Memory Divider - Overview

Overview

Memory Dividers allows system memory to run slower than or faster than the actual FSB (Front Side Bus) speed. Ideally, Front Side Bus and system memory should run at the same clock speed because FSB connects system memory to the CPU. But, it is sometimes desired to run the FSB and system memory at different clock speeds. It is possible to run FSB and memory clock at different clock speeds, within certain limits of the motherboard and corresponding chipset. So, settings termed as Memory Divider or FSB/DRAM settings are available and are expressed in a "ratio" which control the difference in memory clock rate and FSB speed.

Entry Level motherboards usually do not provide memory dividers to be changed and the memory dividers are managed by Memory Controller (if chipset supports memory dividers). High end motherboards meant for overclocking provide facilities to change memory dividers (if chipset support memory dividers). However, in certain chipsets memory dividers are not used, because in those systems memory speed is independent of FSB speed.