A Question About DDDR and PCXXXX

[triggrhappy94]

So I'm in the market for some RAM. I have been browsing newegg, and I noticed something that kind of confused me.
When looking at the DDR3XXXX of a memory card, it also saying PCXXXX afterwards.
How can you find out what kind of PC you're motherboard is running?

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

The DDR3-xxxx rating is the effective speed that the memory sticks run at.

The PC3-xxxxx rating is the bandwidth, which is calculated as (speed x 8 ).

Example: DDR3-1600 equals PC3-12800 (1600 x 8 ).

You can ignore the PC3-xxxxx rating. The only rating that really matters for compatibility is the effective speed.

 

[compulsivebuilder]

Or putting it another way, the two ratings are equivalent, so you only need to pay attention to one or the other.

Most of the time you'll see discussions based on the speed - if you see talk about DDR3 1600, then it's 1600MHz.

Which RAM speed you can use partly depends on the motherboard you are using.