Determing which ram stick is faster

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PcFreak14

New Member
Well in my desktop i currently have 2 sticks of 512mb ram. I noticed that after i installed it i really didn't get much of a gain. I made a thread like a month ago and some said you may have 2 different speed sticks, which will take the speed of the slower one and run the both at that. Well i cant stand the lag when im editing music or mixing, it gets frustrating real fast, and in photo shop. Im guess that it would be better to take the slower stick out and keep the faster one in.
The thing is that im not sure what the speed is on one. Is there any way to find this out.

Thanks for the help..steve
 
It should say on the stick... usually on a sticker... however maybe your problem isnt the speed of the ram but the amount of ram you have. Doing what your doing (assuming Xp) i would suggest at least 1GB of ram.... When your running your program that lags check task manager and check to see how much ram is being used and how much of the page file is being used. I hope this helps.
 
okay thanks well right now i have the 2 sticks of 512mb totaling to 1GB but ill check on task manager..anyone else thanks
 
ooo doh... i thought you had a total of 512 2x256... im sorry... did you check the speed on the sticker of the ram?
 
Do you for certain that its running at a slower speed or did you just assume? Possible your pc doesnt support that speed of ram and its automatically downgrading it?
 
they both the same specs....

are you using built in graphics? are you using vista or xp?

do you have many processes running?

these are all factors of ram usage-more stuff sharing your ram the less you have free for your music editing etc!!!

i have about 50 processes runing when my computer turns on with out using it, my ram usage is 35-40% then it goes up the more programs i use!
 
yes it is my friend-they all use ram however xp doesnt use as much as vista and your graphics will share your ram prob 64mb....

ive used 1gig 400mhz and had no problems

you might want to go through your programs and remove all the stuff you never use!

the more ram you get will not make much of a difference until you get more than you need so that all your running processes get the full ram the require therefore they will not be fighting for it....

i would not run a computer on less than 1gig ram but i would like to have atleast 2gig to be safe
 
PcFreak14 said:
haha thanks i appreciate you looking in to my problem. would upgrading my gfx have any help?
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if you upgrade your gfx it should free up some ram-however you could way up the cost of a new gfx card to another stick of ram-are you happy with your gfx?

if you are it might be cheaper to just get another stick of ram as they are cheap for 400mhz now...
 
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Quiltface said:
Yes the ram is 400mhz but if the mobo doesnt support it ive seen them decrease the speed of the ram.... just to clear up why i said what i said.
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yes you might be right however he still prob not running enough ram for his software which will make it sluggish...

post up your motherboard and we'll check up on it
 
oscaryu1 said:
If 2 sticks is the max your mobo can handle, they usually will downclock it to DDR333. (PC2700).
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ive never heard of that before!! why would it do that?

i thought if the mobo specified 1gig at 400mhz thats what you get!!!

wouldnt that be false advertising?
 
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