3200mhz ram clocked at 1600mhz?

[WhatComesAround]

Hey doots,

I have two sticks of DDR4 3200mhz CL16 ram, but when I run UserBenchmark it gives me this:

 

Why does it say clocked @ 1600mhz? I put the ram sticks in slot A1 and A2.

[Jimkirk363]

Its Dual Rate so its 1600 x 2.

[WhatComesAround]

4 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

Its Dual Rate so its 1600 x 2.

so nothing wrong right?

[Phentos]

Just now, WhatComesAround said:

so nothing wrong right?

Nope, it's normal for any kind of DDR RAM.

[WhatComesAround]

1 minute ago, Phentos said:

Nope, it's normal for any kind of DDR RAM.

Cool, thanks dudes

[X_X]

Because it isn't 3200MHz, it's 3200MT/s. Thank this BS on some salesman trying to make RAM look faster than it is.

[WhatComesAround]

6 hours ago, X_X said:

Because it isn't 3200MHz, it's 3200MT/s. Thank this BS on some salesman trying to make RAM look faster than it is.

So my ram is slow?

[Swarlos]

No, that salesman BS he's referring to is industry wide. 

 

(Copied from Wikipedia)

The name "double data rate" refers to the fact that a DDR SDRAM with a certain clock frequency achieves nearly twice the bandwidth of a SDR SDRAM running at the same clock frequency, due to this double pumping.

 

So the clock speed will be shown as 1600 MHz, but the bandwidth is doubled so it's marketed as 3200 MHz.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM

[WhatComesAround]

8 minutes ago, Swarlos said:

No, that salesman BS he's referring to is industry wide. 

 

(Copied from Wikipedia)

The name "double data rate" refers to the fact that a DDR SDRAM with a certain clock frequency achieves nearly twice the bandwidth of a SDR SDRAM running at the same clock frequency, due to this double pumping.

 

So the clock speed will be shown as 1600 MHz, but the bandwidth is doubled so it's marketed as 3200 MHz.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM

Ok cool

[X_X]

13 hours ago, WhatComesAround said:

So my ram is slow?

Your DRAM uses a 1600MHz clock. DDR double data rate means it can transfer data on both rising and falling edges of the clock meaning it can transfer 2 bits of data per clock. IOW 3200 Mega Transfers per second or 3200MT/s.

Understand it for what it is. If all manufacturers stuck to advertising the real clocks then this confusion would not come about and you would not be here asking your question.

 

FYI the current world record for DDR4 (which is liquid nitrogen cooled) is 2783MHz so don't go thinking your RAM is running at 3200MHz. Once one manufacturer advertises twice the clock frequency (as effective frequency compared to non DDR from a long time ago) then the others have to follow or lose sales because the average person will assume the double frequency is better.

 

Similar has happened with disk drives, instead of the binary kilobyte (1024) they use the metric kilo (1000) so a 186GiB drive shows up as a 200GB drive. So far RAM sizes are safe as a 16GB DIMM is actually a little over 17GB using the metric measurement.

 

Another way to look at it is when say a 4GHz CPU operates in 32-bit mode it uses 32-bit general purpose registers but in 64-bit mode it uses 64-bit general purpose registers which are double the width and can transfer twice the data per clock but it doesn't mean it's operating at 8GHz.

 

TLDR No, it's not slow.

[WhatComesAround]

6 hours ago, X_X said:

Your DRAM uses a 1600MHz clock. DDR double data rate means it can transfer data on both rising and falling edges of the clock meaning it can transfer 2 bits of data per clock. IOW 3200 Mega Transfers per second or 3200MT/s.

Understand it for what it is. If all manufacturers stuck to advertising the real clocks then this confusion would not come about and you would not be here asking your question.

 

FYI the current world record for DDR4 (which is liquid nitrogen cooled) is 2783MHz so don't go thinking your RAM is running at 3200MHz. Once one manufacturer advertises twice the clock frequency (as effective frequency compared to non DDR from a long time ago) then the others have to follow or lose sales because the average person will assume the double frequency is better.

 

Similar has happened with disk drives, instead of the binary kilobyte (1024) they use the metric kilo (1000) so a 186GiB drive shows up as a 200GB drive. So far RAM sizes are safe as a 16GB DIMM is actually a little over 17GB using the metric measurement.

 

Another way to look at it is when say a 4GHz CPU operates in 32-bit mode it uses 32-bit general purpose registers but in 64-bit mode it uses 64-bit general purpose registers which are double the width and can transfer twice the data per clock but it doesn't mean it's operating at 8GHz.

 

TLDR No, it's not slow.

Ahh I see, but doesn't that fall under false advertising? I mean how can they just mix around figures with different specifications?

[SkilledRebuilds]

6 hours ago, X_X said:

Another way to look at it is when say a 4GHz CPU operates in 32-bit mode it uses 32-bit general purpose registers but in 64-bit mode it uses 64-bit general purpose registers which are double the width and can transfer twice the data per clock but it doesn't mean it's operating at 8GHz.

 

I wish

[X_X]

2 hours ago, WhatComesAround said:

Ahh I see, but doesn't that fall under false advertising? I mean how can they just mix around figures with different specifications?

That would be a question for a Lawyer. Do you feel you have been cheated because you expected 3200MHz - 64000MT/s or concerned that your RAM was running slow? Does your RAM physically show DDR4-3200MHz or DDR4-3200 with the MHz not shown? Is there some fine-print that explains it as "effective frequency"? What would you get out of it, just a refund or a change in advertisement?

 

If you look at DRAM spec's from Micron you'll see they use MT/s, for example. Also same for Intel CPU datasheets, example

 

FWIW note the spec in the Intel example is up to 2666MT/s (1333MHz clock) which means a 1600MHz clock would be out of spec i.e. overclocked which is also quite normal.

 

Perhaps Userbenchmark could also be a little more helpful in it's description too.

[josephredmon]

I can't believe on THIS site, there are so many remarkable ignorant comments about DDR4.  If you buy 3200MHZ RAM, your OS is SUPPOSED to see 3200MHZ in the task manager and CPU-Z.  If I could physically slap each of the commenters I would.  I almost refuse to believe ALL the people on this site have purchased DDR4 and are happy with the using the SPD timings.  SHAME on ALL of you for misleading ALL the google searches and readers of this forum. 

 

I have had my Corsair Dominator Platinum 3200MHZ CL16 working on my X399 SLI+ at 3200MHZ MANY MANY times with older Windows 10 builds.  I recently (like an idiot redid my WIndows 10 install media) and reformatted my computer when I couldn't get my FLAREX 3200MHZ CL14 past 1600MHZ.  NOW, i'm stuck at 1600MHZ on the Corsair & GSkill.   I found this thread in my troubleshooting.

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE for the love of God do not insult my intelligence and ask if I have the XMP profiles enabled.  YES, I HAVE XMP enabled.  I have tried both profiles.  XMP profile 1 will downclock the DDR4 to 1473MHZ.

 

99%of threads are people 'reminding' people to try XMP or saying "NO its OK for your DD4 to be running SPD.  You're doing great..."

 

LETS get some constructive analysis of these inquiries.  NO XMP doesn't work.  YES your 3200MHZ RAM is supposed to show up as 3200MHZ in the BIOS and WINDOWS 10.

[Jimkirk363]

@josephredmonas we all said above, the O/S will see it as half the speed as DDR is DUAL RATE so for 3200mhz Ram u sill see 1600Mhz.