4 Identical 2GBNQ show different speeds

[tester_burnham]

Apologies of this has been addressed in prior posts.

I have (4) F3-12800CL9-2GBNQ chips. My MSI P67A-GD65 Motherboard, and CPUZ report two of them at 800mhz and the other two at 667mhz. I have the bios set to run at 800 for PC1600 and when I try to play games using all four I have frequent lockups and crashes.

Why do the chips indicate different speeds?

The motherboard has the latest bios - 1.E and the processor is an i5-2500K and I have tested all the chips in different slots.

Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Tester B

[Tradesman]

DO you have the latest BIOS? Best with sticks that aren't from a complete set is to set the timings manually, per spec and will prob need to raise the DRAM and/or VCCIO voltages to stabilize (poss start at + .06 on each)

[tester_burnham]

The motherboard has the latest bios - 1.E. I set the timings manually to 9-9-9-24 and raised the DRAM voltage up 3 steps from the original setting, this made no difference. I am not sure what VCCIO so I increased the CPU IO 2 steps, also having no effect.

I should note, the chips that report running at 667 do so even when they are the only chips installed.

[GSKILL TECH]

Yes, that is not showing you the actual operating frequency, that is showing you with AUTO settings in BIOS, the memory can only default to DDR3-1333 (667MHz). If you install that memory alone, it will be DDR3-1333. If you install the other kit alone, it will be DDR3-1600. You should look in the memory tab of CPU-z to see the real operating frequency.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[tester_burnham]

So it's just potluck which speed the chips will operate at? Random luck if they will be 800s or 667s? All of these chips are the very same model number.

[Tradesman]

In CPU-Z there is an SPD tab and a Memory tab, if set up to 1600 manually, then the sticks should show as running 1600 in the memory tab....the SPD tab shows the basic default at boot speed, it's nothing more than a setting in the event of a crash and all goes to defaults

[tester_burnham]

Ok, but cpuz is only the 2nd indicator. The motherboard itself sees 2 chips as 800 and the other 2 at 667. When I boot using only the 800s I don't have to do anything and the final speed is 1600. With the others it is 1333. I can force the 667s to 800 at which time I have constant crashes and lockups. CPUZ can say whatever it will and that doesn't change the fact with all four chips installed and set to 800 my system is unstable.

[Tradesman]

If it's unstable at 1600 with the 2 sticks, I'd test each one individually with Memtest at 1600, if any errors then prob want to RMA them....even if both test good may take slight adjustments to make them stable depending on if the BIOS addresses the sticks correctly. However, as is touched on over and over in these forums and others, mixing sticks of different sizes, speeds, models, etc can become very problematic with DRAM due to many causes, different chips/ICs, PCBs, etc the tolerences that allow them to work together is very small and require voltage/timing adjustments