How to find out RAM speed

Question

I was in a shop today and wanted to know the speed of the installed DDR3 RAM. The assistant went to Task Manager > Performance and under the memory tab it said 800MHz. He said this means it's 1333MHz.

I'm thinking, "no, if it says 800MHz it's 800, not 1333." Is he right?

Solution 1

This is Aspire V5-552P-7412 laptop specs from the actual Acer website, they did not provide the information and Ramhound is correct, there is no possible way to get that information from just opening anything in windows.

This is the Ram I own: Kingston KHX1600C9D3B1/4G. this is what CPU-Z spits out in memory, nothing relevant to the actual RAM's Speed. Clearly, you can see my ram is 1600 mhz from the name. BUT standard setting for all DDR3 sticks is 1333 which is JDEC standard. This is the default setting that most motherboards are set to as long as your Ram can atleast support 1333mhz. You'd need to overclock your bios to get 1600 mhz.

That all being said, if you really want to know the speed of the ram, call Acer? give them the model number and just ask them, if they know it, they will tell you. IF NOT, You're not going to tell the difference between 1333 and 1600, i promises you, ram speed has always been a way for ram companies to get more money out of you for "a faster mhz speed" the differences have been widely reported around the web that you'll 99.9999% of the time never see an actual difference as a user. it's possible a 3dmark type of program might with tests, but we are talking out of the realm of your laptop now, cause it's just a simple laptop.

The key with Ram is stability and functionality, not speed, remember that.

I hope this helps.

Solution 2

If you're using Windows, try this:

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Comments

[Ramhound]

I would go back to this assistant and request clarification.

[Mitya]

No point, really. I had to push even to get that bit of info. They just recite the specs; the specs don't say the RAM speed, and I'm not aware of any OS-level way of finding out what it is, without installing software to find out.

[Ramhound]

Please provide the information on the memory itself. If you do that we can find the specific information on the product. You are right to question this person. Of course there are ways to find the speed of your memory within an operating system.

[Mitya]

Well all I know is it's DDR 3 6GB. Here's the machine: ow.ly/sIfIC

[Mitya]

Thanks, but it's a laptop on sale in a shop, not one I own, so I can't install stuff on it.

[Mitya]

Superb answer - thank you. Re: simple laptop, true, but it's an A10, i.e. AMD's best mobile processor, so hopefully more mid-range than low?

[Outdated Computer Tech]

simple as in, it's not a gaming laptop or desktop. or cost around $2000, that's what i mean.

[Mitya]

So it turns out, after speaking to Acer, that it's PC3-10600. Never even heard of that; is that some slow-ass memory compared to DDR3 1333/1600?

[Outdated Computer Tech]

1333 the guy you spoke to was correct.