Dumb questionish: RAM?

GuardianAsher · Post by **GuardianAsher** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:19 pm

Simple. What's better? A gig dual channeled, or 1280 MB non dual channel?

And since that's a simple one, how about either the gig dual channel, or a gig and a half non dual channel?

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:26 pm

Dual Channel would provide better performance. But it's said the fewer sticks of memory you have, the more stable the system will be.. I'd go Dual Channel.

eGo

theophilusmousse · Post by **theophilusmousse** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:44 pm

also, if you are overclocking, you can usually get better speeds on the memory if you stick with one channel

Jim Z · Post by **Jim Z** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:08 pm

er. what CPU/chipset? If it's the XP/Nforce2 setup in your sig, then dual-channel doesn't make a significant difference if you're using an AGP card.

also keep in mind that the nforce2 didn't require symmetrical loading of memory modules- it had two independent memory controllers. so, as long as you have both channels populated, it won't matter if they're holding the same amount of RAM.

GuardianAsher · Post by **GuardianAsher** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:42 pm

Well theophilusmousse, thank you for fixing my overclocking problem. I had trouble overclocking my proc even the tiniest bit. Moved to single channel, and I'm running it at 2.5GHz, stock voltage. Thank you very much.

JimZ, yes, it is the comp in my sig. But can you explain a little more about me using the AGP card making dual-channel insignificant? I'm confused.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:28 am

Jim I have to disagree. Dual channel improves your memory bandwidth. Although I agree that on that mobo he should be fine with two pairs.

Guardinan, I would go dual channel on a dual channel mobo. It's a no brainer. If you have two 512Mb sticks in ther now then yes, you could add two more. That mobo shouldn't be fussy about using 4 sticks, but it would be prudent just the same to use 2 sticks that are close to the same specs and timing as the others. Also, needless to say, whenever using dual channel the 2 sticks should be matched.

Me personally I prefer to use just 2 sticks so I would buy 2 1Gb sticks and then sell the old memory, but that's me. It guarantees a stable system.

GuardianAsher · Post by **GuardianAsher** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:27 am

Sadly, the 8RDA3+ Pro only has 3 RAM slots. So now here's my dilema. If I dual-channel the RAM, I may get better performance, but I can not overclock my processor. But with single channel mode, I OC'ed my Athlon XP 3000+ to 2.5GHz with a minimal increase in temperature... I think for now, I'll stick with my gig dual channel, since this has proven a good combination so far. In a few months, I plan to finally upgrade to a 64-bit system. Perhaps AM2 and a 7800. Thanks for all of your suggestions!

Jim Z · Post by **Jim Z** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:38 pm

Jim I have to disagree. Dual channel improves your memory bandwidth.

But, the nforce 2's FSB has only half of the bandwidth of both memory channels together. The dual-channel memory system can deliver 6.4 GB/s at 400 MHz, but the FSB to the CPU can only carry half that. So the added bandwidth of dual-channel essentially goes to waste since the FSB is the bottleneck. There might be some minor advantage due to DMA transfers, but the difference is not significant.

This is not like the Pentium 4, which needs two memory channels in order to match the FSB bandwidth.

But can you explain a little more about me using the AGP card making dual-channel insignificant? I'm confused.

IGP versions of the nforce tap main memory for video RAM. In which case the CPU and IGP have to fight for memory bandwidth. In dual-channel mode, the CPU/FSB can match half of the memory bandwidth, leaving the other half for the IGP.

With an AGP card in use, the IGP is out of the picture, and the performance difference between single- and dual-channel is minor.