How do you know if your memory is running at the correct speed?

Install CPU-Z and look.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php


The "DDR" in a memory's designation means "Double Data Rate", so the correct speed is half the number that follows. So DDR2 800 should read 400 in CPUz, etc etc etc.

That 533MHz... what program told you that? Cuz if it was CPU-Z then you would have an effective DDR2 rate of 1,066.

To be honest, I am not sold on the fact that he is running 533 MHz from his ram... What program is reading that figure?

Woah wth...under the SPD in CPUZ it says slot 1 running at only PC2-5300 and slot 3 only PC2-5300... is this normal? shouldn't it say PC2-8500??!

this is what it shows for the timing tables

http://i33.tinypic.com/260zwnk.jpg

Not sure there is really any help for your kind, but here goes. Your ram is running at DDR2 1066. Your CPU is running normally. They throttle down to conserve energy. Basically, it drops the multiplier down to reduce power consumption. That is fine. If you overclock it, then you should turn that off in the bios.

Your ok Raging___, all is cool with your system

Yes, the game will run at full speed. The Speedstep feature will only drop the speed of your processor when it's not needed. When something is using the processor, it will run at full speed. When the processor is not being taxed, it will slow down to conserve power.