MickyC4 Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) Hi. I previously had Nanya Tech 8GB (2x4GB) CL11 RAM which was running at 798MHz and needed to upgrade as started on flight sims. I've upgraded to the Corsair Vengeance (2x8GB) CL9 which, although has given me the extra RAM boost, appears to be running slower than previously, now at 665MHz. Also CPU-Z (and Speccy) now show the SPD as PC3-10700 (667Mhz). I'm under the impression this RAM is PC3-12800 (1600). The Nanya RAM was showing as PC3-12800 (800MHz). Please can someone tell me if this is to do with XMP? I can't access any of the RAM timings etc within the BIOS so unable even see if there is an XMP setting available. American Megatrends BIOS. I would have thought if the Nanya RAM ran at 800MHz then the Vengeance should at least go to the same? Does anyone know if there is a way to access the timings on the BIOS through a 'back door'? I've attached some screenshots from CPU-Z. PS I know it's an old system but has been running really well and didn't want to start again with a whole new system, yet. Many thanks for any help. Edited February 27, 2020 by MickyC4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emissary42 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 You are on the right track. The CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9 have a default profile for DDR3-1333 which the BIOS defaults to. Since their specs use tighter timings than the JEDEC specification for DDR3-1600, they are stored in an Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP). That has to be activated manually and needs to be supported by the motherboard. However even if the XMP was supported, the function might be greyed out, because the two Nanya modules lack it. So then the motherboard BIOS automatically choses the highest available frequency that both types of modules natively support - which is DDR3-1333 in this case. If there is no option to manually adjust the memory frequency or timings, you would have check the bios file for hidden settings with special tools. Unlocking them his is a risky endavour though, especially if you have never edited and flashed a modified BIOS before. In that case it would probably be easier to just get other memory which supports DDR3-1600 without a XMP (CMV8GX3M1C1600C11? - maybe someone from Corsair can confirm that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickyC4 Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 Thanks emissary42 That's what I thought might be the case unfortunately. To be honest I wasn't aware of the specifics of XMP before getting the memory thus didn't even think to check the BIOS beforehand. I did go for CL9 latency as was thinking this would run faster than the Nanya CL11s although I'm guessing this is contradicted by the slower MHz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emissary42 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 DDR3-1333 CL9 is slower than DDR3-1600 CL11. DDR3-1600 CL9 is faster than DDR3-1600 CL11, however it requires XMP support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts