[SOLVED] What does the MHz mean....

[bugmeso]

My MB says that it needs DDR 3. 64 bit, 240 pin module. I see 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz out there along with others that have DDR 3 2666 MHz down to DDR 3 1333 MHZ. Without getting deep, what is the MHz? Anything to do with speed? THX

 

[SchizTech]

Yes. {Kilo- /Mega- /Giga-} Hertz are measures of frequency, which for a PC component is speed. For RAM specifically there are two critical components that relate to speed.

The frequency determines how quickly it can send or receive data to/from the rest of the system. However, requests to memory are not resolved immediately. There's a delay (called latency) between a request going to RAM and the data coming back to the CPU, because nothing in the universe is instantaneous. This you want to minimize. Without getting into gory mathematical details, the best frequency (Hz) at the lowest latency (CL) is fastest.

As a rule of thumb, divide freq by latency to get a rough idea of how two sets compare.

Also, running in dual channel is better. This means the performance is split between multiple similar sticks on different channels to add up to better overall performance.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My MB says that it needs DDR 3. 64 bit, 240 pin module.

What's the model name of your motherboard?

Generally DDR3 1600mhz is standard. For faster DDR3 models (more mhz) you'll have to pay premium.
And depending on your motherboard, it may not support ram overclocking. In this case, even if you get ultra high mhz OC ram, it may not be able to run at that speed and will run at 1333mhz or 1600mhz.

 

[bugmeso]

What's the model name of your motherboard?

Generally DDR3 1600mhz is standard. For faster DDR3 models (more mhz) you'll have to pay premium.
And depending on your motherboard, it may not support ram overclocking. In this case, even if you get ultra high mhz OC ram, it may not be able to run at that speed and will run at 1333mhz or 1600mhz.

An ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 and now after looking through memory, I am now realizing how old this computer is. I would say 6-7 years. SO it MIGHT be time.

 

[SkyNetRising]

An ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1

Your motherboard supports up to 1866mhz ram.
4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 1866/1600/1333 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory *

SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK 1 - Support

www.asus.com

 

[Karadjgne]

For those Intels, the 'Officially' recognised and tested speed of the memory controller was 1333 or 1600MHz. The AMD FX was the same, except AMD tested upto 1866MHz. Anything above those speeds was considered (OC).

At the time that website printed that info, 1866MHz was as fast as it got, but the actual speed is set by the cpu, not the motherboard, so 2400MHz (which came out later) was still usable If the cpu could handle it. Which usually took some of its own OC to accomplish.

Because of the difficulty getting ddr3 2400MHz sticks at the time, prices were astronomically high, 1600MHz was far easier and cheaper to bin. And with non-Z boards not allowing (OC) or OC, those boards would only use Intel recognised speeds, 1333MHz or 1600MHz, so competition drove prices down.

Personally, for DDR3, I've found 1866MHz (10-11-10-30 2T)set for 1600MHz timings of 9-9-9-24 1T to be the best balance of cost/performance .

Just be aware that back then, timings played a much larger role than today, so a 1600 9-9-9-24 was Alot faster than the uber cheap 1600 16-16-16-39

 

[SamirD]

And while the higher speed ram was more expensive back in that era, today even 2133 ram used is the same price as 1600, so if you look for quality used ram, you'll get a nice upgrade for cheap. For reference a 2x8gb (16gb) set used for high performance ram can be found for as little as $45 shipped if you look hard enough. 😉

 

[Karadjgne]

Yeah, I paid $110 for 16Gb 1866MHz C10, 7 years ago. Paid $20 on ebay for the same thing 1 year later.