RAM Speed???

ace777

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I have little knowledge on memory and the speeds involved. I purchased this RAM:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

And I just noticed after 6 months of usage that the speed was off. CPU-Z was reporting 666Mhz and that the RAM is PC3-10700, which is not the case. In BIOS there was an option to set to 1600 so I set that and the voltage to 1.5 ( as it says on newegg ), I set that and it seems to be running well but CPUz is still reporting the above PC type, but the DRAM frequency is now 800 ( can someone clarify this is correct, my understanding is that this speed is correct because 800 x 2 = 1600 so its the correct speed for the RAM ) also my CAS is 11 instead of the 9 on newegg, and could someone clarify what NB frequency is mine is set to 2000? I can upload picks if that helps anyone.Thanks!
 
Am I to understand that you only have 2 sticks of ram (2GB each) in your computer? If you have another stick which is slower, all your RAM will run at the slower speed. Also, are you sure that the ram is compatible with your motherboard's chipset?
 
You're attacking several different issues here, so I'll try to break it down.

The RAM speed is now correctly set, so you're good there. It's a little more complicated than just 800 x 2, but for the scope of this response, you're fine.

The CAS timing needs to be set manually or through the EPP if your motherboard supports it (It will tell you how to use EPP in the manual) but in all honesty, CAS timings are kind of a silly thing these days since they're so high. You won't be missing substantial performance by leaving it set where it's at.

Northbridge Frequency is fine, don't bother with it. The new Intel and AMD chipsets run their northbridges much faster than the RAM cares about due to how they're designed, and as long as the motherboard is managing it, most of the time you won't need to touch it, and if you do, it can introduce instability. By all means if you want to tinker, go for it, but remember / record the old settings first. :)

Am I to understand that you only have 2 sticks of ram (2GB each) in your computer? If you have another stick which is slower, all your RAM will run at the slower speed. Also, are you sure that the ram is compatible with your motherboard's chipset?

If he's using the kit described in the link, there's no issue. I don't see any mention where he says he's got more than just those two sticks in the system.
 
You're attacking several different issues here, so I'll try to break it down.

The RAM speed is now correctly set, so you're good there. It's a little more complicated than just 800 x 2, but for the scope of this response, you're fine.

The CAS timing needs to be set manually or through the EPP if your motherboard supports it (It will tell you how to use EPP in the manual) but in all honesty, CAS timings are kind of a silly thing these days since they're so high. You won't be missing substantial performance by leaving it set where it's at.

Northbridge Frequency is fine, don't bother with it. The new Intel and AMD chipsets run their northbridges much faster than the RAM cares about due to how they're designed, and as long as the motherboard is managing it, most of the time you won't need to touch it, and if you do, it can introduce instability. By all means if you want to tinker, go for it, but remember / record the old settings first. :)



If he's using the kit described in the link, there's no issue. I don't see any mention where he says he's got more than just those two sticks in the system.

Thank you very much for the response, I figured as much for the Hypertransport, I just figured if I somehow squeezed more Mhz it would boost gaming performance but I am not sure if my hardware would saturate that bus. Seems to be running fine for the time being, if I could ask one last question, why does my CPU clock speed fluctuate under load? I would like to read more into that but my search terms are bringing up nothing. Either way sorry for the delay in response!
 
If the CPU clock is changing under load, it can depend on the situation.

If say you're running a very intensive program that utilizes the CPU at 100% and never drops, and the CPU speed is the one dropping, it's possible that the CPU itself is faulty or the speed it is running at is too fast for it. Folks only really see that when they overclock a part and don't really give it the break in time necessary on the heatsink, etc.

The second part is that if you have a partial load, that is to say, the load bounces a lot between 0 and 100%, the CPU speed will adjust itself depending on the load, and in this situation, that's completely normal. It's a feature of all new processors from both Intel and AMD.

There's actually a great utility out that will help you figure out if the variations in clock speed are a problem, or as I mentioned, a feature of the CPU.

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
 
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