Adjusting RAM voltage to sticker on RAM

Solid004 · 20 Jun 2009

You too :)

jw12345 · 20 Jun 2009

Some motherboards in my experience do not handle upping voltages very well. It can cause serious problems if a motherboard doesn't implement it very well or isn't really designed to run memory at a certain voltage.

Again, it's probably not going to hurt anything. But it can, even if by user error mucking around in the BIOS, and I don't see any real gain by overriding the motherboard. Memory only makes a noticeable difference with varying capacity, but memory speed and latency rarely are worth bothering with, especially on the Core 2 line, which aren't very memory sensitive at all. ANd if he isn't upping the voltage to better any of these, it matters even less.

I'd only recommend upping the voltage if the memory is unstable at a lower voltage, but not just because it's rated at 2.1V.

TomW · 20 Jun 2009

nate42nd said:

I have some new G-skill 1066 Mhz RAM. My motherboard has the voltage at 1.8V. The RAM spec voltage is 2.0-2.1V. I have set this at 1.9V but am wondering if going to 2.0 or 2.1V would be a good idea. I have seem some tutorials and 2 page long papers on overclocking RAM but this is more simple. Is it better to have RAM voltage set to spec or leave it at "normal" or "auto"

I'm having the same difficulty, so to speak, with my 1600 mhz RAM. The motherboard comes with the voltage set 1.66. Intel advises against any voltage above 1.65, so I'm pretty shut down in the RAM dept.

nate42nd · 21 Jun 2009

TomW said:

I'm having the same difficulty, so to speak, with my 1600 mhz RAM. The motherboard comes with the voltage set 1.66. Intel advises against any voltage above 1.65, so I'm pretty shut down in the RAM dept.

I am watching vids on youtube about my motherboard. I think you and I both have quality motherboards and we can probably bump out voltage up to spec. I looked at your specs and you have a nicer one than me and mine is highly rated. I am not going to worry much about it. I think the quality of the board has a lot to do with it.

Does Intel advise voltage for RAM? I am not familiar with Intel specs on RAM. If you know where I can find them let me know.

I just flashed my BIOS so I'm not scared of a little voltage on the RAM. haha

TomW · 21 Jun 2009

Not usually.. in the case of the Core i7 965 EE, I know they say anything above 1.65 can burn out their chip. Yikes. I believe it's because the chip, RAM, can be OC'ed so easily.

nate42nd · 22 Jun 2009

TomW said:

Not usually.. in the case of the Core i7 965 EE, I know they say anything above 1.65 can burn out their chip. Yikes. I believe it's because the chip, RAM, can be OC'ed so easily.

Voltages on the CPU are a different story. You need to be VERY careful with those. I guess no more careful than with the ram. But CPUs cost more. haha

jw12345 · 22 Jun 2009

nate42nd said:

Voltages on the CPU are a different story. You need to be VERY careful with those. I guess no more careful than with the ram. But CPUs cost more. haha

No, there is a problem with RAM voltages on i7 chips. Source: Intel.

I don't know the mechanics of it, but RAM voltage also affects CPUs.

nate42nd · 23 Jun 2009

I see....Thanks for the info. I am reading about OCing. I know when you change the Mhz on the cpu, it affects the RAM so it would make sense the other way around. Or is it just on i7s?

jw12345 · 23 Jun 2009

I've yet to do an overclocked i7 build. However, on most CPUs, frequencies are a multiplier of a bus (e.g., 266mhzx9 for the Q6600) and raising the bus frequency 1 mhz will raise the cpu frequency by 9 mhz. On some motherboard the RAM is linked to this same bus and thus is a multiplier of it, but on others, you can unlink the two and manipulate them separately.

So on a board where they are linked, then increasing RAM frequency would increase CPU frequency and vice versa. I don't know a huge amount about overclocking though, so my details might not be great.

nate42nd · 23 Jun 2009

Well I have a pretty good Gigabyte board and I have bumped my RAM voltage from 1.8 to 1.94 It has not affected my CPU and my RAM says on the sticker and the box to give it 2.0-2.1V

That's the reason for this thread, to find out if it's a good idea

I have found since starting the thread that most boards are set to 1.8V for RAM just in case you have 1.8V RAM......you are supposed to adjust the setting to what your ram needs. (on my board EP45-UD3P)