Why is my 800 Mhz RAM only running at 533Mhz?

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 00:37

I purchased some RAM from OcUK around a year ago that runs at 800Mhz, but at the time could only get it to run at 533Mhz in my BIOS - even though I increased the voltage and gave some tweaks as recommended on this forum.

I gave up at the time, but have now decided this is not acceptable.

It is DDR2 and 800Mhz, in a pentium 4 3.2Ghz PC.

What can I do? Let me know if you need any more information.

Explosivo · 26 Feb 2009 at 03:01

what motherboard are you using?

MeatLoaf · 26 Feb 2009 at 11:06

If you P4 has a 533Mhz FSB and is running at stock then this is probably why if its running 1:1 with your CPU

AndyOcUK · 26 Feb 2009 at 11:20

MeatLoaf said:
If you P4 has a 533Mhz FSB and is running at stock then this is probably why if its running 1:1 with your CPU

^ This

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 12:56

And there is nothing I can do to change this?

AndyOcUK · 26 Feb 2009 at 13:08

You don't need to. Your chip is running in sync (exactly the same speed) with you RAM. If you put your RAM faster than your CPU it will be waiting for the CPU - - -if you put your CPU faster than your RAM, your CPU will be hanging around for your RAM. In layman's terms, you are already at the 'sweet spot' for stock speed on your rig.

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 14:40

Finally logged in again, and it has a "your system has recovered from a serious error' message - I seem to remember it did last time to.

Looks like it's more to do with my PC.. Any ideas?

stoofa · 26 Feb 2009 at 15:30

alexjholland said:
And there is nothing I can do to change this?

As said below - you don't need to.

Best way to describe it.

Currently you're in your car (CPU) zipping down the motorway at 70mph.
There are 2 clear lanes in front of you, no traffic - it's midnight!
You now hit a patch of motorway with 4 clear lanes.
You were already going "flat out" with 2 lanes, adding 2 more won't make any difference.

alexjholland · 26 Feb 2009 at 16:39

Oops, that error message was for another post. Thanks for the analogy, glad to hear all is alright - PC certainly seems to be plenty quick (I use it as a Media centre now I have an XBOX 360).