What speed is my Memory REALLY running at??

[zapp22]

Friends this has nothing to do with which os, to my understanding, but I posted this on lesser forums and stumped everyone. I predict that will not happen on this forum!

In theory my 'project' notebook, having i945GM chipset, is supposed to run the memory bus at either/or 266MHz or 333MHz. I have the two slots populated with matched 1GB 667MHz ddr.
When I pull up SIW to check, it says "DRAM Frequency 266.0"
It shows the modules themselves as "667 MHz"

So I go run MEMTEST 4.0, and it shows:

RAM Speed = 221MHz [DDR445]
FSB 133Mhz
CAS 4-4-4-12

no errors....

Can someone tell me what's going on here? :huh:
the Cpq BIOS/Setup is typically barren... no options to speak of, nothing at all about the various clockings...

 

[joebum]

please use cpuz and take screen shot on memory and spd tab.

 

[zapp22]

screenshots

here we go.
thanks joeb

 

[joebum]

It seems your memory speed is running at 266mhz each channel. Dual channel = 532 Mhz. Current timing 4-4-4-12-16 and if you have memory setting in bios you could change it to 5-5-5-15-20 and it will run @ 333Mhz each channel.

It seems you forgot the screenshot of slot #2 @spd tab.

 

[zapp22]

makes sense
attached

is there another way to get there? the bios is threadbare, so to speak.
I think there are other cpq models with same basic platform... c500? other c300? guess I better search around and see if anyone figured it out.
i really hate having a capability that is being defeated by sloppy implementation...took me a week to find answers to getting real SATA mode enabled...no thx to hp/cpq

 

[joebum]

I guess your mainboard auto configure the ram to run at 266Mhz.
Try this Tweakers.fr (you may want to read the discussions about the software there).

---
I never use the software myself so be careful.

 

[zapp22]

tweaker isnt compatible with my cpu/chipset. their other one, memset, should work but doesn't because it can't alter the first timing setting: all the others it can.

its odd to me that the chipset gets reported differently by the different snoopers... I get: i940, i943, i945... i guess they are all minor steppings of the same? anyway when I get time I'll try to find out if a diff c'set driver could allow the memset to deliver the goods.

 

[Dwarf]

What is the make and model number of the notebook?

 

[zapp22]

It is a cpq Presario C306us.
thanks mr. D

What is the make and model number of the notebook?

 

[Dwarf]

Here are the basic specs of the notebook: Product Specificatons Compaq Presario C306US Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

As you can see, the processor runs at 1.73 GHz, and this is equivalent to an FSB of 133 MHz with a 13x multiplier or 266 MHz with a multiplier of 6.5x. Looking at the images you posted, I see the following:



So it would appear that your FSB is 133 MHz with a multiplier of 13x, yielding a processor speed of 1.73 GHz. The processor power saving, if enabled, is achieved by automatically changing the multiplier dependant on system load.

To confirm this, can you show what you see on the CPU tab of CPU-Z ?

 

[zapp22]

I'm beginning to wonder if this notebook was refurb'd. I don't know the whole history on it as I took it on trade for a good desktop upgrade for a client - it was "dead", as he said. got 'er going. I had noticed early on that with the ancient drivers from the CPQ site, I had two big fails trying to load later intel graphics drivers. a week later I ran .. i think it was SIW or something, anyway was showing a i945gm chipset. went to intel site, downloaded chipset drivers, several years more current than cpq, and it worked like slick. finally got the SATA enabled in native mode, things were looking good. this morning I went snooping for more modern video drivers 'cause I got a "string not set" error running the intel chipset id utility. found. i set a restore point thinking it would flame out. the latest i945gm graphics set for xp pro includes hdmi vid & audio [of course there is no such port on this box.]. it worked great. now running 1080p without totally flattening the cpu on the ceiling . still need to figure out MEMSET to get the memory up to speed

 

[fseal]

Well the thing is, your memory is being run at the proper speed for the system... It's running at a frequency that is lock-step with your cpu and minimal latency.

If you unlink your memory/cpu bus speed (if that's even possible on that machine) you will have to first bump up all the wait states of the ram as mentioned, then incur even MORE wait states due to the differing clocks between ram and cpu. Meaning you could even end up running slower over all even if your ram is now running at 333 Mhz. Increasing your ram speed by 25% the increasing your wait states by 25% is not much of a gain.

Bottom line, feel free to play with it, but you are likely going to just destabilize your system for little to zero or even negative speed gains. :/ (Not to mention consume more power == shorter battery life)

 

[zapp22]

you're right. :sarc:
i had not thought through the math properly.
and its running really well.
have ssd on the way....

 

[fseal]

Now THAT will make your laptop feel 10x faster!

 

[debgram1]

Why is mine so low?

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Users\Owner>winsat mem
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: System memory performance assessment ''
> Run Time 00:00:05.10
> Memory Performance 22060.59 MB/s
> Total Run Time 00:00:06.41
C:\Users\Owner>


Asus MB P8P67 Deluxe, BIOS 2001, Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K, G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800), Plextor DVDR drive, Asus DRW DVD drive, Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, WDC WD5001AALS SCSI hard drive, SAMSUNG SP2504C SCSI hard drive, Sapphire ATI Radeon 4800 graphics card, Win 7 Home 64-bit, ZALMAN CNPS9900 NT 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler