500MHz should be 1600MHz? Confused!

[tomglenn]

Hi all,

When I purchased my RAM it stated it was 1600MHz DDR3 with 8-8-8-26 timings.

During overclocking my CPU, I ended up changing my RAM timings to 5-5-5-15.

Not checking what my RAM showed as in CPU-Z before overclocking, I have just realised CPU-Z reports it as DRAM Frequency 500MHz?

Is this right, or have I seriously decreased the performance of my RAM by changing the timings?

I'll be honest, I have no idea about RAM timings, frequencies etc. But something is telling me I have messed it up by changing those timings?

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[Daza]

Nop that ram is currently underclocked to 1000mhz as its double data ram so double the number in cpu-z and you have the speed at which the ram is operating at.

 

[tomglenn]

Wow, so it's UNDERCLOCKED 600MHz? Would changing the timings back to 8-8-8-26 fix it? And would they be faster even with those looser timings?

 

[Luigi]

Wow, so it's UNDERCLOCKED 600MHz? Would changing the timings back to 8-8-8-26 fix it? And would they be faster even with those looser timings?

depends.. If you loosen the timings, you also need to up the speed in the bios, as well as the volts

 

[Rastalovich]

Could do with the SPD screenie of cpu-z for the ram tbh.

 

[Nick R]

It should be 800 MHz (x2 = 1600) rather than 500 MHz so it's underclocked by 300 MHz. To quote the Asus website:

The motherboard supports DDR3 memory that features data transfer rates of 1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 MHz to meet the higher bandwidth requirements of the latest operation system, 3D graphics, multimedia, and Internet applications. The dual-channel DDR3 architecture doubles the bandwidth of your system memory to boost system performance, eliminating bottlenecks with peak bandwidths of up to 17 GB/s. Furthermore, the supply voltage for the memory is reduced from 1.8 V for DDR2 to just 1.5 V for DDR3. This voltage reduction limits the power consumption and heat generation of DDR3 which makes it an ideal memory solution.

I think you'll have to manually OC the memory rather than plug 'n play.

 

[Toxcity]

In the bios lock the memory frequency at 1600Mhz and then tinker with the timings. Otherwise the memory will compensate for the tighter timings.

 

[tomglenn]

Thanks guys.

I manually set it to DDR3-1603 (There wasn't a DDR3-1600), and set my timings to the default for these sticks (8-8-8-26) and now CPU-Z reports them to be correctly running at 800Mhz.

My PC seemed to load a hell of a lot faster too... It didn't even have chance to show the "Starting Up" vista screen, and my Deskscape Dreamscene background loaded straight away, whereas before it took about 2 mins.

 

[tomglenn]

Ok PC was unstable apparently (Brother texted me whilst I was out and told me it kept crashing).

So I set the timings to Auto, and now it reckons it needs them at 9-9-9-24? The RAM specs say the default timing for 1600MHz is 8-8-8-26 for these? What gives?

I also tried upping the DRAM Voltage to 1.60... Even though OCZ say they will let you go to 1.95 before your warrenty is void, I tried booting and my speakers when haywire, making a very very unpleasant and scary crackling noise and the screen was black??!

 

[Bungral]

Ok PC was unstable apparently (Brother texted me whilst I was out and told me it kept crashing).

So I set the timings to Auto, and now it reckons it needs them at 9-9-9-24? The RAM specs say the default timing for 1600MHz is 8-8-8-26 for these? What gives?

I also tried upping the DRAM Voltage to 1.60... Even though OCZ say they will let you go to 1.95 before your warrenty is void, I tried booting and my speakers when haywire, making a very very unpleasant and scary crackling noise and the screen was black??!

You have them at 1.6v when ocz say they can go up to 1.95v? Up the voltage my man!!

Just checked and I think they are meant to actually be run at 1.9v anyway.

 

[Luigi]

The voltage is the key

 

[Nick R]

That ram should be at 1.9 not 1.6 .

 

[tomglenn]

That ram should be at 1.9 not 1.6 .

Really? Maybe thats what caused that scary crash then lol, I'll try it out and let you know.

Also, where are you guys looking to find out what voltage it should be running?

 

[Ham]

Also, where are you guys looking to find out what voltage it should be running?

The product page on the manufs site, or even the sticker on the side of the ram itself

 

[tomglenn]

The product page on the manufs site, or even the sticker on the side of the ram itself

Well at DDR3-1603, Auto timings and DRAM Voltage at 1.9, Windows crashed after about a minute.

I now have it set at DDR3-1603, 8-8-8-26, DRAM Voltage 1.92... Windows is still on, but who knows how long that will last...

I'm starting to feel like I should just go back to unclocked settings for my CPU and RAM lol... I just can't figure out how to get it stable

 

[Ham]

For ram stability make a memtest disk, let it loop over a few times and any errors will be flagged up.

 

[Bungral]

Also set you CPU to stock speeds and then set your RAM timings, frequency and voltage as they are meant to be and then do some stress testing.

With my OCZ Flex II I have to actually underclock them around 75Mhz to get my system stable as my quad is at about 3.6Ghz - 3.7Ghz. If I have the CPU at around 3.2Ghz then I can have my RAM at its rated speed but am then sacrificing on the CPU.. Sometimes you have to make a compromise.

 

[tomglenn]

See, the thing is. I ain't really compromising anything... Because I can't get a stable overclock on anything... CPU... Ram... anything lol.

Im running my CPU at 3.2GHz on 1.46 vcore. Any lower and it just wont boot. Don't quite understand it, when people are reporting getting to 3.6Ghz at that voltage (And on occasion, under!)

As for RAM, i have no clue what i should be trying to do lol.