RAM frequency is less than what it's supposed to be

G

Guest

Guest
First off, I know that the effective (advertised) frequency of DDR is usually twice the frequency reported by tools like Speccy and CPU-Z. This is not my issue.

The issue is that my reported frequency is 722MHz (measured with aforementioned tools), but I bought RAM advertised as being 1600MHz.

So the reported frequency is actually less than it should be (800MHz).

I bought two sticks of KINGSTON 4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz HyperX Blu RAM, and my motherboard is ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0.

I glossed over the BIOS, and the only setting that resembled RAM frequency included options that looked rather weird and non-standard, or were even off the 1600MHz mark (some were over 2000).

When originally assembling the PC, the ASUS mobo reported RAM errors and failed POST (presumably). It kept a red LED on, near the modules. I switched them around a bit, tried with a single module, and it didn't work either. Then I took a pause, and when I returned, I put only one of the modules in the mobo again, and it worked - the mobo passed POST. Then I put the second module in. Later when assembling internally, I noticed that the second module was not properly put in place, so I corrected it, expecting problems to arise again. Strangely - they didn't, and now I have 8GB of underclocked RAM.

What is the source of this problem? How can I fix it? (What are your RAM frequencies, just so I can compare?)
 
Solution
DOCP automatically configures your system to run at the rated specs of the memory. 802 = 1604 mhz so it is running correctly, most amd systems usually end up with a bit of an oddball number but no worry everything is as it should be. Glad that has you all fixed up
G

Guest

Guest


Hello and thank you,

I already listed my mobo as "ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0".

My CPU is AMD FX-8320.
 
G

Guest

Guest


I went to DOCP, and there were two similar-looking settings for RAM frequency - both *already* set to 1600MHz.

I set them to 1600Mhz again (superstition), and then saved and rebooted the PC.

Now Speccy reports my frequency as 802MHz, and CPU-Z varies it by a couple of MHz around the same number.

What's going on? Is this normal? What did I actually do in the BIOS? Is setting the configuration method to DOCP a change in itself, or is it just a different way to look at and change the same data?
 

Supahos

Expert
Ambassador
DOCP automatically configures your system to run at the rated specs of the memory. 802 = 1604 mhz so it is running correctly, most amd systems usually end up with a bit of an oddball number but no worry everything is as it should be. Glad that has you all fixed up
 
Solution