Memory is 1600MHz, SPD says 1333MHz?

[probedb]

Probably a silly question. I recently bought some Corsair 1600MHz RAM, updating from 2x4GB sticks to 2x8GB sticks.

The SPD is 1333MHz but it's sold as 1600MHz, how do I make it run at it's advertised speed?

I seem to remember trying XMP but the PC didn't like it although it supports it.

[kalniel]

Go to your BIOS and set your memory speed to 1600mhz, with the timings/voltages advertised on the sticks.

[MrJim]

Probably a silly question. I recently bought some Corsair 1600MHz RAM, updating from 2x4GB sticks to 2x8GB sticks.

The SPD is 1333MHz but it's sold as 1600MHz, how do I make it run at it's advertised speed?

I seem to remember trying XMP but the PC didn't like it although it supports it.

SPD settings are deliberately 'loose' so as to give maximum compatibility (at the expense of speed). It's odd that the XMP setting doesn't work, if both the RAM and the motherboard support it? Is the motherboard flashed with the most up to date BIOS? As BIOS's mature, RAM compatibility generally improves.

As Kalniel says though, you should be able to manually dial-in the specific settings for your RAM, & it should work at the advertised speed.

[Bonebreaker777]

Huh. Just noticed. You have a i5-2500k. A Sandy Bridge CPU. Maximum supported memory speed is 1333 Mhz. For any higher you have to officially overclock. Not sure if the P67 chipset is able to do that.

If the P67 chipset is able to overclock memory, just make sure you keep the timings Auto (or if the PC not liking, set the appropriate timings as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM).

Then set the frequency to 1600 Mhz. If you can.

[kalniel]

Huh. Just noticed. You have a i5-2500k. A Sandy Bridge CPU. Maximum supported memory speed is 1333 Mhz. For any higher you have to officially overclock. Not sure if the P67 chipset is able to do that.

You don't overclock really, just set the memory speed. It's independent of other speeds. It's no problem on the p67.

If the P67 chipset is able to overclock memory, just make sure you keep the timings Auto (or if the PC not liking, set the appropriate timings as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR3_SDRAM).

Don't do this. Instead set the timings and voltages to what it says on the RAM for operation at 1600mhz. Auto will set timings according to JDEC spec, for which there won't be an embedded one at 1600mhz due to the supported speed you mention above, and the wiki entry can't possibly know what the RAM you've got in your system is - each model can have different timings. But they will be clearly listed on a sticker on the RAM itself. Only use Auto for extra timings that aren't mentioned on the sticker.

[probedb]

Thanks all, I've set it to 1600MHz and left everything else alone and it seems to be working

[Bonebreaker777]

When your officially supported memory speed is 1333 MHz (due to CPU limitations) anything higher will count as over clock.

True that keeping timings Auto would force the motherboard to try to stick to JEDEC standards. If doesn't work, manual setup remains. The wiki page is a good source for reference numbers.

Also, not all memory modules carry timings and frequencies.