Solved [Q] RAM speed

Lou said:

THANKS for the reply---
Is there a reason for CURCIAL over the SAMSUNG module
ALSO
Isn't it best to have identical modules----This is what I;ve been told but have NO experience with this....

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Lou said:

Thank-you!
I keep forgetting about CDW and by habit keep going to NEWEGG

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Lou said:

I keep forgetting about CDW and by habit keep going to NEWEGG

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bobkn said:

Not to brag, but my Amazon (Marketplace) link was the lowest cost. Care must be taken with Amazon Marketplace sellers, but this one has a pretty good customer rating.

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johnlgalt said:

Late to the party, but do realize one thing.

The RAM sticker shows that it is denoted by the manufacturer to be stable at that speed - 3200. Your CPU-Z screenshot shows 4 different JEDEC standards that can be used by your RAM, notice that even though 2 of them show 1600, the timings are, in fact different.

Windows Task Manager, and the Memory tab in CPU-Z, will show what your RAM is actually running at. Task manager can be faulty, though, but CPU-Z will show you right off.

For example, notice in your screenshot, the first JEDEC table shows a Freq of 1466. With a multiplier of 2, that makes the frequency reported as 2932 (if it were exact), so Windows TM reporting 2933 is actually probably correct. The Memory tab in CPU-Z will tell you more.

That being said, you can probably get more out of your RAM by adjusting some values in your BIOS / UEFI fw settings, but it is not going to make things so fast that, say, programs load in half the time or anything like that. You;re perfectly fine in keeping it running at the lowest JEDEC timing as that will put a (slightly) less wear and tear on your computer.

For reference, here is my ss similar to yours:

View attachment 23105

And here it is with the Memory tab selected in CPU-Z

View attachment 23104

As you can see, in this case, both TM and CPU-Z agree that my RAM is actually operating at (or, close to, really, not exactly) 3600 MHz clock speeds.

That all being said, matching the exact modules is helpful, and if you can buy a set of RAM sticks matched directly from the manufacturer, it makes things a lot easier to deal with. However, as @bobkn mentioned, you can always force the match in your BIOS / UEFI fw settings, although a safe bet is to get slightly faster RAM than you have (as in the minimal timings for the RAM is equal to or greater than the minimal timings for your existing stick, which is that first 1466 column), as everything will be forced to run at your original RAM stick's timings.

Again, though, to prevent any headaches, and particularly if you're not very tech savvy, it's better to buy a factory-matched set for the best performance. RAM prices being what they are, though, that might be hard to do. But your original idea to have more RAM for SolidWorks is a good one - if you can do more than 32, it may benefit from that as well.

Hope all this helped in understanding what you were seeing better.

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