Need help on my Kingston 8 GB ram

[pasitimusD]

hi!! i have a 8 GB 1860 mhz ram single stick in a msi h97m mobo but speccy shows the following:

Type DDR3
Size 8192 MBytes
Channels # Single
DRAM Frequency 800.1 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 9 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 10 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 9 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 26 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T

is it normal? i heard you multiply it by 2 for dual channel but is my single stick of ram dual channel? also, i think my mobo doesnt support 1860 mhz ram, can i use a software to overclock it to its native speed? i dont have a budget for dedicated GPU yet, so i want to improve my iGPU (intel HD 4600) performance by maximizing my ram. Thanks for the replies!!

 

[volcanoscout]

What motherboard and CPU are you using? If the board will support 1866MHz, if you go into your BIOS, find the DRAM settings - there should be an option labeled "XMP". Select that, then save and exit to boot, then recheck you Speccy numbers.

 

[pasitimusD]

i think in my mobo, it says only 1600mhz is supported, my mobo is MSI 897m e35 and my cpu is intel core i5 4460

 

[volcanoscout]

Sorry - found your mobo description in original post after I replied. It does indeed support only 1600MHz, at least according to the specs I found. As far as actual speed displayed, the frequency reported is correct. You can google how DDR3 DRAM speed is calculated and reported for the long answer, but short answer is your DRAM is running at 2 x 800MHz for 1600MHz, even with a single stick and single channel. Single channel vs dual channel affects how efficiently your CPU can access the DRAM but not the speed/frequency that the DRAM itself runs at.

 

[pasitimusD]

i see, this calms my mind. so even though im not in dual channel and i only have a single stick of ram installed, the frequency is still multiplied by 2. Any tips on how to improve my iGPU gaming?

 

[volcanoscout]

Other than optimizing your DRAM and drive, not really - your HD 4600 iGPU is always going to be pretty limited when it comes to games. You can try increasing the amount of dedicated VRAM in your BIOS, but even that's not going to help much. If you want to play games beyond Solitaire, you need to add in a dedicated graphics card.

 

[pasitimusD]

ok! thanks a lot for answering my questions!! one last thing, i cant seem to locate the XMP profile for my ram in my MSI Bios settings. Can you help me find it?

 

[volcanoscout]

Just so you know, it's possible that option is not available. Am at work right now, but when I can get on my desktop at home I'll send you some guidance.