Please guys need RAM help!

[Cyrus9008]

My BIOS says my RAM is running at 1600MHz which my Mobo is rated for without overclocking and was automatically set to 1600MHz. Now I open up CPU-Z and under the Memory Tab it says DRAM Frequency 800MHz(double that means 1600MHz) and FSB DRAM 1:6 but when I click the SPD tab it says PC-3 10700 (667MHz.)

So my question is what is my ram running at? one tab says 800MHz the other tab says 1333? I don't understand what's going on. I also can't find a viable answer online.

Is there another program that can tell me what my RAM is running at or can one of you studs give me an answer. Thanks in advance.

 

[fixbsod]

Your BIOS should show the correct speed while in the BIOS menus, and it will often show it at bootup (not sure if it does on UEFI).

SPD is a chip on the ram that has some hardcoded speeds at certain timings -- so it will show lots of speeds and their timings -- but its NOT what speed you're actually running -- just some profiles. The tab on CPU-Z showing the 800 is where it's showing the speed your RAM is actually running at -- 1600 (800x2) and will show the timings you have set as well.

edit -- don't want to hijack but I never really got this answered - I have Corsair 1866 RAM. I run it at 1600 as I was having issues at 1866 tho this was likely due to improper voltages in the BIOS -- lost BIOS settings on a wonderful Gigabyte boot loop (don't ever use reset button on Z68 GB boards) and loaded default. Working great now, but the SPD actually DROPPED on my RAM modules. Twice with the boot loop issues I received a "overclocking fail" (incorrectly) message at reboot in a small square box and subsequently the SPD dropped.

Has anyone seen this? I have not been able to find any resource online that a mobo can actually overwrite SPD settings and drop them.

 

[Cyrus9008]

Thank you so much fixbsod, that was hugely helpful!

To try to help answer your question what voltage is your 1866 RAM rated to run at?

I had the same problem as I tried to OC my 1600 to 1866 and said overclock failed and my computer kept rebooting without getting to the bios even. So I had to totall shut down my computer and sset back to 1600MHz. (I have a Z68 ASUS mobo, doesn't just happen with GB boards.)

But Hijack away, my questions been answered haha.

 

[fixbsod]

It's SUPPOSED to do 1866 @ 1.5v, tho I have heard rumblings from people that to get that speed, ESPECIALLY with 4 sticks (4GB ea) you may have to nudge it up to 1.55 or 1.6. I haven't bothered to hit the 1866 as the system is running cherry now at 1600. Especially so after I pulled out my bum intel 313 20GB mSATA SSD !! can't believe an SLC SSD with no moving parts was the first thing to go in my system!

Again, I think the issue was the poor voltages initially set and not using more auto voltage. However, with 1866 the bios was somewhat finnicky with picking XMP profiles when I was having issues -- once even only showed 1600 max and timings sometimes were not correct despite supposedly using SPD. In fact, using XMP now the timings are not correct for 1600 and are slightly tighter. It's one of those if it aint broke don't fix it type things, I doubt 1866 would give me more than 2-5% bump.

I also noticed that as intel has moved the IMC ondie that the cpu ran slightly hotter (1-5 deg c depending on load) at 1866 vs 1600. So I haven't tried to get back to 1866. Next upgrade performance wise may be a nice big boot SSD (crucal m500 I'm looking at you). But next actual upgrade is gonna be a 2560x1440 monitor, currently thinking Viewsonic VP-2770.

 

[Cyrus9008]

Yea I myself am thinking for my next upgrade will be a nice SSD, I was thinking about ordering 2 more sticks of RAM to make it a total of 16gb but I don't think that'll actually help my gaming much(I have a 560 ti) so I'm definitely thinking SSD. Which I really know nothing about I have to do my homework on them however the Crucial M500 would be a good choice? Is there anything complex I would have to do in order to install(not physically install) the SSD to run that as the main OS than have all my media files and such on another old school HDD?

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a ssd and enjoy...

 

[fixbsod]

I wanna say you may need to reinstall Windows to do SSD, 1 thing you do need to ensure is that your disks are set to AHCI over IDE in BIOS. Will need to edit registry file if curr IDE, but not sure if a full reinstall is recommended regardless of settings.

 

[Mushkins]

Yea I myself am thinking for my next upgrade will be a nice SSD, I was thinking about ordering 2 more sticks of RAM to make it a total of 16gb but I don't think that'll actually help my gaming much(I have a 560 ti) so I'm definitely thinking SSD. Which I really know nothing about I have to do my homework on them however the Crucial M500 would be a good choice? Is there anything complex I would have to do in order to install(not physically install) the SSD to run that as the main OS than have all my media files and such on another old school HDD?

No witchcraft involved. Make sure your BIOS is set to AHCI or Windows 7 will not properly detect the SSD when you go to install (usually just says no drives are available).

Also make sure the SSD is the only drive in the PC when you install windows. For some reason the windows installer loves putting critical system files on secondary disks. Once the install is done you can shut down and plug the extra drives back in.