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RAM advice needed


d3v

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Hi all,

I've got hold of 2x 2GB DDR2 533Mhz RAM for my laptop to replace the 2GB DDR2 667Mhz installed out the box,.

Will the sudden change of RAM frequency (from 667mhz to 533mhz) be a problem for my laptop???

The CPU of the laptop is as FOLLOWS...

NAME: AMD Athlon x2 QL-62

CODE NAME: GRIFFIN

BRAND ID: 9

PACKAGE: sOCKET s1 (638)

TECHNOLOGY: 65NM

CORE VID: 1.100V

FAMILY: F

EXT.FAMILY: 11

MODEL: 3

EXT MODEL: 3

STEPPING: 1

REVISION: LG-B1

CORE SPEED: 2000.0Mhz

MULTIPLIER: X10.0

BUS SPEED: 200.0Mhz

HT LINK: 1800.0Mhz

I apolagise for the ignorance on my side, but I would never of needed to ask this question a few years back! I've lost all my knowledge on hardware lolz.

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It depends if you motherboard supports 667 MHz. Check which motherboard you have and try to find on manufacturer site if that frequency is supported.

Cheers ;)

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I don't think so. Installing a less speed RAM cannot cause any problems that I know off. :unsure:

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Ah dammit I'm sorry, I've just seen the mistake I made. I have the speeds mixed up, doh! I've corrected the original post now.

The laptop came with 3GB of 667Mhz DDR2 RAM and I now want to replace it all with 2x 2GB 533Mhz DDR2 RAM.

I'm actually running the new 4gb RAM right now, and everything seems fine. No noticable speed improvment, though.

I just wan to be sure that a downgrade in RAM speed will be okay compatibility/stability-wise??

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Also guys, the BIOS is reporting the new 4096mb just fine, and so is Windows, well kinda, becuase although is says theres 4GB of RAM installed, only 2.75gb is avilable!?!?!?!?!

capturem.gif

I presume the HD Radeon 3200 graphics chip on this laptop is consuming the remaining 1.25gb? If so, I would of liked to of noticed a performance hike on Medieval 2 Total War which I'm currently addicted to, and was the main reason behind the upgrade in the first place!

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I don't think so. Installing a less speed RAM cannot cause any problems that I know off. :unsure:

But why did the laptop ship with 667mhz RAM if 533mhz works just fine? Surely using a lesser speed of RAM is throttling something else? The CPU's FSB, maybe.

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Also guys, the BIOS is reporting the new 4096mb just fine, and so is Windows, well kinda, becuase although is says theres 4GB of RAM installed, only 2.75gb is avilable!?!?!?!?!

I presume the HD Radeon 3200 graphics chip on this laptop is consuming the remaining 1.25gb? If so, I would of liked to of noticed a performance hike on Medieval 2 Total War which I'm currently addicted to, and was the main reason behind the upgrade in the first place!

There are two reasons behind it. One, you are using 32bit OS that will address max 3.33GB of RAM. And the later is taken by the graphics card. ;)

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Also guys, the BIOS is reporting the new 4096mb just fine, and so is Windows, well kinda, becuase although is says theres 4GB of RAM installed, only 2.75gb is avilable!?!?!?!?!

I presume the HD Radeon 3200 graphics chip on this laptop is consuming the remaining 1.25gb? If so, I would of liked to of noticed a performance hike on Medieval 2 Total War which I'm currently addicted to, and was the main reason behind the upgrade in the first place!

There are two reasons behind it. One, you are using 32bit OS that will address max 3.33GB of RAM. And the later is taken by the graphics card. ;)

Ok I guessed so. But am I mistaken in thinking that I should then see a dramatic increase in texture-loading speed in games, which I did not in the case of M2TW??

Also could someone explain why the laptop was shipped with a speed of RAM that was overkill for the computers needs, please!

Is this downgrade in RAM speed going to throttle anything, or cause ionstability/incompatibility issues???

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I can't explain this good, but I think that you will lose performance with slower RAM. Speed of Ram depends of core speed. You can use Everest to test you performance. Leave 667 RAM and do a test, and then put 533 and test. And that's not overkill. Most of computers (not laptops) comes with 800MHz, and 667 is just fine for laptop. I'm 99% sure that your problem is a hard disk RPM which is in most cases 5400. Maybe you can find some 7200 RPM hard disk. It would be the best that you can do the RAM tests and post the results here for both, 553 and 667. In Everest go to Tools -> Cache And Memory Benchmark.

Cheers ;)

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I'd rather not install a whole new program just to use one feature from it, but you basically think that I'm better off but the original 3GB faster RAM back in the laptop?

Cheers.

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Yes, I think it's better. But why would you not install Everest? Do the tests and remove it when you are done. And do you know which hard disk do you have? I'm telling you this because I have 3GB 667 RAM on my desktop. And I have Acer laptop which has 4GB 667 MHz.. Games load way faster on desktop. Laptop CPU is 2.1 and mine is 2.2. That's not big difference. I tested memory and hard disks. Memory on laptop is maybe 5% faster but hard disk is much slower, which is cause for slow load. You can also test your hard disk speed with Everest so I can see your results.

Cheers ;)

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Yeah I know my lappy has a 5400 drive, and I make sure I use UltimateDefrag to it's full potential which makes a massive noticable performance difference to M2TW when put on the most outer tracks.

Okay I'm gonna install Everest now and do all the tests, brb an hour!

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There are two reasons behind it. One, you are using 32bit OS that will address max 3.33GB of RAM. And the later is taken by the graphics card. ;)

Like I said before, it's not the issue. M$ is practicing questionable marketing strategy with regards to licensing.

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I agree with Mara.. the original is better.

Windows wont use all the 4 gb's.. 3 is more than enough.

When you are using your laptop for common things, you'll be ok with 3 gb ram. And the speed is better (the original..) >> faster than when using the 4gb ram

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There are two reasons behind it. One, you are using 32bit OS that will address max 3.33GB of RAM. And the later is taken by the graphics card. ;)

Like I said before, it's not the issue. M$ is practicing questionable marketing strategy with regards to licensing.

But for myself, I would like to be on the safe side by installing x64 OS for 4GB of RAM. As long as I'm not paying for x64. :P

@d3v: I don't think anyone would have any problem if you keep Everest installed on their PC even after testing. It's just fabulous software. :)

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Tests would say everything, but if man does not want to install Everest to test, we'll never know for sure.

Cheers ;)

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lol I've said this a million times. it is MY laptop the RAM is being tested on!

Ok I've ran the test with the new 4GB DDR 533mhz and here's the result...

cachememo.png

I ran the test while I was browsing the net (firefox) and I had an mp3 playing. Would that affect the results at all?

Next I will put the original 3gb DDR 667Mhz modules back in and test again.

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Anything will affect the results ;)

I'd like to tell you I agree with mara- and Haantjuh, using the 3GB of RAM will be better than the 4GB. Also if there is really 1280 MB allocated to your video card I'd check in the BIOS to drop that to 512 MB or less. (But I think it's got to do with the 3.5 GB limit on x32 OS)

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lol I've said this a million times. it is MY laptop the RAM is being tested on!

Well, we are trying to help. And to help you we need some information. I don't know why is this such a big deal to you. BTW, you readings are strange. Everest shows that your frequency is 647. It's like you RAM is overclocked. And that RAM performs better that my 667 RAM which I overclocked 20%. I'm eager to see your tests with faster RAM. Can you tell me which brand is that RAM?

Cheers ;)

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Anything will affect the results ;)

I'd like to tell you I agree with mara- and Haantjuh, using the 3GB of RAM will be better than the 4GB. Also if there is really 1280 MB allocated to your video card I'd check in the BIOS to drop that to 512 MB or less. (But I think it's got to do with the 3.5 GB limit on x32 OS)

I'll have a tinker around the BIOS when I next reobot. Thanks for the heads up.

Well, we are trying to help. And to help you we need some information. I don't know why is this such a big deal to you. BTW, you readings are strange. Everest shows that your frequency is 647. It's like you RAM is overclocked. And that RAM performs better that my 667 RAM which I overclocked 20%. I'm eager to see your tests with faster RAM. Can you tell me which brand is that RAM?

Cheers ;)

Mara the test results were for the new 533mhz RAM I've had since yesterday and not the older but faster 667Mhz RAM that you think.

The module from the test results is Samsung M4 70T5663QZ3-CE6

Cheers.

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Here's the test results. The first is the 533mhz and the second is the 667mhz. Both were tested in safe mode.

cachemem3.png

6671safe.png

WHY IS THERE NO DIFFERENCE?????

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There's a difference. And something really odd. Are you sure the first one is the slower one? As the first one is faster than the second one. Either the second RAM(the more MHz one) is not working to it's full potential or the new RAM is overclocked.

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There is a slight difference, but your results for 533Mhz are worse then results you posted in previous post (copying is worse for 2GB/s which is a lot). And Everest did not read all your info. Maybe you should test in normal mode.

Cheers ;)

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Here we go. I've gone all out this time and did things 100%.

The first image is the original 3GB DDR2 667mhz.. God knows why they chose two different brands??

The second image is the new RAM I bought - 4GB DDR2 533mhz both are matching 2GB Samsung modules.

667mhz3gb.jpg

5300mhz4gb.jpg

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