Not matched memory

DannyS · 16 Feb 2010 at 00:45

Hi I received my *OVERCLOCKED* AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz @ 3.60GHz / Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P Motherboard / Corsair Dominator 4GB DDR3 XMS3 PC2-1600C9 (2x2GB) Bundle the other day and got straight to work installing it, all appears to be running fine however when I run CPUz to check all is as it should be I see the ram for some reason is two different speeds :confused:

Slot 1
Max bandwidth PC3-10700H (667 MHz)
Part number CM3X2G1333C9
and Slot 2
Max bandwidth PC3-8500F (533 MHz)
Part number CM3X2G1600C9DHX

Could anyone explain this to me? Have I been shipped a board with an unmatched ram set in it? Or is there another reason for this?

Thanks in advance for any help

DannyS · 16 Feb 2010 at 00:48

And also as you can see neither are running at 1600 speeds!

wozencl · 16 Feb 2010 at 16:12

It would seem you have two different sticks of RAM - according to your post you have an unmatched pair of sticks.

EDIT: Look at the label on the DIMM's you should be able to tell pretty quickly if they're different.

DannyS · 16 Feb 2010 at 18:26

Wierd, they are both stickered up the same. TW3X4G1600C9D

Any idea why the motherboard they're sold with doesn't run them like this?

Running Windows 7 and using the latest version of CPUz

wozencl · 16 Feb 2010 at 19:50

It's not the motherboard. The information you've posted is the memory's SPD information which is programmed by the manufacturer - the motherboard will try to use the information for setting the memory's speed and timings whereas CPU-Z simply reads and displays it.

I guess the stick in question has been programmed with that of a different model, it could be the result of Corsair's selection processes.

If you bought the bundle from OCUK then the settings should be running at a stable speed for your overclock.

DannyS · 17 Feb 2010 at 12:46

Thanks lol so you think I should stop being nosey and just use it? Its actually running fine and after looking futher the bios actually has the ram set up at 1333 so is this to get better timings?

And what does the max bandwidth that CPUz come up with actually refer to? Will this have any effect on gaming?

wozencl · 17 Feb 2010 at 13:36

Carry on being nosey, curiosity is always a good quality IMO

.

Your RAM is currently running at 1333MHz (the maximum speed supported by Phenom II's natively- anything more is considered overclocking) and will have been configured by OCUK to give the best performance for your setup. Most people will agree that in the majority of cases it's better to have tighter timings than an increased frequency.

The maximum bandwidth listed in CPU-Z won't have any effect on your system as it's simply reading the information from the SPD information stored in the ROM on your DIMM. If you go to the Memory tab it will show you the speed the RAM is actually running at.

The only downside to having two mismatched or differently labelled sticks is that features such as XMP will be disabled -these are saved settings, voltages etc that can be loaded to avoid manually configuring for performance. Again in your case this won't be an issue as OCUK will have configured the memory manually in the BIOS to give you the greatest performance and stability for your overclock.