option is to overclock. By changing the fsb u will increase both the cpu and ram speeds. The ddr333 stick will not have any problems with overclocking since it is capable of running at 166 mhz, but atleast one of the other sticks is designed to run at 133 mhz, so if u oc u will make that stick (and the cpu) run faster than it's designed. When overclocking u are taking the risk of braking something, so be carefull. But it's pretty hard to break anything if u don't mess with the voltages, but keep ur eye on the temps.

 

[jaafit]

are you TurtleHeart from AOE3?

Haha yep! I'm dealing with some severe lag that's affecting my micro and I'm pretty sure it's due to the RAM speed since I have the most trouble in team games. I don't mean latency or the game slowing down, I mean my framerate goes to like 2 when there are too many units on-screen. It sucks.

I did try removing all but the 333 chip and was able to get a speed of 166, but is that it? Not to sound ungrateful but I'd like to go higher without overclocking. I'm probably asking for the impossible huh?

 

[Tommy Boy]

Yeah, the older ram is making your newer ram run slower. I would just take out the older stuff and leave the 1gb Kingston in there. 1gb is plenty, plus the older stuff is making your computer run slower so I'd get it out of there.

More ram is not always better if the ram is old and slow.

 

[Jamxx]

However, the 512 MB stick could be DDR333 and the 256 MB stick be DDR266, or vice versa. Try putting them in one at a time and then checking your RAM speed, and see which one is running at DDR266 and only take that one out. It could be both of them, though.

 

[Lightning_Rider]

Haha yep! I'm dealing with some severe lag that's affecting my micro and I'm pretty sure it's due to the RAM speed since I have the most trouble in team games. I don't mean latency or the game slowing down, I mean my framerate goes to like 2 when there are too many units on-screen. It sucks.

I did try removing all but the 333 chip and was able to get a speed of 166, but is that it? Not to sound ungrateful but I'd like to go higher without overclocking. I'm probably asking for the impossible huh?

Lol, that sucks man. Well 166 is actually 333, you see, you have DDR (Double Data Rate RAM), so a multiplier of 2 is applied to 166 which = 333. I have DDR 400 but when I start up my computer it shows DDR 200, that's because the multiplier of 2 is being applied to 200, which makes it 400. So that is your problem, the older RAM is causing your newer RAM to slow down. Just replace it and you will be at the speed you want.

This may or may not be the cause for your lag though, it could be you have some spyware infection or perhaps even a virus? You should run some checks, you never know if you've caught some stuff over the net that you were unaware of.

 

[jaafit]

Ok I took the other sticks out and played a few games. MUCH BETTER! I can actually click-drag now without waiting for the next frame to draw!! *thumbs up*

Watch out Lightning, I will pwn ju wit my uber micro ^ ^