why is the speed of the CPU dependant on the RAM?

Answer 1

The speed of the CPU itself is not dependEnt on the RAM. The perceived speed of the whole computer might be dependent on the RAM because the operating system can work faster with RAM than it can with "virtual memory" on a hard drive.

Answer 2

When processing data from RAM, the data transfer rate is not high enough to keep the CPU continuously busy. The CPU is still running at the same speed but with pauses waiting for the data. The calculated speed in Millions of Instructions Per Second (MIPS) will be slower.

In one way, you are right at hardware level. In most cases, RAM and the CPU Front Side Bus (FSB) run at the same MHz and that is likely to be determined by what RAM speeds are available. The CPU MHz is obtained by a built-in fixed multiplier, where this X FSB speed produces CPU MHz. With lower FSB speeds, maximum possible CPU speed is simply obtained by using a larger multiplier (if the manufacturer decides to do it).

Answer 3

The Speed of the CPU isnt dependent on the RAM. CPU means the central processing unit. I guess you could say the performance of the PC depends somewhat on the RAM, as applications that require larger RAM to operate when other applications are taking up ram space then it has to utilize the hard drive page file. It normally takes longer to make a read from the hard drive than the RAM. This is why the more RAm space you have the more likely that your operations would perform as required.

Answer 4

It isn't. The CPU speed is set by the Front Side Bus (FSB) usually automatically these days (it's a multiplier thing) but the RAM has nothing to do with it.

The RAM does control the speed of the machine to some degree because once you run out, the OS will use your hard drive and that is a lot slower than memory.

Answer 5

It is not. They are independent of each other, within limits, such as some CPU's would not be compatable with some RAM. That is, a newer CPU would not work with old PC100 memory, for example. Let me explain with examples:
If you have a 2.0 ghz CPU with 128 MB memory, you would likely have a "bottleneck" of memory as that would not likely be enough memory. In this case increasing memory would definately increase your speed.
However, if you have a 3.2 ghz processor and you increase the memory from 1 gig to 2 gig you will not double your speed. In fact, you may not even increase your speed at all, UNLESS you are running multiple programs that are memory hogs. That is, if you are only using 300 mb ram at full use, and you have 1gig, then increasing it to 2 gigs ram will not speed your compter.

Answer 6

CPU speed is not RAM depandent. In fact data transfer required for the command given to CPU to process is RAM & FSB dependant.

Answer 7

the CPU runs at it's own speed. but ram also runs at it's own speed i depends on the fbs and mother board etc. my computer is very old the CPU runs at 1.8ghz but my memory slows it down some what because my ram speed only runs at 133mhz which means the the CPU often sits waiting around for the memory to catch up

Answer 8

NO, they are both dependent on front side bus (fsb). The processor speed is typically fsb times the multiplier. Intel usually quad pumps the fsb. RAM is synchronized with fsb. If fsb is increased, RAM frequency increases up to a point that it will not work. To make RAM work at high fsb, overclockers use dividers that actually downclock RAM frequency.

Answer 9

its not, the CPU has its own pre-determined speed. Ram helps the whole machine function faster by holding application data etc. the 2 work together, not separately, so obviously the better the bits you have together the better performance you will get.