1600mhz RAM Running At 800mhz According To Task Manager

[Orangeator]

I have a FX-8320 and 4 sticks of 4gb g-skill ram. In my motherboards boot menu it says its running at 1600mhz, but once I open up windows task manager, it says speed of the ram is 800mhz. I cannot figure this out. Any idea if task manager is just wrong or if there is a setting I need to change. Any help would be appreciated. I have been using this PC since Christmas and just now noticed this today. When playing games there is no penalty that I can tell. Then again I guess I have been running at 800mhz ram speed.

[MoonlightSylv]

DDR means Double data rate 2x800mhz=1600mhz

[Yok]

RAM is dual data rate, it will always show up as half.

[Orangeator]

Just now, ShadowTechXTS said:

DDR means Double data rate 2x800mhz=1600mhz

Welp, I feel like an idiot. Thanks man. I appreciate it.

[MoonlightSylv]

Just now, Orangeator said:

Welp, I feel like an idiot. Thanks man. I appreciate it.

It's fine, I didn't know it until last year

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Orangeator said:

Welp, I feel like an idiot. Thanks man. I appreciate it.

Though technically, it's not 1600MHz. It's 1600MT/s.

[NumLock21]

Check check your ram with CPU-Z.

The new Win10 task manager will read it at 1600MHz.

[Glenwing]

14 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

I have a FX-8320 and 4 sticks of 4gb g-skill ram. In my motherboards boot menu it says its running at 1600mhz, but once I open up windows task manager, it says speed of the ram is 800mhz. I cannot figure this out. Any idea if task manager is just wrong or if there is a setting I need to change. Any help would be appreciated. I have been using this PC since Christmas and just now noticed this today. When playing games there is no penalty that I can tell. Then again I guess I have been running at 800mhz ram speed.

 

DDR (double data rate) means that the memory does 2 operations during each cycle, so the amount of data that can be transferred is as if the memory were running at double its actual frequency. 1600MHz is the effective frequency of your RAM. The actual operating frequency is 800MHz, and this is what software will read. In fact this is why if you look closely memory is generally not sold as "DDR3 1600MHz" but rather "DDR3 1600". It doesn't actually operate at 1600MHz.

[Orangeator]

6 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

 

DDR (double data rate) means that the memory does 2 operations during each cycle, so the amount of data that can be transferred is as if the memory were running at double its actual frequency. 1600MHz is the effective frequency of your RAM. The actual operating frequency is 800MHz, and this is what software will read. This is actually why if you look closely memory is generally not sold as "DDR3 1600MHz" but rather "DDR3 1600". It doesn't actually operate at 1600MHz.

I know a fair amount about computers, however I never knew this. I really do appreciate you taking the time to explain this.

[Hayze Productions]

On 2/11/2016 at 4:25 PM, MoonlightSylv said:

DDR means Double data rate 2x800mhz=1600mhz

This is wrong, this is ENTIRELY WRONG. 
My Omen 15-cd015dx laptop has a single 2400mhz ram stick in it. 
and windows task manager says 2400mhz. 

So there is something going on for windows, and all the other 3rd party tools to say 800mhz using 2 sticks, when in theory it should be 1600mhz for both sticks. 

[Godlygamer23]

On 10/3/2022 at 4:27 PM, Hayze Productions said:

This is wrong, this is ENTIRELY WRONG. 
My Omen 15-cd015dx laptop has a single 2400mhz ram stick in it. 
and windows task manager says 2400mhz. 

So there is something going on for windows, and all the other 3rd party tools to say 800mhz using 2 sticks, when in theory it should be 1600mhz for both sticks. 

Don't wanna revive an old thread(and it's going to get locked), but you are incorrect about the claim that the individual is wrong.

 

DDR stands for Double Data Rate. The actual frequency will ABSOLUTELY be half of the effective frequency. In your case, if you look at how the laptop is advertised, it says "8 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)". Notice how the speed doesn't have MHz attached to it? Because that's the effective frequency. The actual frequency is 1200MHz. This is how DDR works, and can be verified by researching it. As to why Windows shows the effective frequency, depends on what specific version of Windows you're using. Task Manager might behave differently and give the effective frequency, or the reporting to Windows is different.

 

I just opened Task Manager(Windows 10) and saw the effective frequency being displayed. If you open CPU-Z and navigate to the SPD tab, that will give the available profiles that can be used. Where it says Frequency, the number displayed is the actual frequency. To get the effective frequency, you multiply that number by 2. 

 

For me, I have XMP-3200 as available, so the actual frequency would be 1600MHz, which is what is displayed.

[Goombahdone]

On 10/7/2022 at 9:09 PM, Godlygamer23 said:

In your case, if you look at how the laptop is advertised, it says "8 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)". Notice how the speed doesn't have MHz attached to it? Because that's the effective frequency. The actual frequency is 1200MHz. This is how DDR works,

Don't wanna revive an old thread but you are incorrect about him being wrong. My laptop task manager says 2133MHz with 1 2400MHz stick installed while my desktop says 800MHz despite having 2x 1600 sticks installed with XMP enabled and overclock. I'm not sure why this is the case but can confirm without a doubt that it is the case. 

[Godlygamer23]

3 hours ago, Goombahdone said:

Don't wanna revive an old thread but you are incorrect about him being wrong. My laptop task manager says 2133MHz with 1 2400MHz stick installed while my desktop says 800MHz despite having 2x 1600 sticks installed with XMP enabled and overclock. I'm not sure why this is the case but can confirm without a doubt that it is the case. 

Task Manager is a terrible program to use for reporting frequencies. Use CPU-Z to gather that information in the and message it to me. I'll provide you with screenshots of what CPU-Z says for me too. 

The information I'm providing is literally how DDR works. It can be verified by researching DDR Memory.