[des]

I'm not referencing one specific computer or build, I just need to know how to determine this in the future.

I remember back in the day, as long as you didn't get ram faster than the frontside bus, you were good. Now they got all these different ratings and nonsense.

I know a bit about AMD's HT but who knows how all that Intel stuff works other than they state flat out that even the fastest i7 right now has a memory controller with 3 channels that handle ram up to 1066MHz. So putting in 1333 or 1600 would make absolutely zero difference, right? So any intel build in the future, I should just get 1066?

Now back to HT on the AMD side. At least they at least use actual numbers but every single AM3 socket one just says their HT is 4000MHz. I heard that number is basically imaginary though.

So if I ignore it and look at the motherboard instead, I can determine which version of Hypertransport it uses by it's FSB (apparently they still call it that). So one I recently built said: "2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)" which indicated version 3.0. That doesn't get me real far because then it takes....what speed of ram? Under memory standard for the board, it said that it takes 1066 and 1333 but the next step up is listed as "overclocking" so I take it that means 1333 is what I'd go for. So that possibly settles the board's limits but I bet I could find an intel board that supports 1333...doesn't mean the processor can take advantage of it. So then we're back to whether or not the processor can read and write to the memory that quickly. What does 4000MHz HT even mean then? :4-dontkno lol.

So how do I tell if the processor can take advantage of that speed ram or not? Like I said, every single one they made since like 2010 has a 4000MHz HT rating so....what ram speed does that match up with? Is it 1333? If so, why would anyone ever buy 1600 or higher? Just for overclocking? Or can the processor do 1600 just fine and that board I was talking about just sucks?

:4-dontkno ugh! so confusing. So does anyone know the calculation for ram speed on AMD processors? (and if I was correct about Intel's claim that they can only do 1066?)

 

[greenbrucelee]

Usually ram speed and cpu speed go togther because of the FSB but that isn't the case any more because how tech has evolved.

You can buy a motherboard and a cpu that works at 3.33GHz whilst the ram works at 2GHz
this becaus caching is used alot more these days instead have a level 1 & 2 cache you can get cpus with levels1, 2, 3 and 4 cache.

All you really need to do is when buying a motherboard is make sure the ram and cpu are compatible with it.

 

[des]

So the operating frequency of the processor itself is the theoretical maximum rate that ram could get accessed at in a perfect world? So if I'm using a really decent processor and my board takes 1600 ram then I might as well put it in because it might take advantage of its speed in some cases like when the processor cache is being swapped out for new instructions rapidly for some reason?

And does that apply to intel's ones too where they come right out and say that the onboard memory controller can do 3 channels at 1066 and that's it?

 

[greenbrucelee]

Yes if a board takes 1600 ram it will run it at that speed although some motherboards default to a certain speed and you have to manually change it. It normally tells you in the motherboard manual.