Memory speed?

bloodhunter

bloodhunter

bloodhunter

Associate
Joined
30 Dec 2009
Posts
909
Location
Wigan Lancs
I have an HP laptop which according to the spec on the HP website was shipped with 800mhz PC2-6400 DDR2 but when i run CPU-Z in the memory section it shows it as being a frequency of 333.2 if that makes any sence.

Looking at the memory modules themselves they give no information on the labels attached.

Am i missing something.

Thanks.
 
You need to double what CPU-Z shows so you be running 666mhz ram, what does CPU-z show the ram make and models are.

Also it could be 800mhz ram but this depends if the motherboard can take that speed.
 
The are two different makes fitted, a Samsung 2gig stick and a Micron 1 gig stick.

They are showing as PC2-6400 (400mhz) max bandwidth so does this mean they are only 400mhz and not 800mhz according to the laptop spec?
 
You need to look at "memory" tab on CPU-Z.

If it says 333MHz then the RAM is running at 666MHz as it's Double Data Rate.

If it says 400MHz then the RAM is running at 800MHz for the same reason.

Even if it's running at 666MHz the RAM you have now is rated for 800MHz (400MHz x 2).

Whether or not you can run it at 800MHz depends on what settings you're able to adjust in the BIOS.

You could buy the kit you linked to but it's exactly the same speed as the RAM you have now.

If your laptop won't run your existing RAM at 800MHz (2 x 400MHz) then it won't run the new RAM at that speed either.

You'd have an extra GB but if you use a 32 bit operating system part of this would be wasted as only around 3.5GB (give or take) is usable on 32 bit.

The only real benefit is that 2x2GB probably works better in dual channel mode than 2+1GB but that's not going to give you a major performance boost.
 
You need to double what CPU-z shows as the memory is double data rate, the current installed is 800mhz ram but I suspect the motherboard can't run at rated speed.

I would doubt you notice any performance differences in general day to day use.
 
Thanks for your helpfull replies and clarifing what it means. It is a 32bit OS at the moment but will have a 64 bit installed soon as the hardware is all 64 bit compatible.
 
Please try and be more specific, even going out as far as posting a screenshot from CPU-Z because what you've already said just suggests it has PC2-6400 SODIMM's installed but because of your memory controller (again, is this an Intel or AMD model?) it's been downclocked to PC2-5300 speeds hence the 667MHz (rounded) reported by CPU-Z.

Installing more memory will make it smoother but it won't increase the frequency at which the memory runs. The latter is governed by the memory controller.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom