1600 kingston hiperx ram running at 1333. Should I do something?

[Artema]

Hey there.

I could use a little help here.

I have a kingston hiperx 8GB ram memory (KHX1600C10D3B1/8GB) installed on my PC, but its running at 1333 MHz instead of the advertised 1600. I made some digging and found out that it's not an anomaly, vendor says that the card CAN run at 1600, no problem, but its set by default at 1333 and I can manually set the speed if I want to.

Also made some digging on forums and some people say it can be done, no harm there, and others say it's not worth risking (whatever the risk is) and just let it be, because I wouldn't notice the difference anyway, but I have always relied on techspot for my PC issues, and so I do so again.

Main question here is, should I change it from 1333 to 1600, and if I should, whats the proper way to do it?

If useful, the other specs of my PC are ASUS A-88XM A motherboard, with AMD A10 6790K APU@4 GHz and RADEON R7 240 2GB DDR3 Video card.

I use it mainly for gaming, view my series, working and making video dvds

Thanks in advance for whatever help you can give me

 

[Jad Chaar]

All RAM, no matter the speed, is by default clocked to 1333MHz by the CPU/motherboard/BIOS as a safety factor. There is no harm in changing it to the advertised values since it is tested to operate at that speed. All you need to do is reboot the PC and spam the BIOS key (whatever key it says on the boot splash screen). Once in there, it is hard to guide you since all BIOS are different and ASUS could have changed the location of this setting. It is usually under advanced chipset settings though. Just search around for anywhere in the BIOS stating "RAM" or the speed, "1333MHz". Once you find it, change the speed to 1600MHz.

Tell me if you cannot find this setting or need further assistance.

 

[St1ckM4n]

All RAM, no matter the speed, is by default clocked to 1333MHz by the CPU/motherboard/BIOS as a safety factor.

Mmm, no, that's only for specific chipsets and DDR3 format.

Follow JC's instructions above to change the speed in BIOS. It may be called "RAM overclock" or something. Your CPU can handle 1600MHz fine.

 

[Artema]

Ok, I found the way to change it on the BIOS, its pretty straightforward. Any insight on if is it worth it? or would it be just like adding chocolate syrup to a triple chocolate cake?

I ask because a friend of mine (kinda like a tech-fanboy) told me that while overcloking might not have short term issues, it can reduce the total lifespan of components, because they are demanded at their maximum, all the time, even if you are not using all that potential.

I'm not very knowlegeable on this things, so is there any truth to this? should I worry in this particular case?

TYVM for your help and time

 

[St1ckM4n]

Your RAM is rated at 1600MHz. Your motherboard/CPU natively supports that frequency without overclocking. Yes, you should enable it.

You probably won't notice it in the real world, but it's there so use it. In fact, if you use IGPU (Intel HD4600 graphics, AMD APUs etc), the higher RAM speed dramatically improves performance.

 

[Artema]

Ok sticky. TYVM for your help.

one last quickie

whats a good free benchmarking software I can use to showoff my PC? its pretty new and the best I have ever had

 

[cliffordcooley]

whats a good free benchmarking software

My two picks are:

• Heaven Benchmark
• 3DMark

The 5 Best Free Benchmark Programs for Windows

 

[Artema]

Ok. Thanks

 

[Jad Chaar]

Your RAM is rated at 1600MHz. Your motherboard/CPU natively supports that frequency without overclocking. Yes, you should enable it.

You probably won't notice it in the real world, but it's there so use it. In fact, if you use IGPU (Intel HD4600 graphics, AMD APUs etc), the higher RAM speed dramatically improves performance.

+1. If something is capable of a higher rating, always use it.

 

[Kakao]

You can have your ram run at 1600 mhz but then you would mostlikely have to buy a new motherboard. Your ram is currently running at 1333 mhz becouse your motherboard only supports upto 1333 mhz ram speed. Meaning that your motherboard is slowing the ram down to 1333 mhz, so if you want to up your ram speed I adwise you to get a new motherboard. But make sure that you choose one that supports the right cpu and gpu you have.

 

[nickc]

Kakao, that is not right, any newer MB will support 1600 ram and the newest ones will support 3300 ram.

 

[cliffordcooley]

You can have your ram run at 1600 mhz but then you would mostlikely have to buy a new motherboard. Your ram is currently running at 1333 mhz becouse your motherboard only supports upto 1333 mhz ram speed.

Kakao, that is not right, any newer MB will support 1600 ram and the newest ones will support 3300 ram.

And the fact that the OP's motherboard does support DDR3-1600. There is no need in referring to other motherboards. Especially when he is flat out wrong with the specified motherboard.

ASUS A88XM-A - specifications

4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR3 2400(O.C.)/2133/1866/1600/1333 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory