How to read RAM terms? name? speed?

Tannersummers

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Nov 15, 2012
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Sorry if title is confusing, i guess my question is if we see something like this, DDR2-400 (PC2-3200), what is the speed? what does the PC2 part mean etc? I guess I am lost on reading this to figure out what each part means. My current memory on cpuz just says, DDR3-1600 and I am not sure what this means. Can someone explain what each part means and what the speed is?
 
Solution

"PC2" simply refers to DDR2 likewise "PC3" refers to DDR3.

Memory Timings Explained:

DDR, DDR2, DDR3 memories follow the DDRxxx/PCyyyy classification. The first number, DDR3-xxxx, indicates the maximum clock speed that the memory chips support. For instance, DDR400 memories work at 400 MHz at the most, and DDR2-667 can work up to 667 MHz. It is important to note...

Legohouse

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May 13, 2013
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"PC2" simply refers to DDR2 likewise "PC3" refers to DDR3.

Memory Timings Explained:

DDR, DDR2, DDR3 memories follow the DDRxxx/PCyyyy classification. The first number, DDR3-xxxx, indicates the maximum clock speed that the memory chips support. For instance, DDR400 memories work at 400 MHz at the most, and DDR2-667 can work up to 667 MHz. It is important to note that this is not the real clock speed of the memory: the real clock of the DDR and DDR2 memories is half the labeled clock speed. This way, in fact, DDR400 memories work at 200 MHz and DDR2-667 memories work at 333 MHz.

The second number, PC3-yyyy, indicates the maximum transfer rate that the memory reaches, in MB/s. DDR400 memories transfer data at 3,200 MB/s at the most, hence they are labeled as PC3200. DDR2-667 memories transfer data at 5,336 MB/s and they are labeled as PC2-5400. As you can see, we use the number “2” after “DDR” or “PC” to indicate that we are talking about DDR2 memory, not DDR.

The first classification, DDRxxx, is the standard used to classify memory chips, while the second classification, PCyyyy, is the standard used to classify memory modules.

The exact specification of the memory is PC3-12800 DDR3-1600MHz. PC3 denotes that the memory is DDR3, while 12800 is the memory transfer rate i.e, 12800MB/s. The real clock of the DDR3 memory is half the labeled clock speed. This way, in fact, DDR3-1600 memories work at 800 MHz.

Hope that clears your doubt. Are you looking for memory if so let me know your system/motherboard model number? Cheers!!
 
Solution

Tannersummers

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Nov 15, 2012
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Thank you very much, and everyone else as well!