Linux Check Ram Speed and Type Commands

Linux check ram speed and type commands

The procedure is as follows:

1. Open the terminal application or log in using ssh command.
2. Type the “sudo dmidecode --type 17” command.
3. Look out for “Type:” line in the output for ram type and “Speed:” for ram speed.

Let us see all examples and commands in details.

Installation

Use the apt command/apt-get command to install dmidecode on a Debian or Ubuntu Linux:
$ sudo apt install dmidecode
Fedora Linux user, type the following dnf command:
$ sudo dnf install dmidecode
CentOS/RHEL/Oracle/Alma and Rocky Linux user, run the following yum command:
$ sudo yum install dmidecode
SUSE/OpenSUSE user, run the following zypper command:
$ sudo zypper install dmidecode
Alpine Linux users try the apk command:
$ sudo apk add dmidecode

How to check ram speed and type on Linux or Unix-like system

Open a shell prompt and type the following command as root user:
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17
OR
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17 | more
The output in red color is what you need to look out for:

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0018, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0017
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 64 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 2048 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: J6H1
        Bank Locator: CHAN A DIMM 0
        Type: DDR2
        Type Detail: Synchronous
        Speed: 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
        Manufacturer: 0x2CFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
        Serial Number: 0x00000000
        Asset Tag: Unknown
        Part Number: 0x5A494F4E203830302D3247422D413131382D

Handle 0x001A, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0017
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: Unknown
        Data Width: Unknown
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: J6H2
        Bank Locator: CHAN A DIMM 1
        Type: DDR2
        Type Detail: None
        Speed: Unknown
        Manufacturer: NO DIMM
        Serial Number: NO DIMM
        Asset Tag: NO DIMM
        Part Number: NO DIMM

You can just grep speed (see grep command) and skip all other the details using the following syntax:
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17 | less
$ sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -i "speed"
$ sudo dmidecode | grep -A 15 -i "Memory"
$ sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep -i "speed"
Sample outputs:

	Speed: 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
	Speed: 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)

Say hello to the lshw command

/0/0                            memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/55/45                        memory         1MiB L2 cache
/0/55/46                        memory         256KiB L1 cache
/0/55/47                        memory         8MiB L3 cache
/0/48                           memory         32GiB System Memory
/0/48/0                         memory         8GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/48/1                         memory         8GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/48/2                         memory         8GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/48/3                         memory         8GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)

Another outputs from my work laptop:

Finding the frequency and type of my current RAM in Linux

Using the memconf to find Linux Memory Speed

We have a handy perl script that displays memory modules installed in a Sun/Oracle Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD or HP-UX system. First, download the script using the wget command (or use the curl command to download file)

export version="v3.17.1"
cd /tmp/
wget "https://master.dl.sourceforge.net/project/memconf/${version^}/memconf.${version}.pl.gz"
gunzip -v "memconf.${version}.pl.gz"
vim "memconf.${version}.pl"
sudo perl "memconf.${version}.pl" -v

The output shows the frequency and type of my current RAM installed on my laptop:

memconf:  V3.16 27-Jul-2022 https://sourceforge.net/projects/memconf/
hostname: wks01
manufacturer: LENOVO
model:    20QVCTO1WW (Six-Core Hyper-Threaded Intel(R) Corporation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9850H @ 2.60GHz)
BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.30.1-4ubuntu6.4), Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS, 64-bit kernel, Linux 5.15.0-46-generic
U3E1: Intel(R) Corporation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9850H @ 2.60GHz cpu, system freq: 100MHz
Memory Error Correction: None
Maximum Memory: 65536MB (64GB)
ChannelA-DIMM0 BANK 0: 32 GB 2667 MT/s Synchronous DDR4 SODIMM, Samsung M471A4G43MB1-CTD
empty memory sockets: ChannelB-DIMM0 BANK 2
total memory = 32768MB (32GB)

Here is another outputs:

memconf:  V3.17.1 29-Mar-2024 https://sourceforge.net/projects/memconf/
hostname: wks01
manufacturer: LENOVO
model:    20NJ0007US (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 3700U w/ Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 2300MHz, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 3700U w/ Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx)
BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.30.1-4ubuntu6.4), Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS, 64-bit kernel, Linux 5.15.0-107-generic
FP5: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 3700U w/ Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 2300MHz cpu, system freq: 100MHz
Memory Error Correction: None
Maximum Memory: 65536MB (64GB)
DIMM 0 P0 CHANNEL A: 8192MB 2400 MT/s Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) DDR4 SODIMM, Samsung M471A1G44AB0-CTD
DIMM 0 P0 CHANNEL B: 8192MB 2400 MT/s Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) DDR4 SODIMM, Samsung M471A1K43DB1-CTD
empty memory sockets: None
total memory = 16384MB (16GB)

Finding the frequency of my currently installed RAM using the GUI

You can use the CPU-X GUI. It is similar to CPU-Z from MS-Windows world.

Installing CPU-X

Type command as per your Linux distro. For Debian/Ubuntu Linux try the apt command/apt-get command:
$ sudo apt install cpu-x
Fedora user try the dnf command:
$ sudo dnf install cpu-x
OpenSUSE or SUSE Linux user try the zypper command (info):
$ sudo zypper install cpu-x
FreeBSD Unix user try the pkg command to install the same:
$ sudo pkg install cpu-x

Using CPU-X

Simply type the cpu-x command $ sudo cpu-x
Click on the Memory tab to view details:

Conclusion

You learned how to find out ram speed and other information using Linux and Unix terminal commands. For more info see the following tutorials:

• Linux Find The Speed Of Memory Through Software Command Prompt
• Read man pages using the man command:
  $ man lshw
$ man dmidecode

Still have a problem? Post your query below.

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I'm Vivek Gite, and I write about Linux, macOS, Unix, IT, programming, infosec, and open source. Subscribe to my RSS feed or email newsletter for updates.