Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 7,754
- Location
- Cornwall
like the title, how come ram doesnt default to its highest speeds in the bios. unless it does and i have been unlucky.
why does ram not default to its highest settings?
- Thread starter paradisiac
- Start date
It's an interesting one! Basically the standard (JEDEC) for DDR3 ram requires all ram to run at set values for given speeds, at 1.5volts. This is normally pretty slow, like 1333mhz 9-9-9-24 or something. It also means all DDR3 motherboards support these speeds and voltage.
Obviously there are loads of companies selling ram that runs faster, but this is outside the JEDEC standard, and usually higher voltage 1.65V. Many use a high-performance profile (EPP / XMP) to acheive this, but some motherboards need manual input.
The idea is that at JEDEC standard, all memory will work in all motherboards, and allow you to boot into the BIOS to update the faster settings. Imagine plugging in memory which defaults to the fastest speed, but the motherboard only supplies 1.5V. Potentially the system won't even boot!
So it's a fail safe, then you can up the speed and voltage according to spec.
Obviously there are loads of companies selling ram that runs faster, but this is outside the JEDEC standard, and usually higher voltage 1.65V. Many use a high-performance profile (EPP / XMP) to acheive this, but some motherboards need manual input.
The idea is that at JEDEC standard, all memory will work in all motherboards, and allow you to boot into the BIOS to update the faster settings. Imagine plugging in memory which defaults to the fastest speed, but the motherboard only supplies 1.5V. Potentially the system won't even boot!
So it's a fail safe, then you can up the speed and voltage according to spec.
- Joined
- 22 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 7,754
- Location
- Cornwall
ok that makes sense, thanks for clearing that up 