1600 mhz works at 800 mhz

[Filip69]

Hey there,my 2x2gb rams 1600mhz is working at 800mhz,and my cpu is e5700 3.0 ghz,and my motherboard is G41-P23.Question is,is there a way i can get my ram to higher speeds?I am quite new to tweaking and I really dont want to mess up this.Thanks in advance

The ram in question http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81-uea7ExyL._SX522_.jpg

 

[rollingbarrels]

Your RAM is double data rate, so RAM that is rated at 1600 MHz is meant to have a reading of 800 MHz because it usually works at twice that speed due to performing two operations per clock cycle. So there is nothing wrong here. If it showed 1600 MHz, your RAM would actually be working at 3200 MHz.

 

[bmw-vision]

Just a guess, so probably wrong, but the bus speed on the e5700 is 800mhz. Also considering the age of the CPU, maybe the ram is being limited in order to operate at ddr2 speeds for the CPU.

 

[Filip69]

Your RAM is double data rate, so RAM that is rated at 1600 MHz is meant to have a reading of 800 MHz because it usually works at twice that speed due to performing two operations per clock cycle. So there is nothing wrong here. If it showed 1600 MHz, your RAM would actually be working at 3200 MHz.

Thanks for your time,but when I said it worked at 800mhz I meant that.I know that my ram is double data rate,and I should have probably said that speccy is showing that my RAM is working at 400mhz,so double that and you get 800mhz Sorry for any confusion i caused.

 

[Filip69]

Just a guess, so probably wrong, but the bus speed on the e5700 is 800mhz. Also considering the age of the CPU, maybe the ram is being limited in order to operate at ddr2 speeds for the CPU.

I ll check into that,might probably be it,thank you

Update Thanks,I checked it and It is that,you are right,thank you very much.Saved me a lot of time

 

[rollingbarrels]

Oh sorry, I just assumed that it was a direct reading. In that case, the issue is probably that your motherboard does not support 1600 MHz memory. If you look on the manufacturer's website, it says that the maximum supported RAM frequency is 1333 MHz with overclocking. So if you tweak your BIOS settings, you may be able to achieve an effective clock rate of 1333 MHz but for any higher you will have to upgrade your motherboard.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/G41M-P23.html

 

[photonboy]

It's DDR3 memory, and the base is "800MHz" (2x400MHz):
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/G41M-P23.html#hero-specification

*I couldn't tell from the picture of your memory, but if it's listed as "1600Mhz" memory then each module would run at 800MHz in Dual Channel mode (the data is split between two module so it's an "effective" 1600Mhz speed).

Your motherboard can still DEFAULT to its lowest (800MHz-> 2x400MHz) even if the memory is capable of TWICE that speed.

**Note the motherboard link states 800/1066/1333*(OC) which means overclocking is involved to get to 1333MHz (though beyond that is apparently impossible).

NOTE: I would attempt to enable "XMP" if that exists to see if that changes anything, or read the motherboard manual carefully or Google that exact board for more information if you want.

It may make little to no real-world difference in performance however, but if you can get to 1066MHz or 1333MHz (with overclocking) then you might want to try.

No matter what, use MEMTEST to validate (use for two minutes and a final "FULL PASS" to be fairly sure). www.memtest.org

(may need to change BOOT ORDER in BIOS to get Memtest to boot from DVD/USB)

 

[Filip69]

It's DDR3 memory, and the base is "800MHz" (2x400MHz):
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/G41M-P23.html#hero-specification

*I couldn't tell from the picture of your memory, but if it's listed as "1600Mhz" memory then each module would run at 800MHz in Dual Channel mode (the data is split between two module so it's an "effective" 1600Mhz speed).

Your motherboard can still DEFAULT to its lowest (800MHz-> 2x400MHz) even if the memory is capable of TWICE that speed.

**Note the motherboard link states 800/1066/1333*(OC) which means overclocking is involved to get to 1333MHz (though beyond that is apparently impossible).

NOTE: I would attempt to enable "XMP" if that exists to see if that changes anything, or read the motherboard manual carefully or Google that exact board for more information if you want.

It may make little to no real-world difference in performance however, but if you can get to 1066MHz or 1333MHz (with overclocking) then you might want to try.

No matter what, use MEMTEST to validate (use for two minutes and a final "FULL PASS" to be fairly sure). www.memtest.org

(may need to change BOOT ORDER in BIOS to get Memtest to boot from DVD/USB)

Thanks for the detailed response,the problem is in my cpu,max speed bus is 800.Guess I need to get an upgrade fast.

 

[photonboy]

CPU upgrade?
Another topic, and it depends on what you're doing but I'll briefly discuss GAMING bottlenecking:

Comparison:

e5700 (two physical cores): http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+E5700+%40+3.00GHz

FX-4300 (four): https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-4300+Quad-Core

i5-4590 (four): https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4590+%40+3.30GHz

The above is fairly accurate of theoretical performance but doesn't represent all scenarios, and it VARIES a lot by the game and the GPU your system has (the better the GPU the more likely the CPU bottleneck).

The i5-4590 in some scenarios with a fast GPU is 50% faster than the FX-4300 (i.e. 60FPS vs 40FPS).

The e5700 is hard to compare as it's slower than the FX-4300 but only has two cores. It's actually only slightly slower than the FX-4300 per core but since Windows would use a bit and games usually use more than TWO CORES worth your bottleneck can get proportionately higher than simply comparing the SINGLE THREAD performance would indicate.

*So again it varies A LOT, but a very rough example might be the following assuming say a GTX960 with these CPU's:

25FPS vs 40FPS vs 60FPS

(Tomb Raider however would not be nearly so bottlenecked)

Summary:
If building a new system I would need the TOTAL BUDGET for system but the i5-4590 is a great CPU if possible. Going above it often has minimal benefit (for gaming) plus any added moneys can go toward the GRAPHICS section.

A recent build I did for someone had these basic specs:
i5-4590
H97 motherboard
GTX960 4GB
2x4GB DDR3
W10 Home 64-bit
etc

Anyway, cheers.

 

[Filip69]

CPU upgrade?
Another topic, and it depends on what you're doing but I'll briefly discuss GAMING bottlenecking:

Comparison:

e5700 (two physical cores): http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+E5700+%40+3.00GHz

FX-4300 (four): https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-4300+Quad-Core

i5-4590 (four): https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4590+%40+3.30GHz

The above is fairly accurate of theoretical performance but doesn't represent all scenarios, and it VARIES a lot by the game and the GPU your system has (the better the GPU the more likely the CPU bottleneck).

The i5-4590 in some scenarios with a fast GPU is 50% faster than the FX-4300 (i.e. 60FPS vs 40FPS).

The e5700 is hard to compare as it's slower than the FX-4300 but only has two cores. It's actually only slightly slower than the FX-4300 per core but since Windows would use a bit and games usually use more than TWO CORES worth your bottleneck can get proportionately higher than simply comparing the SINGLE THREAD performance would indicate.

*So again it varies A LOT, but a very rough example might be the following assuming say a GTX960 with these CPU's:

25FPS vs 40FPS vs 60FPS

(Tomb Raider however would not be nearly so bottlenecked)

Summary:
If building a new system I would need the TOTAL BUDGET for system but the i5-4590 is a great CPU if possible. Going above it often has minimal benefit (for gaming) plus any added moneys can go toward the GRAPHICS section.

A recent build I did for someone had these basic specs:
i5-4590
H97 motherboard
GTX960 4GB
2x4GB DDR3
W10 Home 64-bit
etc

Anyway, cheers.

Thanks for the awesome suggestions,but I just got this motherboard (I was on 939 socket),so I am chasing something for 775 socket.Something like xeno quad or core 2 extreme (x3370 or q9650)