How to find the frequency and type of my current RAM?

Question

How shall I find out the frequency and type of my current RAM? My OS is Ubuntu 12.04.

See also https://askubuntu.com/q/18372/255443 which has, in my opinion, a better answer. — Simon Forsberg, Oct 28 '17 at 12:39

score 318 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 21 '14 at 03:19

318

This should do:

sudo lshw -short -C memory

edited Jan 21 '14 at 03:19

kiri

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answered Dec 15 '13 at 16:26

Malte Skoruppa

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Only outputs "PCI (sysfs)" – Tim Dec 15 '13 at 16:28
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Wait shortly, it will output more. – Malte Skoruppa Dec 15 '13 at 16:28
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This doesn't display the frequency. – Braiam Dec 15 '13 at 19:22
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It should, and it does for me: on my computer, two of the lines read "4GiB DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)" (corresponding to the two RAM slots where I have RAM installed). Did you look closely? – Malte Skoruppa Dec 15 '13 at 20:09
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sudo lshw -C memory > info.txt Not sure, it won't display on my terminal, but if I pipe it to a file it shows. – Matt Barnes Dec 18 '13 at 01:24
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This did not display the frequency for me in Ubuntu 15.04. Likely hardware dependent. Solution by Henrique worked though. – holocronweaver Apr 21 '15 at 17:30
Don't work in my mint mate 18, the shell would stuck. – Eric Dec 15 '16 at 12:15
Don't use -short – Binoy Babu Feb 06 '18 at 11:48
If this solution isn't working for you see: https://askubuntu.com/a/1319201/19033 – Alberto Salvia Novella Feb 25 '21 at 09:42
/system/bin/sh: lshw: not found – CS QGB Mar 12 '23 at 08:30
@CSQGB /system/bin is not a standard directory for executables on Ubuntu. It sounds like you may working in a BusyBox, possibly on an Android system? This site is about Ubuntu questions. For Android, I would recommend to ask that question on https://android.stackexchange.com/. – Malte Skoruppa Mar 12 '23 at 08:56

score 111 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:37

Use the lshw command with the memory class:

$ sudo lshw -C memory
  # Some things about firmware and caches
  *-memory
       description: System Memory
       physical id: 13
       slot: System board or motherboard
       size: 8GiB
     *-bank:0
          description: DIMM [empty]
          product: [Empty]
          vendor: [Empty]
          physical id: 0
          serial: [Empty]
          slot: ChannelA-DIMM0
     *-bank:1
          description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
          product: M471B5273DH0-CK0
          vendor: Samsung
          physical id: 1
          serial: 34A8C7AF
          slot: ChannelA-DIMM1
          size: 4GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 1600MHz (0.6ns)
     # More banks.

As you can see, I'm using DDR3 1600MHz RAM.

Another option is dmidecode:

$ sudo dmidecode -t memory
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.5 present.

Handle 0x003B, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
    Location: System Board Or Motherboard
    Use: System Memory
    Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC
    Maximum Capacity: Unknown
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Number Of Devices: 8

Handle 0x003D, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x003B
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Total Width: 72 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 4096 MB
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_A1
    Bank Locator: NODE 0 CHANNEL 0 DIMM 0
    Type: Other
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 1067 MHz (0.9 ns)
    Manufacturer: 0x0198
    Serial Number: 0xB12A9593
    Asset Tag: Unknown
    Part Number: 9965426-037.A00LF 
# more such devices

This is for a server with ECC memory (as can be seen from the Error Correction Type field and the difference between Data Width and Total Width).

Both tools are dependencies of the ubuntu-standard package and should be available by default on all Ubuntu systems. There used to be another tool called hwinfo, which is no longer available for Ubuntu since 13.10.

For me too: DDR3 1600 MHz. So does that mean both modules are the same type and I'm getting best performance? — H3R3T1K, Aug 24 '14 at 20:17
@arno Yes, as far as I can tell. There's also a recommendation that modules should be in parallel banks (0/2/4, 1/3/5, etc.) for best performance - but I don't know if that's myth or fact. — muru, Aug 24 '14 at 20:23
I am getting this output: Configured Memory Speed: 1600 MT/s. Is this same as 1600 MHz? — Yogi Katba, Jun 22 '20 at 12:31
@YogiKatba seems so (at least, looking at https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/462465-mts-mhz/?do=findComment&comment=6206851) — muru, Jun 22 '20 at 12:32
is there a way to show all this extended info, but only for *-memory / *-bank:#? there's lot of trash like *-cache# or *-firmware (that I don't want to see if I'm checking RAM) — jave.web, Sep 15 '23 at 10:38

score 40 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 02 '15 at 11:19

40

I could only get this info with dmidecode, but rather than grepping, it's cleaner to use the right type:

sudo dmidecode --type memory

answered Jun 02 '15 at 11:19

Vincenzo Pii

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Good answer, and I think this is easier to read:sudo dmidecode -t memory | less -N – Eric Dec 15 '16 at 12:14
This also shows information about the DIMMs being Registered or Unbuffered – Jeremy Hajek Dec 20 '18 at 03:41

score 25 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 15 '13 at 16:29

25

This will give you all information you may want, probably:

sudo dmidecode | grep -A 15 Memory

answered Dec 15 '13 at 16:29

Henrique Ferreira

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Yes it shows. Mine for exemple is shown as:
Speed: 1333 MHz Just after Type Detail.
– Henrique Ferreira Dec 15 '13 at 19:44
dmidecode returns information from the bios... Maybe you have a problem with your bios... Don't know. – Henrique Ferreira Dec 15 '13 at 20:12
This was the only command that shows the frequency of my generic DRAM – McLeary Dec 23 '15 at 12:32
Thanks this was the perfect answer for me.I got all the details..:) – john400 Feb 03 '17 at 16:16

score 15 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 15 '13 at 16:27

15

Try Hard info, for install run in terminal : sudo apt-get install hardinfo It has interface, and it's simple to use. )

answered Dec 15 '13 at 16:27

L.V.A

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Doesn't work for me, "Memory SPD" stays empty, even after the sudo modprobe eeprom as adviced e.g. here. This is probably due to my Ubuntu having an old version, but prepare to jump through some hoops in the hope that it will work, is all I'm saying. – Maarten Bodewes Nov 07 '20 at 13:35

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 07 '20 at 08:58

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Above answers are correct; I just wanted to add further by piping the output of command to grep for Type and speed.

sudo dmidecode --type memory | grep -m2 Type

FYI: T in Type must be capital.

This might give either Type: DDR4 OR Type: DDR3

for speed use

sudo dmidecode --type memory | grep -m1 Speed

FYI: -m option of grep is used to limit the number of lines; for example -m2 means 2 lines.

answered Oct 07 '20 at 08:58

Adeel Raza Azeemi

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For me it outputs Speed: Unknown. I had to use -m4 to display one line per one ram slot. Now it shows the speeds. – Michal Przybylowicz Nov 22 '20 at 13:29

Alberto Salvia Novella · Answer 7 · 2021-10-03T10:31:23.700

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REST OF ANSWERS

The rest of methods don't always work, reporting the speed as unknown. Here's one way that never fails.

REQUIRED SOFTWARE

Install i2c-tools.

MEMORY BANDWIDTH

Read the value from the RAM eeprom with:

sudo modprobe eeprom && decode-dimms | grep speed | rev | cut --delimiter=" " --fields=2,3 | rev; sudo modprobe --remove eeprom

The value is returned in MT/s.

MEMORY FREQUENCY

If you want the value in MHz just divide the previous result by the number of channels the RAM module has, which you can get with:

sudo modprobe eeprom && decode-dimms | grep Ranks | rev | cut --delimiter=" " --fields=1 | rev; sudo modprobe --remove eeprom

MISCONFIGURED MOTHERBOARD

Note this is the speed of the module, not the speed that the motherboard is configured and capable to use.

For checking if the speed is misconfigured in the motherboard access the BIOS or UEFI, as explained in your motherboard manual.

edited Oct 03 '21 at 10:31

answered Feb 25 '21 at 08:34

Alberto Salvia Novella

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it's weird as you just said to get the bus clock (MHz/s) , i should divide the data rate (Mt/s) by two , but the output of lshw -short -C memory shows bus clock equal to the dmidecode -t memory data rate which is in 1333MHz and 1333MT/s respectively – xquilt Oct 02 '21 at 07:43
@polendina What do you get if you do: sudo modprobe eeprom && decode-dimms | grep Ranks | rev | cut --delimiter=" " --fields=1 | rev; sudo modprobe --remove eeprom – Alberto Salvia Novella Oct 03 '21 at 10:08
four 1s on four separate lines – xquilt Oct 03 '21 at 14:25
@polendina That means your RAM is single channel, while mine was dual channel. I have edited my response to be applicable to any amount of channels. Thanks for pointing this out – Alberto Salvia Novella Oct 04 '21 at 00:05

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 03 '21 at 21:44

Most of these answers will just give you the nominal clock speed of the memory. It may not be the actual clock speed.

The canonical method is to boot Memtest or if you are so endowed, boot Windows and use CPU-Z.

You can trust BIOS, you can trust Memtest. There are an enormous number of low cost boxes fitted with 1333MHz DDR3 that is actually clocked at 1066MHz. Both DMI decode and LSHW may be deceptive.

How to find the frequency and type of my current RAM?

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