Phenom II and DDR3

[fadsarmy]

With a Phenom II 965 BE, should the memory be set at 1333MHz or can I set it to 1600MHz?

[autotech]

Is a normal problem with the Phenom 2's to run at 1600. I would play it safe and run it at 1333 so as not to cause instability problems. If you do run at 1600 loosen the timings up a bit then after you have it running smooth u can tighten them back up. Make sure to run it unganged also that might help you out a bit.

[fadsarmy]

I read somewhere that running at 1600MHz can damage cpu. Is there any substance to that?

[MisterEd]

AMD recommends that memory for Phenom II's run at no higher than 1333. AMD says that the Phenom II's memory controller could be damaged if you run it at a higher speed. For that reason a lot of motherboards will automatically set the memory speed to 1333 or lower even if your memory is rated higher than 1333.

A lot of people claim to have no problems running higher than 1333 but it is up to the each person to decide if they want to push things or not.

Before I got an AMD FX-8350 processor I was running a Phenom II 960T with a stock speed of 3.0GHz
The DDR3 1600 memory was set by the motherboard to 1333. I had good cooling so I decided to push the 960T to 3.2GHz. It had no problem doing this. To my surprise the memory automatically jumped to 1600. I ran Prime95 and even did some folding but I had no problems with either the processor or memory. I left it that way until I replaced the 960T.

When I replaced the 960T with the FX-8350 then memory naturally stayed at 1600 since the FX-8350 can easily support 1600 memory.

Note I know it helped that the 960T was a 95watt processor so pushing it like I did should have been no problem for it. Even then it never ran as hot as my old Phenom II 955.

My original Phenom II 955 memory controller did fail. The CPU was running at its stock 3.2GHz and the DDR3 1600 was running at 1333.

It was not that I pushed it's speed but the fact that my old case was not keeping the CPU cool enough. Eventually the DDR3 memory controller failed. I ran the Phenom II 955 with another motherboard fine with DDR2 memory. Unfortunately by that time the CPU only worked at 800MHz instead of its normal 3.2GHz. I should mention that the DDR3 memory that I was using with the failing Phenom II 955 worked fine with the Phenom II 960T.

I guess the lesson is to keep the processor and memory cool or you risk shortening their lives. This is even more so if you push them beyond their rated speeds. Running faster means running hotter.

[Vezina]

Some work with 1600Mhz some don t .But i have observed a 980BE scoring less in Intel burn test with RAM at 1600Mhz with identical timings as in 1333Mhz.So you may end up slower or with no increase and with less stability and more heat.