What frequency is my ram running at?

[devavictrix]

I'm not sure my RAM is running at the correct frequency and wonder if someone can help me work out what's going on!

My FSB is 4x333mhz and I have 333mhz (DDR2-667) RAM. But when I view my RAM speed in Speccy or CPU-Z it says my RAM is running at 414-416mhz using a 4:5 FSB ratio. I would expect to see either 333mhz or 666-7mhz in those programs. I don't have any BIOS option for changing the ratio.

So my question is... is my RAM running at an overclocked 414-416mhz or an underclocked 207-208mhz?

I tried benchmarking to shed some light but one benchmark returned 2.8GB/s and the other 4.5GB/s. So I decided that's an unreliable way of guestimating!

I'm actually not too fussed if its underclocked, I only use MS Office and low demanding programs though I have just bought a second hand graphics card to play the odd game on so I guess RAM bandwidth may be more necessary for that.

Thanks for any help!

 

[brispuss]

What is the model of the motherboard and CPU being used?

Also what is the part number of the memory module(s)?

 

[devavictrix]

Thank you for your reply...
The computer is an old Dell server...PowerEdge Sc1430 with the latest tw856 motherboard, Dual Xeon x5355 (2.66ghz, 1333mhz) and the RAM is 4 banks of Nanya NT2GT72U8PD1BD-3C (2GB DDR2 667)

I wont be able to change fsb:ram ratio but if its running at an overclocked speed I might buy some quicker ram.

 

[brispuss]

Thanks for the details of your system!

CPU-Z and most other similar software usually report the frequency of the clock being sent to the memory. The actual frequency of the memory is 2 x clock frequency, because the memory is double data rate.

It appears that the DDR2-667 DIMM's are being overclocked by the system to ~ 832 MHz (2 x 416 MHz = two times memory clock frequency).

 

[devavictrix]

Ahh, thank you!
It must have been like this for at least 2-3 months with no negative effects.

I realise most people don't use/overclock buffered RAM but for those that do overclock is a 25% overclock considered a lot? It sounds a lot to me but I haven't overclocked or messed about under the hood for nearly 20 years! Im not sure how far modern tech can go before it breaks!

Although Dell told me that my CPU is supported there is a promotional flyer saying that only 1066mhz quad core xeons are supported. The Dell techie was only kinda right!

Thank you the replies.

 

[brispuss]

25% memory overclock is quite substantial. And to be honest, I am a surprised that there haven't been any apparent issues running the DDR2-667 memory at the equivalent rating of ~ DDR2-800. The memory (chips) must be good quality to allow stable operation at the higher frequency.

 

[devavictrix]

Thank you! I think ill head over to ebay and get some DDR2-800!