Ram speed question

[Aidan Rooney]

Ok so i have ram that can use 2133, but is currently running at 1600 (800 in task manager). Apparently my cpu (fx-8350) let's my ram go up to 1866 but i can't get it to work like that. In the BIOS the only options are (can't remember exactly so wording might be wrong): default - 1600, profile 1 and 2 both say 2133 but when i select them, task manager still says 800 so i guess it's not activating as my cpu can't handle that. I was wondering how i can get my ram to run at 1866

 

[spooky2th]

You will probably have to OC your CPU some to get higher memory speeds. I would think that you would be able to 1866MHz no problem. Try manually setting memory down to 1866MHz in profile1 then in profile2 if not working in profile1.

 

[Aidan Rooney]

You will probably have to OC your CPU some to get higher memory speeds. I would think that you would be able to 1866MHz no problem. Try manually setting memory down to 1866MHz in profile1 then in profile2 if not working in profile1.

Here it says the 8350 supports 1866: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2233942/max-ram-speed-compatible-8350.html

and it won't let me change the values of the profiles :/ It's either 2133 which is can't run, or 1600

 

[spooky2th]

Try setting the speed & timings manually without enabling XMP profiles. Or XMP all together.

 

[photonboy]

Just FYI but you're not going to notice any real-world difference by running faster than 1600MHz effective.

 

[Aidan Rooney]

Just FYI but you're not going to notice any real-world difference by running faster than 1600MHz effective.

Ahhh fair enough 😛

 

[spooky2th]

That's the problem with AMD CPU's. They have weak memory controllers. Sometimes they won't even handle the advertised mem speeds.

 

[Tradesman1]

Look for and enable DOCP (or the XMP option if available on your mobo) and then select 2133, depending on what you do with your rig , you can see a difference

 

[mdocod]

Since your memory kit doesn't have an 1866 speed profile, you'll have to select that speed manually if you want to run it. The XMP option in BIOS must be disabled, and you must select the multiplier through one of the other memory settings.

That said, there's a good chance your FX-8350 will run the 2133MT/s speed as long as the CPU-NB is running at the 2200mhz multiplier (Should be by default), and you *might* need to bump up the CPU-NB voltage to ~1.25V. Don't use task manager to read memory speed.

 

[photonboy]

That's the problem with AMD CPU's. They have weak memory controllers. Sometimes they won't even handle the advertised mem speeds.

That's not what I'm referring to though. 1600MHz is simply fast enough that no bottleneck happens in most scenarios and when it does it's very small anyway.

Also many people have the FX-8350 working with memory much faster than 1600MHz. I'm not sure if that's defaulting to a MOTHERBOARD memory controller. You can look at the MOTHERBOARD specs to see what's possible.

Minor points:
1. the BIOS contains memory profiles. If you apply one ("XMP" for Intel so is it "AMP" for AMD?) you should get the optimal profile supported.

2. updating the BIOS can sometimes add a missing memory profile

3. Manual overclock:
When you see something like 1600MHz, 1866MHz (OC) for the motherboard it means the default is 1600MHz but if you overclock manually you can get 1866MHz working. So if you have 1866MHz you can try overclocking if you want (which again may not help in real world usage).

Other:
Each stick of "1600MHz" memory is actually running at 800MHz. If you don't put the sticks in the proper slots (see motherboard manual) you may be running 800MHz. In "Dual Channel" the data is striped between two sticks giving an "effective" speed of 1600MHz.

Cheers.

 

[Tradesman1]

That's the problem with AMD CPU's. They have weak memory controllers. Sometimes they won't even handle the advertised mem speeds.

That's not what I'm referring to though. 1600MHz is simply fast enough that no bottleneck happens in most scenarios and when it does it's very small anyway.

Also many people have the FX-8350 working with memory much faster than 1600MHz. I'm not sure if that's defaulting to a MOTHERBOARD memory controller. You can look at the MOTHERBOARD specs to see what's possible.

Minor points:
1. the BIOS contains memory profiles. If you apply one ("XMP" for Intel so is it "AMP" for AMD?) you should get the optimal profile supported.

2. updating the BIOS can sometimes add a missing memory profile

3. Manual overclock:
When you see something like 1600MHz, 1866MHz (OC) for the motherboard it means the default is 1600MHz but if you overclock manually you can get 1866MHz working. So if you have 1866MHz you can try overclocking if you want (which again may not help in real world usage).

Other:
Each stick of "1600MHz" memory is actually running at 800MHz. If you don't put the sticks in the proper slots (see motherboard manual) you may be running 800MHz. In "Dual Channel" the data is striped between two sticks giving an "effective" speed of 1600MHz.

Cheers.

___________________

Yes what data rates of DRAM can run depend on the individual CPU, some 8350s have trouble with 1866 others can run 2400 easily.

AMD uses a variety of different OC profiling, some use XMP, some DOCP (prevalent) others use EOCP and some newer ones AMP - but after enabling, you still need to select what data rate you want to 'try'

Updating the BIOS is always a good idea as the bulk of the updates that are included in a BIOS Update are DRAM related. On the recap they generally only list 1 or 2 items included in the update.

The OC more often than not these days means that and OC of the CPU and/or MC may be required

On the Other - a 1600 stick of DRAM or multiple stick of 1600 DRAM if at spec all run at 1600 regardless if in single, dual, triple or quadchannel mode. The 800 is the true freq of the DRAM, since it's DDR (Double data rate) you take the true freq (800) x 2 to = the effective data rate of 1600 - the fact that you run in single or dual channel doesn't change the data rate of the sticks