计算机的整体性能是各种组件协同工作的结果。如果一个组件太慢，就会导致瓶颈。在任何计算机中，除非您拥有真正平衡的构建，否则一个组件将成为主要的性能限制因素。
这本身不是问题，但可以提高GPU、CPU和RAM的速度。让系统中的其他组件发挥其真正的潜力。虽然GPU和CPU超频（相对）简单，但RAM可能有点吓人。幸运的是，至少在现代计算机上，RAM超频比以前更容易和更安全。
超频 RAM 的好处也很可观。特别是如果您还要对系统中的其他组件进行超频，这会使您的 RAM 更难跟上。
什么是“超频”？
虽然您可能对什么是超频有一个合理的概念，但请确保我们都在同一页面上。GPU、CPU或RAM芯片等组件的“时钟”是衡量该组件在整个操作周期中运行频率的指标。所以一个 1Ghz CPU每秒要经过 10 亿个周期。如果你把它的时钟加倍到 2Ghz，它的性能会提高一倍，至少在理论上是这样。
内存(RAM)是一样的。它有一个时钟频率，它的基本性能来源于此。将(Add)更多兆赫兹添加到混合中，您的RAM会更快。
为什么要超频 RAM？
提高RAM的速度对整个系统的性能有普遍的好处。这意味着CPU可以更快地获取RAM中的信息，并且将花费更少的时间等待(RAM)RAM赶上它的请求。这将使广泛的应用程序受益，尽管您在浏览 Web 或在Word中编写报告时可能不会注意到太大的不同。
(Video)如果您的RAM(RAM)得到很好的提升，那么CPU必须不断访问RAM来执行计算的(RAM)视频游戏和其他复杂、内存密集的工作负载都会变得更快。
不仅仅是兆赫兹
这么多人对RAM超频持谨慎态度的原因在于，它不仅仅是提高时钟速度直到RAM崩溃，然后再降低一点。RAM必须执行几种不同类型的复杂操作来定位、读取和写入内存位置。
这些通常表示为 ram“计时”。例如，您会看到 RAM 规格后跟一串数字，如“10-10-10-30”。这些数字中的每一个都代表特定操作所需的时钟周期数。较低的数字意味着更快的速度。以下是每个主要计时编号的简短说明：
- CL : Cas Latency –对RAM的请求和响应之间的时钟周期数。
- tRCS : RAS 到CAS 延迟(CAS Delay)– 激活内存位置的行和列之间的延迟。
- tRP : RAS Precharge – 停用一行内存和激活下一行之间的时间。
- tRAS : Active to Precharge Delay – 每次内存访问操作之间的等待时间。
这四个主要时序是大多数人在超频 RAM 时调整的。也有无数的子时间，但这些都是为那些确切知道自己在做什么的绝对专家保留的。调整这些主要时间对于几乎所有希望获得更多性能的用户来说已经绰绰有余了。
您希望这些时序尽可能低，而不会导致稳定性或性能问题。问题是，你提高频率越高，这些数字可能就必须越高才能使一切正常。这可能会导致更快的速度但更宽松的时间会导致整体性能下降(decrease)的情况。
官方速度与支持速度
随着DDR(DDR)内存速度标准的建立，发生了一件有趣的事情。它们没有实际存储芯片可以处理的那么高。因此，您可以购买的这些高速内存套件通常宣传的速度完全超出了DDR内存的官方标准。
但是，由于RAM是针对这些数字进行评级的，并且主板制造商也设计了支持这些速度的主板，因此在实践中并没有多大意义。
现在很容易让这些RAM模块达到最大额定速度。它们有内存配置文件，可以准确地告诉计算机要使用哪些设置。SPD配置文件就是一个例子，但也有 Intel 的XMP（极限内存配置文件）告诉主板您的RAM最快的官方“超频” 。
超越个人资料
超出规格的内存配置文件实际上是RAM超频，它们是完全安全的！你可能想在这里停下来。只需(Just)选择BIOS设置中列出的最快内存配置文件，即可享受最大额定性能。
不过，从这里开始，我们将超越配置文件的范围。玩硅彩票，看看你的内存芯片是否还有更多潜力。
使用 CPU-Z 进行设置
我们建议下载一份CPU-Z实用程序。您可以在此处查看您当前的内存设置和所有已批准的内存模块配置文件。
记下来！这是批准的安全设置的一个很好的参考。此外，如果您的主板不支持内存配置文件，您也可以使用官方配置文件设置进行手动超频。请特别注意此处列出的RAM电压。(RAM)如果您想安全地超频，切勿超过这些电压。把它留给那些不介意为了追求性能而烧毁记忆的专家吧。
获得基线
在你摆弄你的RAM之前，你需要一个基准性能测量。这有助于查看您的超频是否使事情变得更好或更糟。我们不建议使用特定于内存的基准测试。毕竟，我们正在寻找影响实际用例的系统范围的改进。因此，请使用反映您实际使用的工作负载的基准。
如果您是游戏玩家，请使用3DMark或Unigine Heaven 之(Unigine Heaven)类的东西。如果您正在从事创意工作，请尝试Cinebench。运行这些基准测试并写下您的系统取得的分数。
每次稳定超频后，再次运行它们。分数是更好还是更差？这就是你如何知道超频是否在做它的工作。
如何在BIOS中超频(BIOS)RAM
对，现在我们准备好在BIOS中玩转你的(BIOS)RAM超频了。每个 BIOS(Every BIOS)都不同，这些都是非常通用的说明。请查看您的BIOS手册以了解详细信息另外，请注意并非所有主板都可以手动超频RAM。您的主板甚至可能不支持高性能配置文件。可悲的是，唯一的解决方案是购买具有这些超频功能的主板。话虽如此，让我们开始吧：
- 重启电脑，按快捷键(shortcut key)进入BIOS（一般是Del键）。
- 前往选项中的内存设置页面。
- 寻找高级设置，您可能必须从“自动”切换到“手动”才能看到它们。
- 寻找内存配置文件选择。如果 XMP 配置文件可用并且您只想要最快的安全超频，请选择最高的一个，然后保存并退出。至此，您就完成了。如果您想更进一步，请继续阅读。
- 查找内存频率页面并将内存时钟倍频和时序设置为手动。
- 将时钟倍频器从您的RAM的最大认证速度提高一个档次。
- 将(Set)时序设置为与最快内存配置文件中列出的相同。您可能必须为每个内存通道执行此操作。在这种情况下，通道 A(Channel A)和 B，因为它是双通道主板。保存(Save)并重新启动。
- 如果您的计算机成功重新启动，请运行内存压力测试(run a memory stress test)以确保其稳定。
- 如果您的记忆未能通过压力测试，请尝试放宽时间，直到它通过。
- 从第 6 步开始重复，直到达到内存的功能极限，然后将其拨回压力测试成功的位置。
再一次，不要将内存电压设置为高于官方列出的最高电压！
在你的记忆力达到最高水平后，再次运行你的基准测试，看看分数是否有所提高。如果他们没有，请逐步退回您的超频，直到您确实看到改进。
注意：(NOTE:)如果您的RAM时钟倍频不足以将您的RAM推至其认证速度或更高，那么您唯一的选择是增加基本时钟 ( BCLK )。许多主板不允许这样做。此外，基本时钟的任何增加都会影响您的CPU和其他组件。
因此，如果您增加基本时钟，您可能需要减少CPU的倍频以进行补偿。由于这是一个安全的超频指南，我们不会涵盖基本时钟修改。这是一个更先进的过程，需要对不同组件进行复杂的平衡。
在紧急情况(Case)下重置您的 BIOS(Emergency Reset Your BIOS)
那么，如果一切都完全出错并且您的计算机根本无法启动怎么办？恐慌(Panic)？不！
您需要重置 BIOS(reset your BIOS)，以便恢复RAM的标准设置，并且它们可以重新启动并运行。您应该查阅主板手册以了解如何执行此操作，但通常其中一种应该可以工作：
- 重置计算机 3-4 次。一些主板在几次失败的引导尝试后重置为默认值。
- 按下(Press)主板上的BIOS重置按钮（如果适用）。
- 桥接主板上的BIOS重置跳线（如果适用）。
- 取出CMOS电池，等待几分钟，然后更换。
重置BIOS设置后，一切都应该恢复正常。但是，您必须完成所有设置以确保它们是应有的。如果您有UEFI主板，则可以在开始更改之前将BIOS配置文件保存到硬盘。然后您可以从保存的配置文件中恢复它。快乐超频！
How to Overclock Your RAM (and Why You Should)
The total pеrformance of a computer is the reѕult of various components working togеther. If onе сomponent is too slow, іt causes a bottleneck. In any computer, one component will be the main performance limіter unless you have a truly balanced bυild.
That’s not a problem by itself, but it’s possible to give your GPU, CPU and RAM a speed boost. Letting other components in the system reach their true potential. While GPU and CPU overclocking are (relatively) straightforward, RAM can be a bit more intimidating. Luckily, on modern computers at least, RAM overclocking is much easier and safer than before.
The benefits of overclocking your RAM can also be substantial. Especially if you’re also overclocking other components in the system, making it harder for your RAM to keep up.
What Is “Overclocking”?
While you probably have a reasonable idea of what overclocking is, lets just make sure we’re all on the same page. The “clock” of a component like a GPU, CPU or RAM chip is a measure of how frequently that component goes through an entire operational cycle. So a 1Ghz CPU goes through one billion cycles every second. If you doubled its clock to 2Ghz it would perform twice as fast, at least in theory.
RAM is the same. It has a clock frequency from which its basic performance derives. Add more megahertz to the mix and your RAM will be faster.
Why Would You Overclock Your RAM?
Increasing the speed of your RAM has a general benefit to the performance of your whole system. It means that the CPU can get to the information in RAM more quickly and will spend less time waiting for your RAM to catch up to it’s requests. This will benefit a wide range of applications, though you probably won’t notice much of a difference while browsing the web or writing a report in Word.
Video games and other complex, memory-heavy workloads where the CPU has to constantly access RAM to perform calculations will all be faster if your RAM gets a nice boost.
More Than Just Megaherz
The reason so many people are wary of RAM overclocking is that it’s about more than just increasing the clock speed until the RAM falls over, and then backing down a bit. RAM has to perform several different types of complex operations to locate, read from and write to memory locations.
These are usually expressed as ram “timings”. For example, you’ll see RAM specifications followed by a string of numbers like “10-10-10-30”. Each of these numbers represents the number of clock cycles specific operations take. Lower numbers mean faster speeds. Here’s a short explanation of each primary timing number:
- CL: Cas Latency – how many clock cycles between a request to RAM and the response from it.
- tRCS: RAS to CAS Delay – the delay between activating the row and then column of a memory location.
- tRP: RAS Precharge – the time between deactivating one line of memory and then activating the next.
- tRAS: Active to Precharge Delay – the waiting time between each memory access operation.
These four primary timings are what most people adjust when overclocking their RAM. There are a myriad of sub-timings as well, but those are reserved for absolute experts who know exactly what they’re doing. Tuning these main timings are more than enough for just about any user looking to eke out a little more performance.
You want these timings to be as low as possible without causing stability or performance problems. The thing is, the higher you push your frequency, the higher these numbers may have to be in order to make everything work. This can lead to a situation where faster speeds but looser timing lead to an overall decrease in performance.
Official Versus Supported Speeds
A funny thing happened with the establishment of DDR memory speed standards. They don’t go as high as the actual memory chips can handle. So these high-speed memory kits you can buy often advertise a speed that’s completely outside of the official standard for DDR memory.
However, since the RAM is rated for those numbers and motherboard manufacturers also design motherboards that support those speeds, it doesn’t mean much in practice.
It’s now pretty easy to get these RAM modules to their maximum rated speed. They have memory profiles that tell the computer exactly what settings to use. SPD profiles are one example, but there’s also Intel’s XMP (extreme memory profiles) that tell the motherboard the fastest official “overclock” for your RAM.
Going Beyond Profiles
Out-of-spec memory profiles are in fact RAM overclocking and they are totally safe! You might want to stop here. Just select the fastest memory profile listed in your BIOS settings and enjoy your maximum rated performance.
From here on though, we are going to push beyond the confines of profiles. Playing the silicon lottery to see if there’s more potential in your memory chips.
Using CPU-Z for Settings
We recommend downloading a copy of the CPU-Z utility. You can see both your current memory settings and all of the approved profiles for your memory modules here.
Write them down! This is a good reference for what the approved safe settings are. Also, if your motherboard doesn’t support memory profiles, you can use the official profile settings for a manual overclock as well. Take special note of the RAM voltages listed here. If you want to overclock safely, never exceed these voltages. Leave that to the experts who don’t mind frying their memory in the pursuit of performance.
Getting a Baseline
Before you fiddle with your RAM, you need a baseline performance measure. This helps to see if your overclocking is making things better or worse. We don’t recommend using a memory-specific benchmark. After all, we’re looking for system-wide improvements that affect real use cases. So use a benchmark that reflects the workloads you actually use.
If you’re a gamer, use something like 3DMark or Unigine Heaven. If you’re doing creative work, try Cinebench. Run these benchmarks and write down what scores your system achieved.
After each stable overclock, run them again. Are the scores better or worse? That’s how you’ll know if the overclock is doing its job.
How To Overclock Your RAM in the BIOS
Right, now we’re ready to play around in the BIOS to overclock your RAM. Every BIOS is different and these are very general instructions. Check your BIOS manual for the specifics Also, please note that not all motherboards can manually overclock RAM. Your motherboard may not even support high-performance profiles. Sadly the only solution there is to buy a motherboard that has these overclocking features. With that said, let’s get to it:
- Reboot your computer and press the shortcut key to enter the BIOS (usually the Del key).
- Head to the memory settings page in the options.
- Look for advanced settings, you might have to switch from “auto” to “manual” to see them.
- Look for memory profile selection. If XMP profiles are available and you just want the fastest safe overclock, pick the highest one and then save and exit. At this point you’re done. If you want to go further, keep reading.
- Look for the memory frequency page and set the memory clock multiplier and timings to manual.
- Bump the clock multiplier up one notch from the maximum certified speed for your RAM.
- Set the timings to the same as those listed in the fastest memory profile. You may have to do it for every memory channel. In this case Channel A and B, since it’s a dual-channel motherboard. Save and reboot.
- If your computer reboots successfully, run a memory stress test to make sure it’s stable.
- If your memory fails the stress test, try loosening the timings until it does pass.
- Repeat from step 6 until you hit the limit of what the memory can do and then dial it back to where the stress test succeeds.
Once again, do not set the memory voltage any higher than the highest officially listed voltage!
After getting your memory as high as it will go, run your benchmarks again and see if the scores have improved. If they haven’t, walk back your overclock step-by-step until you do see improvements.
NOTE: If your RAM clock multiplier doesn’t go high enough to push your RAM to it’s certified speed or beyond, then your only option is to increase the base clock (BCLK). Many motherboards won’t allow this. Also, any increase to the base clock will affect your CPU and other components as well.
So if you increase the base clock, you may need to decrease the multiplier of your CPU to compensate. Since this is a safe overclocking guide we won’t cover base clock modification. It’s a more advanced process and requires complex balancing of different components.
In Case of Emergency Reset Your BIOS
So what if everything goes completely wrong and your computer won’t boot at all? Panic? No!
You’ll need to reset your BIOS so that the standard settings for your RAM are restored and they can get up and running again. You should consult your motherboard’s manual on how to do this, but in general one of these should work:
- Reset the computer 3-4 times. Some motherboards reset to default after a few failed boots attempts.
- Press the BIOS reset button on the motherboard, if applicable.
- Bridge the BIOS reset jumper on the motherboard, if applicable.
- Remove the CMOS battery, wait a few minutes and replace it.
Once you’ve reset the BIOS setting, everything should be back to normal. You will however have to go through all the settings to make sure they are what they should be. If you have a UEFI motherboard, you can save your BIOS profile to the hard disk before you start changing things. Then you can restore it from the saved profile. Happy overclocking!
