Getting the most out of the installed RAM

[Cafem]

Hello again,

After I disabled the motherboard loading screen (the one that appears on power-up) the screen now shows the memory and USB controller check (Memory....ok etc)

On that screen that made me a bit concerned was the fact that my RAM is being recognised as 1066MHz, and not the 2000MHz that I bought (link here.)

Can anyone shed some light as to why this might be the case, and if its rectifiable?

Edit: Forgot to mention; i7 930 2.8GHz CPU, ASUS P6X58D-E mobo, GTX 570 gfx.

Many thanks.

 

[MindoverMaster]

In BIOS, you can set that. It should be in the OC section of the BIOS.

 

[Slaymate]

Download CPU-Z and post the CPU and Memory Tabs for us. Here's an example.

 

[Cafem]

This is after my first foray into O.C'ing. Interestingly, CPU-Z registers the full 12GB RAM, but Windows itself only now recognises 10GB.

 

[Slaymate]

Your not going to be able to run your memory at 2000 MHz unless you overclock the system slightly.

Right now your memory is running at 1570.6 MHz. The memory is DDR which is Double Data Rate, and the DRAM Frequency is the Data Rate, so 2 x 785.3 = 1570.6

In the CPU Tab your bus speed is 130.9, this should actually be 133 so that's why your memory isn't quite at 1600 MHz right now. Your available memory multipliers [2:12 or (FSB : DRAM) in 2nd Tab] should be 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, etc... Your (memory multiplier) x (Bus Speed) = DDR speed or 2 x DRAM Frequency.

Right now your memory multiplier is set to 12 so we have:

12 x 130.9 = 1570.8

If we try to get 2000 MHz by changing the Memory Multiplier were looking at:

14 x 130.9 = 1832.6
16 x 130.9 = 2094.4

2000 MHz just isn't available because we don't have a 15 Multiplier (they are even numbers only). So our only choice is to change the Bus Speed which will overclock the CPU. Right now your CPU is at 130.9 x 21 = 2748.9 MHz [the CPU Multiplier is 21 but Intel Speedstep, a energy saving feature, has it stepped down to 12 (1st Tab the Multiplier listed below the Core Speed) while the system is idle]

143 x 14 = 2002 MHz memory speed and your cpu speed will be 143 x 21 = 3003 MHz
166 x 12 = 1992 MHz memory speed and your cpu speed will be 166 x 21 = 3486 MHz
200 x 10 = 2000 MHz memory speed and your cpu speed will be 200 x 21 = 4200 MHz

These ^^above^^ are your three choices to run your memory at 2000 MHz.

 

[Cafem]

Thanks for the guide I'll wait until I'm less tired to start playing around with the BIOS again. I'm guessing I'll have to carefully adjust some settings for the CPU, DRAM Core and Bus voltages too?

 

[Slaymate]

More than likely, yes.