Computer memory speed is something that is often overlooked when people purchase a computer. They mainly are concerned with the actual size of the memory rather than the speed. Speed is important for a couple of reasons. First if you need to replace your memory you will need to know the speed. Second if you are upgrading and want faster memory you are going to want to know the actual speed of the memory currently in your system. So in this guide we will be showing you a few different ways you can find the speed of your memory. It should not take you more than a few minutes!
CPU-Z (download)
CPU-Z is an an information tool that shows you almost everything you would want to know about the main components of your system. It is pretty much the industry standard when it comes to a system information tool. Use the link we have provided above to download it. Once downloaded and installed go ahead and open it up.
When CPU-Z opens up you will be brought to the main screen which is the “CPU” tab. No go ahead and click on the “Memory Tab” it will look like what you see below.
You will see a lot of values but the one you are most interested in is the DRAM Frequency. That is the speed of your memory. Now if you have 2 or more sticks of memory take that number and multiple it by two. So in our case we have 800MHz, times 2 is 1600MHz. So the memory is running at 1600MHz.
SiSoftware Sandra (download)
Sifotware’s Sandra is another alternative to find the speed of the memory in your system. When you open it up you will be brought to the main screen. From there you should see a “Hardware” tab at the top. On this screen you should see a “Mainboard” icon, double click it. It will take a minute for Sandra to read all of your systems information. Then it will bring up a box with all of the information. Scroll down to the “Logical/Chipset Memory Banks”
Now find “Memory Bus Speed” this will tell you the speed of your installed memory. Also right below that is maximum memory speed that will tell you the maximum supported speed of memory for your system, which can be helpful if you are looking to upgrade.
AIDA64 (download)
AIDA64 is the final piece of software that we will be covering that you can use to find the speed of your memory. You can download it for free, but it is only a 30-day evaluation version. It will still get the job done though. Go ahead and open it up. On the left under menu you will see a lot of things. Click on “Motherboard”, it will bring up a window with a bunch of icons, click the “Motherboard” icon. Find the “Memory Bus Properties” section. Here you will see “Real Clock” and “Effective Clock”. Real clock is what each individual stick is running at and effective clock is the actual full speed of the memory, which in our case is 1600 MHz.
So that wraps up this article, if you have any questions you can leave a comment below or head on over to our forums and ask away. If you want to learn more about memory we have a very informative Memory Timings Explained article.
