What are RAM timings?

Original1993 · 2 Jan 2011 at 13:20

OK, I always get mixed up with this stuff, to me its just a bunch of numbers and it confuses the hell outta me, ive never touched the ram timings,

what do they do, and what do they mean? and dont they only matter if your overclocking?

Sleeve · 2 Jan 2011 at 13:49

I have no idea either, just thought id say hello as you live just up the road from me

Psy-Blade · 2 Jan 2011 at 13:52

Guide: Ram Timings for Dummies

Emphacy · 2 Jan 2011 at 14:23

nice guide blade.
Think i'll start recommending it to people asking me haha, 'for dummies' :L

Psy-Blade · 2 Jan 2011 at 14:26

Emphacy said:
nice guide blade.
Think i'll start recommending it to people asking me haha, 'for dummies' :L

Its one of a few bookmarks I have for Ram timings. Mostly covering the same stuff though.

Interestingly (For me anyway), I decided to check up on my ram timings after reading this thread. After the last bios update it seems my mobo was running one ram stick with my custom tighter timings, and the other at its default timings. Changed this and it fixed the system lag and response issues I was experiencing. So thanks Original1993

ajf · 10 Jan 2011 at 16:29

Interesting article.
One thing I want to understand, my memory is listed as 5-5-5-15.
Is this the lowest (fastest) settings it can run or default settings etc?

My understanding of that article was also you may need to increase (slow) the timings on a high overclock? Is that correct?

Psy-Blade · 14 Jan 2011 at 12:06

Yeah, from what I know you can go one of two ways. Tighten the timings and keep the sticks at stock clock speed, or even underclock them. Or loosen the timings (maybe keep them the same, depending on sticks and amount of overclock) and overclock.