Memory Frequency question.

Rev

Hi

Was just wondering if someone could tell me what frequency my memory should be running at? And what difference it makes anyway.(Is it as simple as the higher the frequency, the faster the memory is running, therefore the faster the PC).

I have two 512 sticks of elixir PC3200 and according to CPU-Z my memory is running at 132.8MHz. Is this what is should be?

I had always assumed that because is was DDR-400 that it would run at 200MHz. Did I assume incorrectly or is my memory frequency wrong?

Thanks.

Toxteth_OGrady

You are correct. It's running as PC2100 (DDR 266MHz) because either your motherboard doesn't support PC3200 or you have the memory frequency incorrectly set in the bios.

:cool:

TOG

scotty

http://www.crucial.com/uk/ provide a memory selector tool on their website. Select your manufacturer and model and they will list the appropriate memory for your pc. Use the selector to determine if your pc should be PC2100 or PC3200.

Rev

I know my mother board supports the memory (crucial scan confirms this as well) and according to PC Wizard the memory supports frequencies of 133MHz, 166MHz and 200MHZ.

Checked the bios and the memory frequency is set to 200MHz, yet CPU-Z tells me its running at 132.8MHz.

What am I doing wrong?

mr_fishbulb

What is the FSB of your processor - CPU-Z should tell you that too?

It might be that the memory is slowing down to match the processor.

Rev

according to CPU-Z it's 199.5MHz. I have a P4, 3000MHz (Prescott)

Toxteth_OGrady

In CPU-Z in the 'CPU' tab, what's it showing for 'FSB' and 'Bus speed?'

Also what's it showing for 'Max Bandwidth' and 'Frequency' in the 'SPD' tab?

:cool:

TOG

Rev

CPU-Z states the CPU FSB speed as 199.4MHz and the bus speed as 797.8MHz

In the SPD tab the max bandwiidth and frequency are PC3200 (299MHz)

Hope I've given the correct info there.

Toxteth_OGrady

OK make sure your memory timings in the bios are set to SPD. Looks like you might have a divider (ratio of FSB freq to RAM freq) incorrectly set to 3:2 because with that FSB and the normal divider setting of 1:1 your memory should be running at 199.4. Normal options in the bios performance settings for divider are 1:1 or 400, 5:4 or 320 and 3:2 or 266 plus a setting of Auto.

Additionally in the bios try setting your FSB manually from 199.4 to 201.

The only other thing that I can think of for now is that CPU-Z might be reading your memory incorrectly. Download and run PC Wizard 2006 and see what that reports for your RAM. Alternatively download and try Memtest.

:cool:

TOG

Rev

Toxteth_OGrady wrote:

OK make sure your memory timings in the bios are set to SPD. Looks like you might have a divider (ratio of FSB freq to RAM freq) incorrectly set to 3:2 because with that FSB and the normal divider setting of 1:1 your memory should be running at 199.4. Normal options in the bios performance settings for divider are 1:1 or 400, 5:4 or 320 and 3:2 or 266 plus a setting of Auto.

Additionally in the bios try setting your FSB manually from 199.4 to 201.

The only other thing that I can think of for now is that CPU-Z might be reading your memory incorrectly. Download and run PC Wizard 2006 and see what that reports for your RAM. Alternatively download and try Memtest.

:cool:

TOG

Sorry. How to change my memory timings is a little over my head . I checked my bios and there's no settings for 'memory timings' or am I just being dim here?

Toxteth_OGrady

There's many different ways of doing it depending on the motherboard and bios. Without knowing I'd be stabbing in the dark.

Please download and run PCW06 and let me know what make/model your mobo is and what bios version your running.

Edit: Actually you may already have that info under the 'Mainboard' tab in CPU-Z.

:cool:

TOG