Sorry if i have posted this question in the wrong area
My question is, is 1866Mhz Memory just an OC verison of 1600Mhz Memory or its not, cause in my BIOS i will only read the Memory as 1600 not 1866 my motherboard is a MSI Z77-GD65.
Thanks
It is, you might have to enable the xmp profile, or set the timings manually.
no
its how its designed and binned
1866 and 2133 ram kits are designed and binned to run at those speeds
your motherboards just chooses a speed it wants to run your ram at to be safe for os instalation
when you buy a kit it will have timings and speed on it that it is rated for
in most systems you need to enter this in manualy or select xps profile in your bios
your motherboard only selects a value that it thinks it should run at which is not correct its just like a fail safe speed
no its not overclocked
as the rated clock speed for the ram is 1866
it doesnt become overclocked till you push it past 1866
but yes you do need to set it manualy
So their is nothing wrong with my Motherboard, its just like a fail safe thing
He needs to enable xmp, or set the timings himself. Everything past 1333/1600 is overclocked. 1600 is the failsafe/JEDEC standard which is what he is at now. It has been tested to run at 1866 on most mobo's/cpus at the factory.
Your mobo is fine, its normal to have to set XMP or manual timings in the BIOS for anything better than 1600mhz CAS 9 setups.
On the subject of if its basically overclocked 1600mhz, yes and no. They actually "bin" or choose which units will run best and designate these as higher speed (or lower cas) chips, so typically you can run them faster than a lower "binned" chip will. Having said that faster binned chips aren't nessesarly better chips, they just run stable when clocked faster, sometimes more aggressive timings or lower heat and power use (particularly heat and power use) can be had with a lower rated speed ram module than a faster rated one at the same speed, although there is some luck in it either way.
if ram has been binned and designed to run at 2133 to me 1866 would be considered under clocked i dont agree with you that anything over 1600 is overclocked, but yes 1600 or 1333 depending on the motherboard is the jedec standard and if you base everything on that standard than yes you could call it overclocked.
however i would call overclocking running 1600 9.9.9.24 1.5v ram at 1866 with 8.9.8.27 timings @ 1.65v
but thats just how i see it bacause if you buy 16gbs of 1866 mhz ram setting it to 1866 would be standard 1600 is the failsafe and 2133 woul dbe over clocked IMO
but yes to the question your MB is fine its just how its designed as a fail safe
you must do it manualy or select xmp in the bios
exactly and thats why you always buy all your ram in one kit as its been matched
you can get two identical kits that when put together can cause a bsod even at there rated frequencys
been there done that lol
Ok so if i go into and change the RAM timing to 1866, could that make it unstable, cause i have been told just to leave it set to Auto and don't really change it, all i can do is change it and see how it goes
Should be under overclocking settings, part way down the menu there should be a Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) enable that and you should be fine. Can always run it through prime95 to test for stability. Some say that isn't the best for new cpu's, but I haven't found any decent alternatives.
Okay then no problems and Thank You
Okay this is what i have done i have left the DRAM frequency on Auto but i have changed the XMP to profile 1 and that changed the Ram from 1600 to 1866
Nice, so you are running at the advertised timings. Might even be able to tighten those down, but that takes a little bit of time. 1866 seems to be the sweet spot for new intel cpu's as far as I can tell.
I'm just happy that the RAM is reading the way it should be so i'm not going to change anymore RAM settings in BIOS, Thank for your help