Are RAM clock speeds (eg 1866) and timings (9-10-9-27 and so on) dependant on eachother in some way?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
A

AndyKurtis

Honorable
Jan 6, 2014
32
0
10,540
Hi, my motherboard (Sabertooth 990FX) has a profile for my RAM (8GB 1866 dual channel corsair vengeance) that correctly configures the clock speed and timings automatically. My question is, are the clock speed and timings inextricably linked in some way? For example, could I set the timings correctly using the profile in the BIOS then manually set the clock speed to 1600 (so it's 9-10-9-27 with 1600 instead of 1866) or would that cause an issue?
The reason I ask is because I want to buy another 8 gigs of the exact same RAM to fill my empty slots and I've read that 4 sticks of RAM will only work with my 8350 at 1600, so I'd prefer to set all the timings to the manufacturer's intentions using the profile then change 1866 to 1600. Will this work sans error? I'm doing this instead of just upgrading to dual 16 gigs, by the way, is because it's a LOT cheaper (half the price, fittingly enough) and because I like the idea of the extra slots being useful, so (at the risk of sounding facetious) please don't completely disregard my actual question in favour of posting links to newegg 16 GB RAM pages that you think are cheap. (Even if I were to go with 16 I'd still like to know the answer.)

8350
8 GB Dual channel vengeance RAM
Sabertooth 990FX 2.0
2 GTX 660's SLI
750 XFX PSU
 
Solution
Sakkura
They are not tied together that tightly, though there is a connection.

When you're setting your 1866 memory to 1600, you may still be able to just use a preconfigured profile, it's certainly not unusual for kits rated for 1866 to also have profiles for 1600.

If there is no profile for 1600, you can just set it manually. Start out with "too loose" timings, like 1600 CL11-11-11-33, then tighten the timings as much as you can. The 4th timing, tRAS, should be roughly the sum of the first 3.

By the way, even buying a kit that looks identical doesn't 100% guarantee compatibility. Corsair buys memory chips on the open market, so the new kit may be completely different internally than your current kit.
It would usually work fine even then...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Sakkura

Sakkura

Illustrious
Aug 22, 2011
8,129
3
37,965
They are not tied together that tightly, though there is a connection.

When you're setting your 1866 memory to 1600, you may still be able to just use a preconfigured profile, it's certainly not unusual for kits rated for 1866 to also have profiles for 1600.

If there is no profile for 1600, you can just set it manually. Start out with "too loose" timings, like 1600 CL11-11-11-33, then tighten the timings as much as you can. The 4th timing, tRAS, should be roughly the sum of the first 3.

By the way, even buying a kit that looks identical doesn't 100% guarantee compatibility. Corsair buys memory chips on the open market, so the new kit may be completely different internally than your current kit.
It would usually work fine even then, but there is some small risk of incompatibility, just something to be aware of.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
maddogfargo

maddogfargo

Splendid
Nov 28, 2006
3,344
8
22,965
Yes, there is a correllation between RAM timings, frequency and even operating voltage.

Here's a good article...

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/understanding-ram-timings/


As for using 4 DIMMs with an FX 8350, this drops to 1600 because of memory controller limitations on the CPU. But usually timings tighten up at lower speeds, so RAM @ CL 8 DDR3 1600 will perform close to CL 9 DDR3 1866.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom