If you need to see the active frequency of the installed RAM, as well as the frequencies supported by the modules on a computer or laptop in Windows 10, 8.1 or Windows 7, you can do this in a variety of ways: both by built-in system tools and using third-party programs that allow you to find out more information on RAM.
In this instruction, in detail on how to find out the frequency of RAM: first, the methods available in Windows, then third-party tools with more detailed information.
- How to view the current memory frequency using Windows
- CPU-Z
- AIDA64
- Video instruction
How to see memory frequency in Windows
Windows provides several methods to determine at what frequency the RAM is operating. If you are a Windows 10 user, the easiest way is the task manager: open it (you can use the menu by right-clicking on the Start button), go to the “Performance” tab and select “Memory”.
On this tab, among other information, you will see the item “Speed”, where the frequency will be displayed in MHz.
Additionally, both in Windows 10 and in previous versions of the system, you can see the frequencies of memory modules in the command line or PowerShell, the commands will be as follows (the parameters in the commands may vary, depending on what information you need to get):
- In CMD –
wmic MEMORYCHIP get BankLabel, Capacity, DeviceLocator, MemoryType, TypeDetail, Speed
- In PowerShell –
Get-WmiObject win32_physicalmemory | Format-Table Manufacturer, Banklabel, Configuredclockspeed, Devicelocator, Capacity -autosize
Note: in case you only have physical access to the RAM modules, and the operating system is not installed, you can search , is the frequency information available in BIOS / UEFI.
Current frequency and supported frequencies in CPU-Z
Most often, if you need to quickly get acquainted with the characteristics of RAM, including finding out the memory frequency, they use a simple free utility CPU-Z and this is a really great choice:
- Download CPU-Z from the official site https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.htmland run the program in the required version – 64-bit or 32-bit.
- In the program, on the “Memory” tab, you will see the current active memory configuration. The upper field – DRAM Frequency – is the frequency of the memory module for one channel. If “Dual” is specified in the Channel field, the memory operates in two-channel mode and we multiply the DRAM Frequency by two.
- The SPD tab allows you to get detailed information about each installed RAM module, including the frequencies and timings it supports, manufacturer, voltage, rank and other parameters.
AIDA64
AIDA64 is a more serious software for analyzing the hardware configuration of a computer, not free, but even a trial version allows you to get the necessary information:
- Download AIDA64 from the official website https://www.aida64.com/downloads
- After starting the program, you can get information about the supported frequencies in the “System board” – “SPD” section.
- Information about the current frequency is available in several sections, for example, Computer – Overclocking. But in my opinion, it is more convenient to look into the menu “Service” – “AIDA64 CPUID”, where in the fields Memory Type and Memory Clock we will see the nominal and actual frequency of the memory (in the second field – for one channel).
- Additionally, in the menu “Service” – “Test cache and memory” you can not only see the same frequencies, but also test the speed of RAM, one of the important points here is Latency (less is better).
