Laptop RAM and frequencies

[compufreek]

Hello!
First off im a long time reader, first time poster.
As an all PC related entusiast, self proclaimed servicer and a programmer im kinda ashamed to admit that i never really looked or learned into RAM frequencies, latencies and so on....

I own a DELL Studio 1749 laptop that came with 4GB od DDR3 ramm and a 1066 Mhz, i have been using my laptop for 3 years and then upgraded to 8 GB of 1600 Mhz DDR3 ram, not knowing that my laptop doesnt support more than 1066 Mhz, since that shouldnt be a problem as the ram is suposed to work with the maximum possible frequencie of motherboard and the 1600 was cheaper than the one that would fit in my sistem i didnt really give it a second tought. Now it will be a little more than a year since the upgrade i was toying a bit with the diagostics on my PC and i noticed somthing strange. It says my RAM is running at 533 Mhz, ok it got to be a mistake or i set some strange option in bios but my bios is on the nevest possible firmware and there is no settings for RAM in there so i go trought my closet to look for my old ram's to test if something is wrong and its the same with my old 4GB factory RAM modules except if i look up single memory i get 660 Mhz and if i have 8 GB installed i get 800Mhz on a single chip. i added the photos where is all visible:

And yeah ... sorry for my bad english and again i apologize if my question is stupid, as i said i never looked into this things and would really love to know why this is .

cheers!

 

[nostall]

DDR (whether the original DDR, DDR2 or DDR3) refers to Double Data Rate. Your RAM (both the 1066 and 1600) only run at 1/2 that number or 533MHz and 800MHz (533 x 2 = 1066) but the memory is "read" twice for each cycle of the frequency. So it is marked and marketed at the higher speed.
Yes, it can be very confusing, and you can Google "DDR Memory" and there is a lot of info about it.
So, not to worry. It looks as if your machine is performing properly and that the RAM - either speed you are using - is being recognized correctly.

 

[compufreek]

DDR (whether the original DDR, DDR2 or DDR3) refers to Double Data Rate. Your RAM (both the 1066 and 1600) only run at 1/2 that number or 533MHz and 800MHz (533 x 2 = 1066) but the memory is "read" twice for each cycle of the frequency. So it is marked and marketed at the higher speed.
Yes, it can be very confusing, and you can Google "DDR Memory" and there is a lot of info about it.
So, not to worry. It looks as if your machine is performing properly and that the RAM - either speed you are using - is being recognized correctly.

Haha, thank you !
i knew comming to this forum was a right choice, your answer was short, punctional and clear, thank you for the information.

 

[nostall]

DDR (whether the original DDR, DDR2 or DDR3) refers to Double Data Rate. Your RAM (both the 1066 and 1600) only run at 1/2 that number or 533MHz and 800MHz (533 x 2 = 1066) but the memory is "read" twice for each cycle of the frequency. So it is marked and marketed at the higher speed.
Yes, it can be very confusing, and you can Google "DDR Memory" and there is a lot of info about it.
So, not to worry. It looks as if your machine is performing properly and that the RAM - either speed you are using - is being recognized correctly.

Haha, thank you !
i knew comming to this forum was a right choice, your answer was short, punctional and clear, thank you for the information.

You are very welcome, and Welcome to Tom's. I hope you stick around and lend a hand, answer some forum questions.
One more note about RAM. It is not a good idea to mix RAM frequencies ie. don't place a DDR3 1066 module into a system with DDR3 1600. Yes, the 1600 will slow down to 1066, but they sometimes don't play-well-together.