I have a question about RAM before doing anything.

[TheAmatuer317]

A little context: my dad runs ddr2 memory at different speeds at dual channel, and it's messing up his CPU clock speeds (Core 2 Duo e8500 3.16Ghz). clock speed is at 2.80 Ghz and most of the time even lower. he has a 333mhz 1GB memory stick and a 400mhz 2GB memory stick in dual channel and the memory timings are different, and i believe it is messing with the CPU.

My idea: I found that my dad has memory sticks stored that have the same speed, one small problem. Combined, the two sticks are 2GB, which is very small, but i also found a pair of ram, BUT the two RAM pairs are different speeds.
i am hoping since the motherboard has 2x dual channels (Like every Mobo out there) i could have the fast memory modules and slow memory modules run "Independently" without causing problems. Picture:

[Eigenvektor]

The CPU's memory controller can only run at one speed at a time. If you combine two sticks with 333 MHz and 400 MHz, both of them will run at the lowest common speed both of them support. Likewise, if they have different timings, they will run at the highest common latency.

 

Clock speed going down is expected, that's a power saving feature, the CPU will only run at maximum clocks when needed.

 

Your motherboard has dual channel, having two slots per channel does not mean they are independent or even quad channel. It simply means you can have to sticks per channel. All of them are connected to the CPU's integrated memory controller (IMC) and that will run all of them at the same speed/latency.

[IPD]

Why is your dad rocking 15 year old midrange tech?

[venomtail]

I don't think that's possible. All 4 RAM sticks are gonna run at 333MHz, it doesn't matter if one pair is rated for higher spec than the other one. In 19 years hardware has progressed a lot so I doubt RAM worked differently back then.

 

Describe how the CPU is being messed with. Unless your dad has magic abilities at PC OCing then his current PC is running at 333MHz.

[TheAmatuer317]

46 minutes ago, IPD said:

Why is your dad rocking 15 year old midrange tech?

Because we are pooooooooor

[TheAmatuer317]

34 minutes ago, venomtail said:

I don't think that's possible. All 4 RAM sticks are gonna run at 333MHz, it doesn't matter if one pair is rated for higher spec than the other one. In 19 years hardware has progressed a lot so I doubt RAM worked differently back then.

 

Describe how the CPU is being messed with. Unless your dad has magic abilities at PC OCing then his current PC is running at 333MHz.

i believe that the memory speed isextremely low and underclocking the cpu.



Or the CMOS is broken, that would make sense.

Edit: i found out why it is not clocking to 3.16Ghz, the multiplier doesn't go all the way for some reason, it's at 8.5 instead of 9.5.