What mhz is my laptop running at?

luckylucky

I wanted to get a second 2GB memory module for my laptop (Acer Ferrari One 200). Anyway I opened up the laptop and wrote down the spec as shown on the existing Ram module and it reads
Manufacturer: Elpida, 2 GB 2Rx8, PC2-6400S - 666MHZ.

When I went to a local computer store - the guy basically told me this wasn't right. That if it was PC2-6400 it would have to be 800 MHz. So he told me to use Speccy and print off what that says about my memory.

According to Speccy my Max Bandwith is PC2-6400S (400MHZ). (don't know if that was the right thing to look at.)

Since that left me none the wiser. I took a look at PCMark Vantage to see what it says about my system and that says Memory Frequency is 533 MHZ.

So yet another different result (I think)

So I tried yet another Ram analyzer:
Sisoft Sandra:
According to Sisoft
It's running at 533 MHZ. Interestingly enough Sisoft also says that
Maximum Installable memory is 8GB (This is the only time I've seen it say this and beyond the specs which say it's 4 Gb max).

Anyway I'm basically taking it that according to software that's analyzing my Ram is running at 533 MHZ. So that raises a few questions for me
Is my installed Ram module not actually a 666 MHZ module at all?
Could something be making it run at the lesser 533MHZ?
Is there a realistic possibility that I might be able to get 8GB Ram into this laptop?

dazzday

The speed your RAM will run at is determined by your chipset. If a compatible higher clocked RAM module is inserted it will downclock the RAM speed to the maximum supported by your motherboard. To be precise its ideal to match RAM speeds with the FSB of your CPU..ie a 1:1 ratio. It your motherboard bios that will automatically downclock your RAM to match your FSB of the processor.

Therefore your PC2-6400 stick is actually running downclocked from 800Mhz to 533Mhz.

Unless you are big into overclocking, different RAM speeds and FSB timing issues etc should be ignored. Max differences will be ~2% in synthesized tests and unnoticeable in real life applications.

Not to sure why your RAM stick says 666Mhz when specced as a PC2-6400. But a PC2-6400 stick should run just fine.

Max RAM can in some cases be changed via bios updates, although its rare. Only way to find out is to try!

luckylucky

dazzday wrote: »

The speed your RAM will run at is determined by your chipset. If a compatible higher clocked RAM module is inserted it will downclock the RAM speed to the maximum supported by your motherboard. To be precise its ideal to match RAM speeds with the FSB of your CPU..ie a 1:1 ratio. It your motherboard bios that will automatically downclock your RAM to match your FSB of the processor.

Therefore your PC2-6400 stick is actually running downclocked from 800Mhz to 533Mhz.

Not sure if I'm looking at the right thing or not as I can't find anything that says FSB for the CPU
What I got is this.... According to Speccy the processor is
AMD Athlon(tm) X2 Dual Core Processor L310
Bus Speed 200.0 MHz
Rated Bus Speed 800.1 MHz
Stock Core Speed 1200 MHz
Stock Bus Speed 200 MHz

Don't see any mention of anything running at 533 MHz.