Help understanding Ram speed! (image)

Paulo Henri · Apr 18, 2016

Hello everyone! so i downloaded CPU-z to check my ram speed, i have 2x2gb ddr2 rams making a dual channel, these are old ram cards and i am planning on buying new 2x2gb ddr2 rams, except that the speed of the new ones are 800mhz, while the speed of the old ones are... well... this:

can anyone explain to me what does this means? and if i can change it? when my new ram cards arrive i will have to adjust speed, will this make the new cards slower? and more importantly, will i keep dual channel using two diferent speed cards? thanks in advance!

dextermat · Apr 18, 2016

Hi,

What's the rest of your rig, especially what's your motherboard?

To understand what's happening, you see where it's written channel# = dual so to calculate the ram speed you take dram frequency and multiply it by 2: so you ram is running at 667.
to resolve that, boot in BIOS and set your memory to 800 mhz.
Also, you have to consider maybe your Mobo is running max 667 therefore downclocking you RAM.

Paulo Henri · Apr 18, 2016

dextermat :

Hello dextermat! my Motherboard is a Asus P5W DH Deluxe. the motherboard supports 800mhz. so i can change it no problem? won't it damage the ram? also, what are those clock thingys?

Hlsgsz · Apr 18, 2016

Paulo Henri :

Go to the "SPD" tab in cpuz, select a populated slot and post what you get. Then we'll be able to tell you what's what.

Paulo Henri · Apr 18, 2016

Hlsgsz :

sorry i accidentaly selected your answer as the best answer! didn't mean to do that yet! but oh well, when i go to SPD none of the 4 slots show anything at all. What should i do?

Hlsgsz · Apr 18, 2016

change the slot in the upper left dropdown. not all your slots are populated.

edit: wait, what? all slots appear empty?
go in the bios and enable "set timings by spd"

Tradesman1 · Apr 18, 2016

dextermat :

________________

You take the Frequency x 2 to find effective data rate of 667 because it's DDR (DOUBLE data rate) ---it has nothing to do with being in Dual Channel mode, that's a whole different thing

Paulo Henri · Apr 19, 2016

Hlsgsz :

i'm sorry friend, i just am not very well versed in computer stuff. i would know how to get on bios but once i'm in there i don't know anything at all. is like navigating hostile, uncharted waters for me.

Hlsgsz · Apr 19, 2016

Paulo Henri :

It won't byte man. Just go through it and look for and enable "set timings by SPD".

Hlsgsz · Apr 19, 2016

Paulo Henri :

Ok, on second thought, if you are afraid to navigate the bios, i'm gonna simplify this for you: just get the 800Mhz DDR2, put the sticks in and dont worry. you don't need to sweat it on timings and whatnot. It will work at the 333mhz. That 800 you see on them is not actual frequency but date rate. Their frequncy is actually 400 nominally, but will work at 333 no problems whatsoever.

Paulo Henri · Apr 19, 2016

Hlsgsz :

thanks for the answer, i will actually see the bios anyway don't worry. just hope i don't get tempted to mess with what i don't know.
EDIT: so i went to the Bios and what i saw spooked me, somehow, set timing by spd is already enabled! except with another name: "Configure DRAM Timing by SPD" is what i saw. Still, none of the memory slots under the SPD tab show anything.

Hlsgsz · Apr 19, 2016

Paulo Henri :

Hlsgsz :

thanks for the answer, i will actually see the bios anyway don't worry. just hope i don't get tempted to mess with what i don't know.
EDIT: so i went to the Bios and what i saw spooked me, somehow, set timing by spd is already enabled! except with another name: "Configure DRAM Timing by SPD" is what i saw. Still, none of the memory slots under the SPD tab show anything.

Strange that it doesn't show anything but it doesn't matter. You have a 1333 FSB processor(assuming it's an Intel) and/or 667Mhz RAM in your system, but this is purely academical.
800MHz PC6400 DDR2 will work with your setup, and, even if your current ram is also 800 and you could run all of it at 800, you would never see a difference.

Paulo Henri · Apr 20, 2016

Hlsgsz :

Paulo Henri :

Strange that it doesn't show anything but it doesn't matter. You have a 1333 FSB processor(assuming it's an Intel) and/or 667Mhz RAM in your system, but this is purely academical.
800MHz PC6400 DDR2 will work with your setup, and, even if your current ram is also 800 and you could run all of it at 800, you would never see a difference.

thanks for the help man! and for clearing things out!

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