RAM advertised at 1600MHz; Running at 1388MHz?

[JP20Boss]

Hi there! So as the title states I ordered 4GB of Corsair Vengeace RAM off of Amazon and once I got it into my motherboard it came up as 669MHz instead of the 800MHz I expected it to be. With my old mother board and processor (GA-A55M-DS2 & A6-3500 @ 4.7GHz) I was able to set the ram back to 1600MHz. Since then I've upgraded my build and I have a GA-78LMT-USB3 & FX-6300 @ 4.02GHz. When I turn up the RAM in the BIOS it fails to boot and I haven't been able to get the RAM back to 1600MHz since. Any idea why? The CPU voltage is at 1.3332V and the RAM is at its default 1.5V. I hear you're really best off overclocking one or the other but not both. Is that true?

Specs:
OS: Windows 7 Ult. 64 Bit
CPU: FX-6300 @ 4.02GHz
MOBO: GA-78LMT-USB3
GPU: Sapphire HD7770 GHz Ed. Vapor-X
RAM: 4GB Corsair Vengeance @ 669MHz (9-9-9-24)
PSU: Generic 500W

 

[Guest]

Did you check to see if the timings matched the default timings for your ram?

 

[JP20Boss]

Did you check to see if the timings matched the default timings for your ram?

Yep, just checked Amazon, those are the default timings.

[EDIT]: I also checked Gigabyte's Memory Support docs and it looks like the RAM is listed there.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Almost all motherboards default DDR3 to 1333. Check and see if you have XMP in BIOS. XMP is an Intel creation but some AMD boards have it now. If so just enable it and you are done. If not you will have to manually set the speed and maybe timings. Although 9-9-9-24 2T should be what the sticks are rated at when running at DDR3 1600 speeds.

If you seem to be stuck with the board not allowing changes after a failed attempt then try clearing CMOS.

 

[JP20Boss]

Almost all motherboards default DDR3 to 1333. Check and see if you have XMP in BIOS. XMP is an Intel creation but some AMD boards have it now. If so just enable it and you are done. If not you will have to manually set the speed and maybe timings. Although 9-9-9-24 2T should be what the sticks are rated at when running at DDR3 1600 speeds.

If you seem to be stuck with the board not allowing changes after a failed attempt then try clearing CMOS.

I'm familiar with the XMP option. It was on my old FM2 motherboard but I don't recall seeing the option. I'll check again. I know you shouldn't fix something that isn't broken but could updating the BIOS reveal more features/options? I think I have version FA. I hear F11 is the newest.

 

[Tradesman1]

Updating the bIOS would be a good idea, they are constantly fixing bugs and trying to enhance the BIOS

 

[JP20Boss]

Updating the bIOS would be a good idea, they are constantly fixing bugs and trying to enhance the BIOS

@Tradesman1
I just checked Gigabyte's website. Apparently this is the latest BIOS version It was last updated in April of this year.

@anort3
I've checked it and double checked it. No XMP function to be found. Without any BIOS to update to it looks like I'm out of options. The last thing I'll try is switching the RAM sockets. There are 4 in the motherboard so I'll just switch the set the two cards are in.

 

[Tradesman1]

Look for DOCP or EOCP (AMD's equivalent of XMP (their OCing profiles) if none then can set the DRAM manually to 1600, and the spec timings and voltage

 

[JP20Boss]

Look for DOCP or EOCP (AMD's equivalent of XMP (their OCing profiles) if none then can set the DRAM manually to 1600, and the spec timings and voltage

Alright, I'll check for that. Another problem still persists though. Everything about the RAM is set to default in the BIOS but after manually setting the RAM to 1600 it fails to boot. Do I need to adjust the voltage?

 

[JP20Boss]

So, after doing some more digging I found a post where someone recommended to up one of the timings on the RAM. The default timings (9-9-9-24-34) were swapped out for (9-9-9-24-41) The system boots now and everything looks to be stable

 

[Tradesman1]

Sounds good, DRAM can be a pain