New chipsets and processors from AMD® and Intel® now support memory operating at 1600MT/s (aka 1600MHz). DDR3-1600 memory has a module classification of PC3-12800, which effectively means the peak data rate of the module is 12.8GB/sec (see table). That’s about a 17% improvement on memory bandwidth over DDR3-1333.
- In servers, the processor model number affects how fast the memory can operate. Higher model numbers support 1600MT/s, but may be limited by the number of DIMMs per Channel that are installed.
- Some entry-level mobile and desktop processors, such as the Intel Core i3, may not support 1600MT/s memory.