ram vs cpu overclock

[gooberxl]

Hello, just a question, I have 8 GB of DDR3 ram at 1600mhz, a amd athlon ii x4 640, 990FX extream motherboard, ati 5770 video card, and 850 watt power supply running windows 7 home 64bit/Ubuntu 13.4.

Question is why can't I get my ram to go past 1333mhz while my cpu is overclocked at 3.2ghz.

When I set my ram for 1600mhz and then try to overclock my computer shuts down and makes me change it back in Bios. But if I overclock my cpu and leave the ram alone it runs stable.

My computer at overclock sits very cool with 6 case fans. cpu is about 101 F.

 

[Puppies04]

That is just how it is, if you stress out one component it can impact the maximum overclock of another component that it is attached to.

 

[rolli59]

Ar you changing your CPU/ram ratio? If you overclock your CPU on fsb then it will affect the ram and bring it past its rated speed.

 

[dkm777]

At least on Phenom II's you have to overclock the CPU-NB to use faster RAM. I don't know whether an Athlon II (that has no L3 cache) even has such an option, but if it does, you could try raising it.

 

[Namira Fang]

Probably need to loosen your timings on your RAM to get it stable. Give that a shot.

 

[Net Prowler]

I usually don't overclock my ram, havent noticed a large enough difference to make it worth it. I dont know if its my motherboard or my ram but when I had it at 1600 mhz the computer would randomly black screen and sit there. Everything was working, fans spinning on all components when I opened the side (have a 600t so not hard to do). I pushed the power button... nothing. The reset button... nothing. Held down both (separately, not at same time) for a minute... nothing. Same thing on two different motherboards. And it wasnt the way I wired the front io to the motherboard because reset and power work fine when this wasnt happening. The black screen no response weirdness happened twice over two weeks. I finally decided to try downclocking the ram and havent had an issue since. My situation may be out of the norm, but in my mind, 1333 mhz ram with tighter timers is more stable and nicer than 1600 mhz with larger timings.

 

[rolli59]

Have you checked your actual ram speed under overclock with CPU-Z?