Advice on overclocking RAM

[David Murphy]

I know this has been asked a few times already, but I could really find many posts that specifically answered what I wanted to know so thought I would just ask.

I am thinking of OCing my RAM as, despite having plenty of RAM, I seem to still get lag / high RAM usage a lot more frequently than I can care for.
A fair while ago I found some settings online that I tried out for OCing my RAM and I got it to 2000MHz without any instability but I can not find the settings anymore, I can't remember them and I get very nervous playing with the voltage settings.

So basically, to cut a long story short, could anybody recommend some basic settings to OC my RAM to a point where it can handle a heavy load a bit better? or possibly just offer me some advice on getting the most out of my RAM. I've already shut down all unused background app's and fully optimized my system but my computer still really seems to struggle some times)
These are my current specs:

mobo - Asus Sabertooth 990FX
cpu - AMD Bulldozer 8120 @ 3.89GHz (watercooled with Corsair h55i)
ram - 2 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance (currently @ 1600MHz 9-10-9-27)
gpu - ATi Radeon 7790 1GB GDDR5
ssd - Samsung Evo 128GB
hdd - Seagate Barracuda 2TB green

I am also reasonably interested in OCing my GPU at some point but it's currently suffering with graphical glitches so I need to send it back

 

[AnEwG]

What applications make you feel like your computer is struggling?

 

[Tradesman1]

What is the actual model # of the DRAM, they may not even be running at spec, and I don't think they are - at least not with those timings, this more like a set of 1866, that's been downclocked improperly

 

[David Murphy]

AnEwG - It varies. Sometimes just my games will be lagging, sometimes windows will lag. Apart from my uni work that's all I really do on my computer.

Tradesman1 - This is what my RAM has printed on the label on the actual stick itself -
4096MB 261124 13100771
1866MHz 9-10-9-27 1.50V ver 5.11

 

[AnEwG]

It is like Tradesman1 guessed then; you memory is downclocked for some reason. You should go into the bios and set the frequency to 1866 MHz and then save and restart and enter the bios once again and check the timing to see whether it matches the stock timing or not.

 

[David Murphy]

That's the weird thing. I originally went into the BIOS to set the latency timings up and set it to the correct frequency but when I did it (I put in the correct timings and correct frequency) I went back into the BIOS to make sure it worked and it was still reading 1333MHz. So I went back into the AI tweaker to check the settings and the options it's gives me to set the frequency timings had completely changed. Before it had a long list starting from 1333 and progressing through the normal frequency's, but this time it gave me a completely different list.
Not only that but it also changed my timing settings back to auto. No matter what I did, it wouldn't save my settings. I left the computer switched off for an hour or two while I gave my mate a lift some where and when i came back and tried again the settings actually stayed, but it still gave me a different list for ram frequencies. I'll go take a screen shot

 

[rhapdog]

I use Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz that uses those timings of 9-10-9-27 @1.5V. You will probably have to manually set the timings.

In your ASUS BIOS, Make sure that the BIOS didn't mess up the voltage. I had to manually reset mine to 1.5V to get it to work properly.

As a side note, in case you're still wanting a starting point for OC'ing that RAM, I have mine overclocked to 2133MHz using 9-11-10-28 with a 2T command rate running at 1.65V. May or may not work with yours.

 

[Tradesman1]

Appears they are 1866, not all 8120s can can carry 1866, so might try setting manually to 1866, 9-10-9-27, 2N DRAM voltage at 1.56 and raise CPU/NB voltage to 1.2....If no joy drop them to 1600 and tighten timings to 9-9-9-26, 2T, DRAM voltage and CPU/NB the same and see how that does